When conservative writer and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza was indicted last week on campaign finance charges, we suppose we should have known that it was only a matter of time before D’Souza’s supporters claimed that he was politically targeted by a vengeful Obama administration.
Conservative columnist Rachel Alexander promptly declared that the Obama administration had “criminalize[d] dissent.” Laura Ingraham claimed, “This indictment is the kind of thing that we’re kind of accustomed to seeing come out of a place like China” and speculated that the president is ultimately interested in “putting us all in reeducation camps.” Meanwhile, D’Souza’s fellow anti-Muslim activists Pamela Geller and Robert Spencercompared the administration to European fascists in the 1930s. Matt Drudge and the Daily Caller also joined the pile-on.
Gerald Molen, the co-producer of D’Souza’s film, “2016: Obama’s America,” also weighed in, telling the Hollywood Reporter that the administration is “criminalizing dissent” and that D’Souza’s indictment “should send shivers down the spines of all freedom-loving Americans.”
On the Steve Malzberg show Friday, Molen elaborated on his theory, telling Malzberg that D’Souza is a “great American” and citing the debunked IRS-targeting scandal to claim that the Obama administration is cracking down on dissent. “I’ve never had the occasion to think that I had to fear my government, I’ve never had the thought that I had to have a reason to look over my shoulder until now.”
