MAGA influencers are drawing repeated attention to violent attacks to elevate the issue of urban crime — and accuse mainstream media of under-covering shocking cases.
- Shocking video of the fatal Aug. 22 knife attack on 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on a light-rail car in Charlotte, North Carolina, dominated weekend conversation on Trump-friendly social media.
The big picture: The rising number of surveillance cameras in public spaces, including on Charlotte's light rail, has become a big accelerant in these cases.
- The video is easily shared or leaked, and can instantly pollinate across social media — a visual counterpoint to statistics showing crime decreases.
Driving the news: President Trump, asked about the Charlotte video by a reporter Sunday, said he wanted to find out more about the stabbing before commenting.
- "I'll know all about it by tomorrow morning," Trump said.
- A Trump adviser told Axios: "This is exactly what he's talking about, and it's going to be an issue he's going to highlight. This is not just about North Carolina. Other campaigns will deal with this."
Elon Musk repeatedly posted about the Charlotte case this weekend for his 225 million X followers.
- Also commenting on X: White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Trump confidant Charlie Kirk, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
- North Carolina Senate candidate Michael Whatley — a former chair of the national GOP — invoked the case to accuse his Democratic opponent, Gov. Roy Cooper, of being soft on crime.
- Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles called it a "heartbreaking attack."
Zarutska recently arrived in Charlotte from Ukraine to escape the war there, The Charlotte Observer reports.
- The suspect, Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, was charged with first-degree murder. His criminal record includes charges of armed robbery, felony larceny, breaking and entering, and shoplifting, according to jail records cited by WBTV.
- Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather, in an interview with Axios Charlotte last week, didn't comment directly on the case but acknowledged the limitations and complexities of holding defendants with mental health issues accountable.
What they're saying: Whatley wrote on X that in June 2020, "Cooper signed a soft-on-crime executive order, and just three months later, Brown was released from prison."
- The executive order established a "racial profiling task force" and sought to reduce "systemic" racism. But it didn't call for the early release of suspects.
Cooper's campaign accused Whatley of "lying," and said: "Roy Cooper prosecuted violent criminals and drug dealers, increased the penalties for violence against law enforcement, and kept thousands of criminals off the streets and behind bars."
- Whatley spokesperson Danielle Alvarez countered that Brown was released from prison early, just as Cooper was spending more time talking about "fighting racism" and less about keeping "career criminals" like Brown locked up.
Between the lines: Influential conservative social media accounts accused major national news outlets of not covering the racial dynamics of the Charlotte killing — a white victim and a Black suspect — with the same intensity as they did in the case of Daniel Penny.
- Penny, who is white, choked to death a homeless Black man who was threatening passengers on a subway car in Manhattan in 2023. A jury acquitted Penny of criminally negligent homicide.
Reality check: As Republicans have consistently highlighted crime, Democrats have accurately pointed out that violent crime rates have been decreasing since pre-pandemic highs.
What's next: Trump won't just discuss this case once, his team says. He's going to keep highlighting crime because it's important to him — and he believes it moves voters as the GOP tries to keep control of Congress in next year's midterms.
- "Crime is not a data thing — it's a feeling thing," the Trump adviser said. "Politicians don't understand that it's about how you feel when you walk on the subway platform."
- "It's not about whether you're a victim. It's about whether you feel you're a victim or not."
