Media Attacks Republican Candidate for Congress for Asking Hard Questions About the Las Vegas Shooting

I didn’t expect that I would be getting “the Trump treatment” this early in the campaign. Last week, I wrote an article about the Las Vegas shooting that posed 16 questions I did not feel were being addressed by the mainstream media adequately enough. That article was picked up by Zero Hedge, and it has now been read more than 1.6 million times.

All along, I have never claimed to know exactly what happened in Las Vegas. But I feel very strongly that there is nothing wrong with asking questions. In the old days, that is what real journalists would actually do. Unfortunately, the art of critical thinking has almost entirely disappeared from the field of journalism, and so it is up to us in the alternative media to ask the hard questions that “professional journalists” used to pursue.

The emails have been pouring in from many others who also have serious questions about what happened in Las Vegas, but according to the Idaho Statesman, it was improper for me to ever raise any of these questions at all:

A Republican candidate for Idaho’s District 1 Congressional seat has drawn attention and criticism after promoting several unfounded theories on his blog about the Las Vegas shooting that left 59 dead and more than 500 injured on Sunday night.

Michael Snyder, a conservative author who lives in Bonners Ferry, posted an entry on his blog “The Economic Collapse” on Tuesday posing “16 unanswered questions about the Las Vegas shooting that the mainstream media doesn’t want to talk about.” He has also posted two entries about the shooter, claiming he may have been an anti-Trump activist with ties to antifascist organizations, among other claims.

Following that article in the Statesman, I received several hateful emails about my article on the Las Vegas shooting. For example, one individual called me “a nut” who needs “help”:

You’re a nut. Not the good kind. Get help.

Another email suggested that I should do anything else rather than run for public office:

You are obviously completely insane.

Please don’t run for any public office.

Go apply to be a manager at AppleBee’s. Go work as an assistant manager at a Tire Depot.

Do anything. But please don’t ever run for any kind of public office or put any more of your nonsense in the universe. It’s not helping anyone or anything.

And in yet another email, I was told that I am not wanted in Idaho:

You are too [expletive] crazy even for northern Idaho.

I know that you and your type consider Idaho an easy target, a fat pigeon for your to make an easy way. But you are not wanted here.

Of course, the overwhelming majority of the emails I have been receiving have been extremely supportive. Like me, most people out there have very serious questions about what happened in Las Vegas, and so many have encouraged me for being courageous enough to ask questions that other politicians would never dare to ask.

At the heart of the Idaho Statesman’s criticism of me was the fact that I suggested that Stephen Paddock may not have acted alone. And it turns out that Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo agrees with me. During a press conference on Wednesday, Lombardo publicly stated that Paddock almost certainly “had to have help at some point”:

“You got to make the assumption he had to have help at some point, and we want to insure that’s the answer. Maybe he’s a super guy, super hero—not a hero, super—I won’t use the word. Maybe he’s super—that was working this out on his own, but it will be hard for me to believe that.”

He also said, “Here’s the reason why, put one and one—two and two together, another residence in Reno with firearms, OK, electronics and everything else associated with larger amounts of ammo, a place in Mesquite, we know he had a girlfriend. Do you think this is all self-facing individual without talking to somebody, it was sequestered amongst himself. Come on, focus, folks these types of investigations have been occurring in the last few years, and we have to investigate that.

So perhaps my questions are not so “unfounded” after all, eh?

The truth is that the Idaho Statesman owes me an apology. But I am not expecting one, because they have a very long history of treating conservatives very unfairly.

Of course, some of the questions I posed in my original article have now been answered. For example, some information about what was in the written note that Paddock left in his room has now been released to the public:

A note found in the hotel room of the man who shot into a crowd from his perch in a Las Vegas high-rise included hand-written calculations about where he needed to aim to maximize his accuracy and kill as many people as possible.

In an interview airing Sunday on 60 Minutes, three police officers who stormed Stephen Paddock’s hotel room in the Mandalay Bay hotel tell correspondent Bill Whitaker new details about the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. The officers were the first to see Paddock’s body and the arsenal of weapons and ammunition he had stockpiled.

That is part of the process of journalism. We knew that there was a note, and millions of us wanted to know what was in it, and so I asked the question.

Now we at least have part of the answer, and that is a good thing.

And guess what? Law enforcement authorities are acknowledging they still don’t have all of the answers about this case either, and so they are reaching out to the public for help:

Baffled police and FBI agents, still lacking a clear motive for the Las Vegas massacre of 58 people by a lone gunman five days ago, appealed to the public on Friday to come forward with any information that might help solve the mystery.

Clark County Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said investigators have, to no avail, run down more than 1,000 leads seeking clues to what drove a 64-year-old wealthy retiree with a penchant for gambling to carry out the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

I greatly applaud law-enforcement authorities for reaching out to the public like this. Perhaps if we all keep asking questions and if we all work together, maybe we can start to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

As for the Idaho Statesman, shame on them for criticizing my search for answers. If I am fortunate enough to be elected to Congress, I will always ask the hard questions, and I will always work very hard to get answers for the people I am representing.

Since I am the most conservative candidate in this race, the Idaho Statesman would rather see anyone else win rather than me. In fact, I think that they would rather see a steaming pile of garbage take this seat rather than me. So if you would like to help me stick it to the Idaho Statesman, you can contribute to the campaign at michaelsnyderforcongress.com.

When I first entered this race, I was naive enough to actually believe that the mainstream media would not treat me as they do President Trump and other true conservatives. But the good news is that they would never even be criticizing me at all if we weren’t gaining so much traction with the voters, and next May, we are going to shock the entire Idaho political establishment by pulling off a stunning victory.