Conservative Americans who learned long ago never to trust the establishment media got an Exhibit A reminder of it on Tuesday, thanks to Minnesota’s ever-exploding welfare-fraud scandal.
A journalist for the inside-the-Beltway news outlet Politico took to social media to hint darkly that continued efforts to look under the rocks of corruption in the North Star State are likely to end in violence against those doing the looking.
And he implied it might well be deserved.
“At some point, the amateur effort to knock on doors of home daycares intersects with robust stand-your-ground laws,” Politico’s Josh Gerstein wrote on the social media platform X.
But the “community notes” squad — and countless X users — weren’t letting it go unanswered.
At some point, the amateur effort to knock on doors of home daycares intersects with robust stand-your-ground laws
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) December 30, 2025
The reference, of course, is to the national uproar over Minnesota’s fraud scandal — one that’s centered in the state’s Somali immigrant population. On Friday, YouTube personality Nick Shirley lit a fuse under the powder keg with an explosive video that quickly went viral, showing taxpayer-funded “day care” centers in Minnesota with no children in evidence.
Gerstein is pretty obviously predicting that efforts like Shirley’s are going to keep happening, and that at some point, one of those “day care” center employees is going to turn violent.
It’s a combination of ignorance and malice that’s so elegantly perverse that it’s hard to make out which is worse. But on a purely subjective level, malice gets the edge.
I have a feeling if somebody posted what you posted about Nick knocking on peoples doors, and instead of Nick it was Rachel Maddow, the reaction from you would be a lot different
— JET0802 (@jet08021) December 30, 2025
Even a casual reader would be justified in getting the impression that Gerstein is actually looking forward to headlines about a fatal shooting in Minneapolis. A more suspicious mind might think he’s damn near salivating at the idea — even if he denied it in a follow-up post.
“To observe that something is likely to happen or there’s a serious risk of it happening is not to advocate for it happening,” he noted condescendingly.
Right. And when Henry II cried, “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” it was a purely rhetorical question. Thomas Beckett’s killers had no business taking it any other way.
Did your lawyer advise you to attempt that disclaimer?
— Old Curmudgeon (@1oldcurmudgeon) December 30, 2025
Beyond the malice, though — as palpable as it was — was the sheer ignorance.
No matter how much they’re distorted by anti-gun leftists, “stand-your-ground” laws don’t allow gun owners to shoot anyone who bothers them. They enshrine the right of self-defense in the face of a threat.
And more to the point, Minnesota isn’t a “stand-your-ground” state in the first place, much less a “robust” one. It’s a “duty to retreat” state, which means the law won’t protect the use of deadly force in self-defense unless an individual has first attempted to escape a perceived threat.
(Maybe he’s confusing Democratic-run Minnesota with Republican states like Texas or Florida, that actually respect the Second Amendment.)
Gerstein was taking fire on pretty much every front.
Politico’s legal affairs reporter all buts calls for Somalis to shoot and murder anyone who knocks on the doors of their businesses. This clown clearly has no idea what stand-you-ground laws are or what states they apply to (hint: Minnesota is a duty-to-retreat state, not a… https://t.co/pQjF96O5s2
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) December 30, 2025
First, there was the community note attached to Gerstein’s post that gutted its logic.
Then there was response after response that took apart Gerstein’s wording, his motivation, and his honesty:
Here’s a fair sampling:
Just who do you think you are kidding?
Plus, your observation was WRONG, there will be no “collision” with standard ground laws, because they won’t apply
— Diana Villiers (@DianaVilliers1) December 30, 2025
The fact that you felt you had to point out that you weren’t advocating for violence just shows that you knew you were advocating for violence.
— Just me (@TedGraves8) December 30, 2025
If getting shot for knocking on doors of businesses open to the public was common, then maybe this comment would be justified. But creating a strawman situation and justifying it with a comment untethered to history or case law is journalistic if not legal malpractice.
— BearFlagFan (@BearFlagFan) December 30, 2025
A political journalist’s main job is to uncover corruption and fraud in the system. So it’s very telling that when a journalist like Nick Shirley actually does exactly that, reporters at so-called “mainstream” outlets suggest the perpetrators of the crime should shoot him. https://t.co/Sn6Ztlaw5r
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) December 30, 2025
There are many, many more where that came from.
And here’s the real kick.
Gerstein isn’t just a journalist for Politico; he’s a legal affairs reporter.
And he’s not just a legal affairs reporter at Politico — he’s the senior legal affairs reporter, with a background, according to his X bio, that includes White House correspondent and China correspondent gigs with ABC as well as time with CNN and, oddly enough, the conservative New York Sun.
And this is the best he’s got?
Americans, no matter what their political backgrounds, should be able to expect the truth out of establishment media, especially when it comes to supposedly credentialed specialists like reporters on legal affairs.
But conservatives have long since learned they can’t. And Josh Gerstein just proved it again.
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