When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jonathan Ross shot Minnesota resident and mother of three Renee Good in the head last week, Republicans immediately declared that Americans would overwhelmingly support the killing. Little of the footage had been verified at that point, some hadn’t even be released, and no one, of course, had any way of telling how the public would react. But this was never a credible prediction so much as a cynical attempt to create a self-fulfilling prophecy: if Americans were told that Americans supported the killing, maybe Americans would support it.

Thus we got messages like this from Republican pundit Sohrab Ahmari:

Because there are actually lots of good people on the Left with whom I agree on various things, I feel compelled to say: Guys, this is one of those instances where you’re going all in on a case that’s 70-30 (at best) against you. (Feel free to dismiss this.)