To hear the press tell it, the protesters gathering outside the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee are fine people participating in the patriotic pageant of democracy. The Washington Post reported that “organizers were careful to call out political violence of all stripes.” The New York Times described the event as “enthusiastic and orderly” and said participants “widely condemned” Saturday’s shooting of Donald Trump. NPR said protesters “were quick to disavow that act of political violence, even as some cracked jokes about wanting their chants to get within ‘ear-shot’ of the former president.” I was left with a more ominous impression after watching the Sunday press conference and Monday rally by the Coalition to March on the RNC. “The shooting has nothing to do with us,” Omar Flores, a coalition spokesman, said on Sunday. A reporter asked if the coalition condemned the shooting, and Mr. Flores answered: “Why would we? It has nothing to do with us. Do you condemn it?” Others asked similar questions, and Mr. Flores refused to budge: “I think Trump breeds a lot of hate.” “Republicans are not welcome in this city,” Audari Tamayo, a co-chairman of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, said at the rally. “They are not welcome anywhere that . . . people stand for justice.” Catie Petralia, a representative of Reproductive Justice Action Milwaukee, echoed the sentiment: “We feel the Republicans stand . . . against safe and sustainable communities,” she said. “We want to stand up and fight.” Not that the protesters have much affection for the Democrats, either. “We’re gonna be out here no matter what, whether it’s Biden that wins or Trump,” Mr. Flores said.

On Monday Hatem Abudayyeh, national chairman of the US Palestinian Community Network, denounced “Genocide Joe,” “Killer Kamala” and their “cabal of top Democrats.” He vowed that “once we’re done here this week in Milwaukee, we’ll move south to Chicago and do the same.” Mr. Abudayyeh’s loathing isn’t limited to the major political parties. He also asserted that “the U.S. empire” is “on its last legs,” as is the “racist, white supremacist, settler colonialist, apartheid, Zionist state” of Israel. The Associated Press headlined its Monday story: “Protesters rally peacefully at GOP convention for abortion and immigrant rights, end to war in Gaza.” Imagine if the media had covered Charlottesville this way.

More From The Wall Street Journal (subscription required):