Major media outlets and their stable of Very Serious Commentators have arrived at a brand-new legal theory: threatening the President of the United States is actually protected free speech. Isn't that something? The same crowd that spent years trying to criminalize the phrase "Let's go Brandon" now wants you to know that actual threats against the Commander-in-Chief are just, you know, vigorous democratic expression.

Somebody get these people a mirror.

The hypocrisy is so thick you could frost a cake with it. The media establishment is now arguing that writing "86 47" is simply protected free expression. For those keeping score at home, a coded cheer mocking the president was basically sedition, but a phrase that literally means "get rid of" the 47th president? That's the First Amendment working as intended.

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld and co-host Jessica Tarlov discussed the jaw-dropping double standard, and it's hard to argue with the basic math here. When the right expressed displeasure with Joe Biden through a stadium chant, we were told it was dangerous, un-American, and possibly an incitement to violence. Pundits wrung their hands for weeks. Social media companies suppressed the phrase. The FBI probably opened a file.

But now? Now that the threats are aimed at President Trump? Well, that's just passionate citizens exercising their constitutional rights. Nothing to see here, folks.

Remember the rodeo clown? Back in 2013, a rodeo performer at the Missouri State Fair wore a Barack Obama mask during his act. The reaction was thermonuclear. He was permanently banned from the state fair. The NAACP demanded a Secret Service investigation. He had to go through "sensitivity training" — for wearing a mask at a rodeo. A mask. At a rodeo. Where clowns wear masks.

Now compare that to what's being defended today. We're not talking about a comedian wearing a rubber mask. We're talking about public figures and media commentators openly defending language that threatens the sitting president's life. And the same media that wanted the rodeo clown drawn and quartered is now lecturing us about the precious boundaries of free expression.

The standard was never about speech. It was always about who's speaking and who the target is. When the target is a Democrat, even mild mockery is a national emergency. When the target is Donald Trump, actual threats are "brave dissent."

Robert De Niro can fantasize publicly about violence against the president and Hollywood gives him a standing ovation. A regular American wears a red hat and gets milkshaked on camera and the media calls it "accountability."

Here's the thing the media doesn't understand — or maybe they understand it perfectly and just don't care. When you selectively apply the rules of acceptable speech based on political alignment, you don't get to call yourself defenders of the First Amendment anymore. You're just partisan enforcers with press badges.

We see you. We've always seen you. And the receipts don't delete themselves.