Covering Their Backsides

These people are either witless fools, tools of the left, on actively on the side of evil. If their letter is sincere, and they are actually surprised by any of this, they're idiots. The behavior of the left comes as a surprise to precisely no one who has been paying any attention at all. If these people are really surprised - as opposed to feigning surprise - they should not be persons of influence.  In such a case their hubris would be exceeded only by their ignorance.