So you're saying that not doing so excuses all the disgusting vitriol directed at him and his family?
Of course not...and that's just your attempt at creating a strawman to set fire to (good work).
David French briefly stuck his nose into presidential politics and seems surprised at the
de jour response from certain quarters.
By comparison, Trump and his family have received far worse for far longer than poor David French. People forget how quickly Trump and his family was assigned secret service protection, which does not typically happen unless there are credible death threats. Even the mild mannered Dr. Carson was assigned secret service protection for a while.
David French also has an extensive background as a prolific online 'gamer', a sub-culture unto itself with a long history of viscous political troll wars and doxing. French famously mocked his gamer enemies in a 2015 NR blog in which he described these battles.
So who knows what's really behind the ongoing attacks on French, its not like his anti-Trump blogging has had any meaningful impact on the race, and his foray as a candidate was so brief and inconsequential it is barely worth mentioning.