Age-old debate tactic. Frame the debate around a vague term, and then attack the other side’s version of the term. Here, it is “what is hate” and “how imminent is imminent” that are getting the focus, rather than our First Amendment Freedoms. Since the Left generally defines and redefines all terms in the public sphere (see Hillary’s most recent stunning examples of controlling the terms used to describe her), the debate is now over who is more demonized in the media. Gee, I wonder how that will go.
And they try to redefine language until there are no words to debate with. Like thug is now racist, then they make an alternate word racist, so you end up debating the term.