CNN Changing Tune On Violent Riots Because Of Polls

CNN anchors Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo spoke out about the violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin Tuesday, providing a stark contrast in CNN’s previous coverage and analysis of the sustained riots in cities around the nation. Lemon and Cuomo cited polling as the main reason why rioting should now be acknowledged as something more than “peaceful protests.” “It’s showing up in the polling. It’s showing up in focus groups. It is the only thing right now that is sticking,” Lemon explained. “The riots and the protests have become indistinguishable,” he added.

CNN's Don Lemon is panicking over the disastrous impact that far-left riots are having on the Democrat Party. pic.twitter.com/lqZl7nuKQ6

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 26, 2020

Lemon proposed that Kenosha is a “Rorschach Test for the entire country.” “I think this is a blind spot for Democrats. I think Democrats are ignoring this problem or hoping that it will go away, and it’s not going to go away,” Lemon said. Despite their previous unwillingness to acknowledge the issue, Lemon and Cuomo urged Democrats to address the rioting and police reform, saying that, even though no solution will be finalized by the election, Biden must at least acknowledge it. “The problem is not going to be fixed by then,” said Lemon. “But what they can do, and I think maybe Joe Biden may be afraid to do it…he’s got to address it. He’s got to come out and talk about it.” “And they’re rioters, not protesters. They’re criminals,” he added. Lemon also spoke out against the “defund the police” movement, claiming that “most black people don’t want police defunded.” “They don’t want fewer police there. They want more. And most communities of color in this country need police more than white communities,” he explained, giving the disclaimer that many wouldn’t like his statement. While Cuomo and Lemon both cite the polls as the reason for Democrats to capitalize on this movement as part of their political platform, some have pointed out that polling in recent weeks, especially about the DNC, is not yet released.

Lemon and Cuomo’s acknowledgment of the riots as violent crime serves as a strict pivot from CNN’s previous coverage of Kenosha and other riots across the U.S. On Monday, a CNN broadcast covering the Wisconsin riots labeled them as “violent protests” in the displayed chryon for a few seconds, but the chryon was quickly changed to remove the word “violent.” “8PM Curfew Ordered After Protests Over Police Shooting Of Unarmed Black Man In Wisconsin,” the new chyron read.

https://thefederalist.com/2020/08/26/cnn-changing-tune-on-violent-riots-because-of-polls/

https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1298474835161604096

Democrats accuse GOP of possible RNC Hatch Act violations

The Hatch Act limits political activities of federal employees

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is facing accusations of a Hatch Act violation after being featured as a speaker at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday night. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, demanded answers from Pompeo's Deputy Secretary Stephen Biegun in a letter on Tuesday. "It is highly unusual, and likely unprecedented, for a sitting Secretary of State to speak at a partisan convention for either of the political parties," Castro wrote. "It appears that it may also be illegal." Castro pointed out that Biegun told State Department employees in February that he would be "sitting on the sidelines of the political process this year" because he is a Senate-confirmed official like Pompeo.

The Hatch Act is a federal law that limits certain political activities of federal employees. Pompeo delivered a pre-taped speech from Jerusalem to the Republican National Convention on Tuesday that praised President Trump’s foreign policy agenda while avoiding stepping into election politics by criticizing Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Castro's colleague Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., called for Office of Special Counsel to look into the potential Hatch Act violations. "As a Member of Congress who believes the Hatch Act should be enforced at the White House, and everywhere else it applies, the Special Counsel needs to address what we’ve been witnessing this week from the Trump Administration," Krishnamoorthi wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy responded Wednesday by saying that President Obama's Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was found to have violated the Hatch Act. "Mike Pompeo … used no government funds," McCarthy told "Mornings with Maria." "At any time we hold our convention, there's a very good chance you're going to find Mike Pompeo somewhere else around this world. If that's the only argument you have back to the Republican Convention because you can't compete on the ideas, that shows the weakness in the Democratic Party."

Rep. Castro's brother, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, was also found to have broken the Hatch Act during a 2016 Yahoo News interview. The Office of Special Counsel determined that "Secretary Castro's statements during the interview impermissibly mixed his personal political views with official agency business despite his efforts to clarify that some answers were being given in his personal capacity."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mike-pompeo-speech-hatch-act-joaquin-castro

When Obama postmaster closed facilities during 2012 election, Democrats sang different tune

Republicans say Democrats 'have this conspiracy theory' in 2020 that they didn't support during the 2012 postal cutbacks, creating a double standard.

After the discredited cries of Russia collusion and Ukrainian aid interference, Democrats in Washington have sounded a new alarm that President Trump and his new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy may be trying to thwart mail-in balloting in the November election by cutting costs at the postal service. DeJoy has assured lawmakers he has delayed his reform plans until after the election to ensure voters aren't impacted. But Democrats have continued to harp on the idea that Trump is engaged in a conspiracy to suppress ballots. "What you are witnessing is a president of the United States who is doing everything he can to suppress the vote, make it harder for people to engage in mail-in balloting at a time when people will be putting their lives on the line by having to go out to a polling station and vote," Sen. Bernie Sanders told NBC's Meet the Press earlier this month. "This is a crisis for American democracy. We have got to act and act now."

Interestingly enough, Sanders saw no similar conspiracy in 2012 when President Barack Obama's Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe proposed closing as many as 223 mail processing facilities and eliminating thousands of postal jobs. To be fair, Sanders and 26 of his Senate Democratic colleagues strongly opposed Donahue's cutbacks, asking for a delay and congressional oversight. But in their letter, they didn't once mention concerns about mail ballots or elections, instead focusing on lost jobs for unionized postal workers and inconvenience for rural customers. "If this plan is implemented, it will have a devastating impact on rural America, small businesses, veterans, the elderly, and our entire economy," Sanders and his Democratic Senate colleagues wrote. Some local and state officials were raising concerns about the postal cutbacks on 2012 mail-in ballots including California's Democratic Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Ohio's Republican Secretary of State John Husted. "While I certainly sympathize with the financial challenges faced by the USPS … pre-election USPS closures would have a devastating impact on democracy," Bowen wrote in a Feb. 22, 2012 letter to Donahoe. Husted added in his own letter, "Drastic changes and how Mail is processed could have unintended consequences, specifically when it comes to how Ohio voters' absentee ballots are handled.”

Some Democrats supported the state officials, and the Postal Service's Donahoe proceeded with a series of closings between May and August 2016 before suspending any other changes in September of that year to assuage concerns about impacts on that election, in which Obama won a second term. But Democrats never accused Obama or his postmaster of conspiring to suppress mail ballots or intentionally disenfranchise voters like they have accused Trump of doing. Some Republicans have noted the difference in Democrats' tone between 2012 and 2020 to suggest gotcha politics, more than election security, may be at play. "They've got this conspiracy theory," Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a fiscal conservative, told Just the News on Tuesday during an interview with the John Solomon Reports podcast. "… Somehow taking these sorting machines out of the buildings was some kind of part of a vast conspiracy. So I read … during my five minutes and submitted for the record two press releases from 2012, when Obama and Biden were running the country and when there was an election to reelect the president. "They shut down nine sorting facilities in the state of Kentucky, including one in Lexington. That's our second biggest city in Kentucky. And I read the statement from the Postmaster General at the time, and basically asked the chairman of the post office there, Mike Duncan, 'Is this, was this part of some vast conspiracy?' And of course it wasn't."

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/wedam-when-obama-postmaster-closed-facilities-during-2012-election

>>10429482

Indeed with moar smokescreens they just can't help themselves!