New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters blared a 1,700-word blast of pro-Democratic bias from the front of Wednesday’s edition, while also portraying the Trump campaign as desperate and foundering in “Scaring Voters Didn’t Work in 2018. Will It Now?”
When even Al Sharpton is suggesting that “latte liberals” are taking the anti-police attitude too far, perhaps the Democrats really do have a problem on that front. But Peters was committed to waving away any concerns.
Peters (taking a break from bashing conservative media voices) opened by commiserating with an elected Democrat congresswoman against those nasty lying Republicans.
By the time Republicans were done with Sharice Davids in 2018, she barely recognized herself. In ads that blanketed her suburban Kansas City district during her congressional race, she was portrayed as “the candidate of the liberal mob,” an enemy of the police, a threat to children, and an ally of “radical left-wing protesters.”
As flabbergasted as she was by the strategy then, she said she was surprised Republicans were at it again, only this time in the presidential election.
“It didn’t work last time,” said Ms. Davids, who won her race by 10 points and is favored to be re-elected to a second term in November. As a former mixed martial arts fighter who learned the importance of developing new techniques in combat, she said her opponents’ attacks seem stale. “I haven’t seen any evolution. The skill set looks the same.”
….
And as the president made clear during a news conference on Monday, he is trying to blame his opponents for far more than that, with unfounded claims that “radical socialist Democrats” would “immediately collapse the economy” and cause “countless deaths from suicide, substance abuse, depression, heart disease” by keeping coronavirus lockdowns in place.
Fact check: leftist Rep. Davids has an American Conservative Union score of Zero and has been endorsed by leftist Elizabeth Warren.
The next two paragraphs were textbook pro-Democratic bias. The Democratic argument is portrayed sympathetically, while Republicans simply “believe otherwise,” and are being willfully ignorant when they try to blame Democrats for anything.
The suburbs helped propel Democratic gains in 2018, suggesting that if voters were motivated by fear, it wasn’t gangs and migrant invasions they were worried about. Concerns about crime then and now are real, Mr. Sena said, “But not any scarier than the idea of someone taking away their health care.”
Republicans believe otherwise. The looting and property destruction that damaged more than 1,500 buildings and businesses across the Twin Cities and spread to other major metropolitan areas provided instant grist for Mr. Trump, Republicans and conservative media. Ignoring the fact that these bursts of violence were relatively isolated amid the mass demonstrations that drew millions of Americans from Whitefish, Mont., to Miami -- and aware that many Democrats were loath to be seen as critical of the broader movement for racial justice -- the president and his allies focused on the unrest often to the exclusion of anything else.
And then they accused Democrats of failing to condemn the unrest.
Peters carefully protected the Democrat's weak left flank on crime.
With more Democrats speaking the language of law enforcement, Republicans may find their approach even less effective. From Kansas, Ms. Davids spoke of being raised by a mother who served in the Army and then worked for a time in law enforcement. She said she has attended rallies for racial justice and sat down with police leaders. Somewhere in between, she said, is where most Americans are.
Peters circled back to Rep. Davids at the end.
“I do think that there are a lot of people who really want us to have the conversation about racial justice and who really want us to be thoughtful about how we allocate our resources to police,” she said.
