Democrats can say whatever they want, slinging the vilest slanders and falsehoods, and the media, though nominally tasked with keeping them honest, will sit by silently, nodding along.
Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts alleged Tuesday that Republican-controlled state legislatures are conspiring to bar black people and college students from voting.
This is, of course, false. Not one GOP-led state legislature is doing this — not in Texas and not in Georgia. In fact, it may come as a shock for Warren to learn that Georgia, the regular target of so many Democratic “voter suppression” falsehoods, has voting laws that are less stringent than those of New York, Connecticut, and even President Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware.
Warren almost certainly knows this, but she doesn’t care. She knows journalists won’t check her facts.
On CBS News, where the senator spoke this week in defense of her party’s continued efforts to federalize elections, not a single journalist pushed back on her baseless “voter suppression” claims. Rather, they just sat there, smiling and nodding along like doofuses.
“This voting rights legislation,” said CBS’s Tony Dokoupil, “which is going to be debated today, it is effectively dead. In fact, it is dead without your Democratic colleagues coming to the table.”
Warren responded, “Look, I — I am not declaring this bill dead because we can’t. It is absolutely too important. Understand it this way. Voting is foundational. That is the whole premise of our democracy, and before we get to the procedural part, keep this in mind — that state legislatures all around the country that are controlled by Republicans are doing everything they can to keep people from voting.”
She added, “Who are they trying to keep from voting? Black people, brown people, college students, people who live on tribal reservations, trying to keep those folks from voting because they might vote Democratic. Every single senator who is a Republican in the United States Senate has said they’re not going to do anything. They’re letting the states do whatever they want.”
No one at CBS made an effort to challenge Warren’s uniquely disingenuous claims. They made no effort to question her premise that states being left to conduct their own elections equals “voter suppression.” They didn’t even ask her for evidence that Republican-led state legislatures are blocking black people and college students from voting. They just sat there.
Dokoupil continued, “But you would not need them if [Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia] agreed to a rule change [that] allowed Democrats to vote on a simple majority. Sen. Sinema says she’s not doing it because it would deepen partisanship in this country. She calls it a disease. Does she have a point?”
“This is about our democracy,” Warren responded, using the Democratic buzzword of the month. “That’s the whole premise of how we have a government is consent of the governed, and that means that every American citizen has a right to vote and a right to get that vote counted.
Responded CBS’s Gayle King, “Mmhmm.”
Uh, hey media, can you all at least pretend to care about your jobs? Is it really that big of an ask?
