South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem claimed Wednesday at the 2020 Republican National Convention that Democratic-controlled cities are “being overrun by violent mobs.”
To “fact-check” the governor on this assertion, MSNBC interrupted its convention coverage to bring on, of all people, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan. Yes, that Mayor Durkan. As in the mayor who allowed Seattle’s lawless Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, which was rebranded later as Capitol Hill Organized Protest, to flourish in the heart of her city. As in the mayor who waited until at least six separate shooting incidents and two murders left her with no choice but to tear down the protesters’ Mad Max hellscape and finally restore some semblance of order.
“It took 244 years to build this great nation, flaws and all, but we stand to lose it in a tiny fraction of that time if we continue down the path taken by the Democrats and their radical supporters,” Noem said Wednesday evening.
She added, “From Seattle and Portland to Washington and New York, Democrat-run cities across this country are being overrun by violent mobs. The violence is rampant. There’s looting, chaos, destruction, and murder. People that can afford to flee have fled. But the people that can’t — good, hardworking Americans — are left to fend for themselves.”
It was at that moment Wednesday evening that MSNBC’s perpetually indignant Rachel Maddow interrupted her network’s coverage of the convention to “fact-check” the governor.
“We’re just going to interject here just for a moment,” said the cable host. “As we have said over the course of this coverage, we will interject when we feel like there is something that’s important and deliberate and very wrong that should be corrected just so that we feel responsible about our broadcast.”
Maddow added, “Joining us for more on [Noem’s remarks] and to essentially run a reality check on that assertion is the mayor of the great city of Seattle, Jenny Durkan.”
Said the mayor, “[Noem’s] caricature of the great cities across America is not only wrong, it is purposefully wrong. I think she needs to get off Twitter and get off Fox News and come see our city.”
Now is as good a time as any to remind you that when neo-secessionists seized control of a six-block radius of Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, declaring themselves the self-appointed masters of that territory, Seattle’s impotent mayor went on CNN to defend the so-called “autonomous zone” as something “more like a block party” than an “armed takeover.”
“We’ve got four blocks in Seattle that you just saw pictures of that is more like a block party atmosphere,” she told CNN host Chris Cuomo.
On the first night of the CHOP’s weekslong occupation of Seattle’s Capitol Hill, local rapper Raz Simone was reported roaming the zone with an AK-47 and a pistol, screaming through a megaphone, “This is war!” Simone then used his newfound authority as a self-appointed warlord of an unlawful movement to order armed insurrectionists to take shifts guarding the zone’s makeshift barricades. Simone was also filmed allegedly “assaulting multiple protesters who disobeyed his orders, informing them that he was the ‘police’ now, sparking fears that he was becoming the de facto warlord of the autonomous zone,” according to City Journal contributing editor Christopher Rufo. “A homeless man with a baseball bat wandered along the borderline and two unofficial medics in medieval-style chain mail stood ready for action.”
Durkan, for her part, insisted on CNN that the CHOP was “not an armed takeover.”
“It’s not a military junta,” she said. “We will make sure that we can restore this, but we have block parties and the like in this part of Seattle all the time. It’s known for that.”
At least two people were shot and killed in and around the CHOP. Several others were injured in shooting incidents, pushing city officials eventually to pull the plug on the protesters’ free-form experiment in modern secession.
But, yes. By all means, let us hear what Mayor Durkan has to say in response to Gov. Noem’s assertion that Democrat-run cities are being “overrun by violent mobs.”
The funny thing is: One can level a measured and reasonable counterargument in response to the governor’s address. But to hand that responsibility to Mayor Durkan, of all people? That is like going to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for advice on how best to stop the spread of a viral disease in nursing homes. Thanks, but no thanks.
