The mendacity and scorn that elected Republicans have for the people they are supposed to serve, as well as the rule of law and even the specific wording of the U.S. Constitution, is astounding.
As I tried to inform people when I was a candidate, either they think the people they nominally are supposed to represent are stupid, pay no attention, or they play them for fools. Sometimes - actually often, it is all three.
Here is the #2 ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate - John Barrasso - stammering his way through an interview with Kristen Welker trying to excuse Trump’s blatantly unconstitutional banning of specific members of the media from the White House Press Corps:
Barrasso is a classic toady who is best known for - or at least was mostly seen - silently standing over Mitch McConnell’s shoulder during press events in the Capitol. He represents Wyoming, the reddest stat in the country by party registration and also by Trump vote share. He’s done nothing to improve the lives of the people who voted him into office and nothing for people in the rest of the country.
From the video/article (bold emphasis mine):
Asked directly whether the president had violated the Constitution, Barrasso said, “No, I believe the press has an obligation to report fairly.”
Pressed again on whether he agreed with Trump’s ban, Barrasso said, “We all respect and value the freedom of the press — it’s in the Constitution.”
“He was banned from Twitter. He was banned from Facebook, and I didn’t see people come to his defense,” the Wyoming senator told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” “So it goes both ways. The press has an obligation to report fairly, and the president doesn’t see it happening that way.”
Pressed on whether the president’s decision to ban the reporters from White House coverage violated the First Amendment, Barrasso demurred, saying again, “I believe the press has an obligation to report fairly.”
Of course, Freedom of the Press in the First Amendment applies only to government censorship and suppression, not private companies. Barrasso knows this but thinks his constituents are stupid. Twitter and Facebook are private companies, and made their decisions based on Trump’s abhorrent speech and his lies.
Also, Barrasso talks about the press treating the president “fairly”. There is absolutely no constitutional standard for government to determine “fairness”, which of course - as Kristen Welker pointed out - is in the eye of the beholder. Barrasso knows this but thinks his constituents are stupid. The First Amendment included Freedom of the Press specifically so government officials could not determine on their own what could and could be reported, and what was “fair”.
A Brief Interlude on the importance of Freedom of the Press in the words and writings some of those most prominent among us:
Thomas Jefferson said, “The best defense of democracy is an informed electorate”. (This is one of my favorite quotes and succinctly tells why we have Freedom of the Press).
James Madison said, "Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."
John Adams, Samual Adams and James Bowdoin wrote, in the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, “The liberty of the press is essential to the security of freedom in a state: it ought not, therefore, to be restrained in this commonwealth.”
Hannah Arendt, a German/American historian and philosopher, wrote, “The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed. … If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer.”
Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, in the 1971 case NY Times Co. vs. The United States, wrote, “In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people.”
Sir William Blackstone, an English justice and jurist, wrote, “The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state. … To subject the press to the restrictive power of a licenser as was formerly done, both before and since the revolution, is to subject all freedom of sentiment to the prejudices of one man, and make him the arbitrary and infallible judge of all controverted points in learning, religion, and government.”
Even the famously introspective and thoughtful President George W. Bush (sarcasm), in an NBC interview in 2017 in which he called the media “indispensable to democracy”, said, “Power can be very addictive. And it can be corrosive. And it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power.”
Back to Barrasso. He then brings up the media ignoring Hunter Biden’s laptop (which clearly was NOT ignored) and tries to equate that with Trump actively and selectively banning the press from reporting on him and the White House. Again, coverage, or the lack thereof, of a “story”, and determination by members of the press of what is and isn’t newsworthy, has no relation to a President actively banning the press from access ot be able to report. Barrasso conveniently omits that fact the Fox News, Breitbart and a thousand other media outlets on the right had no compunction - and no restrictions - about reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Here’s another example of an elected Republican - Rep. Steve Scalise - outright lying on ABC News:
These people don’t respect the people they were elected to represent and, again. play them for fools. In addition, they are knowingly spitting on one of the core tenets that has protected our democracy for 250 years. Sadly, their mendacity has worked over the years.
Sadly, Barrasso is probably correct - voters will vote on what they perceive directly impacts them, and smarmy Republicans like Barrasso in safe seats will be able to continue to get away with ignoring the basis for our rule of law, the U.S. Constitution.
Excuse me while I take a hot shower to wash the stink of Barrasso and Scalise off my soul.
The Rascals - People Got to Be Free
