Not your average day in the liberal media! Friday’s CNN This Morning offered a sympathetic platform to someone calling out the media for not doing enough to combat antisemitism.
The guest was Democrat Michigan state representative Samantha Steckloff, who is Jewish. She reportedly received a death threat from a white supremacist who has targeted Jewish elected officials in Michigan, and who has been arrested by the FBI.
Although Steckloff traced the rise of antisemitism in the US to President Trump in connection with Charlottesville, her major focus was on Kanye West. Here was her exchange on that subject with co-host Poppy Harlow:
SAMANTHA STECKLOFF: We’ve seen the rise in antisemitism pretty much since the Charlottesville, when President Trump came in 2016. We saw this rise and wave of this right Christian national group. And it really, really, really hit the fire when Kanye West said he was going to go Defcon Three on all of the Jews, back in October, November.
HARLOW: You know, you’ve talked about that. That tweet that then Twitter removed for violating its policies.
But what I think is interesting, representative, is that you’ve also talked about some of the media being somewhat complicit in this, or certainly not doing enough to stomp it out.
STECKLOFF: Back in October/November, when Kanye West put that tweet out, the Detroit News editorial board put out an entire article calling Kanye a victim. And still to this day, they refuse, they refuse to retract it. I still go back and forth with the editor of the Detroit News.
Interesting that Harlow characterized Steckloff as accusing the media of being “somewhat complicit.” Harlow did point out that the Detroit News subsequently altered the offending column, although it still remains up on the paper’s website.
CNN salvaged some liberal street cred by injecting into the segment a clip of Andrew McCabe—the virulent anti-Trumper who was fired by the FBI and rewarded by CNN with a contributor gig.
McCabe echoed the approved liberal line that white supremacists are “the most dangerous, the most concerning threat . . on the counter-terrorist side.”
CNN This Morning giving a sympathetic platform to a Jewish state legislator calling out the media for not doing more to counter antisemitism was sponsored in part by Skechers.
Here’s the transcript.
CNN This Morning
3/3/23
6:26 am ETKAITLAN COLLINS: We are following developments out of Michigan. The man who is accused of threatening to kill Jewish state officials in Michigan is making his first court appearance today. We broke the news on the program yesterday, as federal authorities say that Jack Carpenter first made the threats online. Had plans to go to Michigan to actually carry out those ideas, those threats.
The FBI says he wrote posts supporting an anti-government extremist movement that is classified as domestic terrorism. CNN’s Omar Jimenez has our report.
OMAR JIMENEZ: The threats were allegedly posted on the internet from out of state by suspect Jack Eugene Carpenter III. “I’m heading back to Michigan now threatening to carry out the punishment of death to anyone that is jewish in the Michigan government if they don’t leave or confess, and now.” Later adding, “any attempt to subdue me will be met with deadly force in self-defense.”
Court documents show his mother told investigators he had three handguns, a 12-gauge shotgun, and two rifles.
A law enforcement source tells CNN among those specifically targeted, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.
. . .
ANDREW MCCABE: This is right in the wheelhouse of what the FBI and Director Wray have told us they think is the most dangerous, the most concerning threat that they face on the counter-terrorist side.
. . .
POPPY HARLOW: Attorney General Dana Nessel—Attorney General of Michigan—wasn’t the only official in that state to be targeted in the [inaudible.] There were others, including first-terms state representative Samantha Steckloff, who said she found out about the threat on her life when the FBI called her. She joins us now. Good morning. I’m so sorry that this is the reason you’re with us. But I appreciate you sharing your experience with us
. . .
You know, you have been very public about your battle with, and overcoming, breast cancer. And you said I did not survive breast cancer to be killed for being Jewish. Do you believe right now as this threat came to you that antisemitism and the threat of attack on public officials like you is now a greater threat to your life than breast cancer?
SAMANTHA STECKLOFF: Oh, absolutely! We’ve seen the rise in antisemitism pretty much since the Charlottesville —
HARLOW: Yeah.
STECKLOFF: — when President Trump came in 2016. We saw this rise and wave of this right Christian national group.
And it really, really, really hit the fire when Kanye West said he was going to go Defcon Three on all of the Jews, back in October, November.
HARLOW: You know, you’ve talked about that. That tweet that then Twitter removed for violating its policies.
But what I think is interesting, representative, is that you’ve also talked about some of the media being somewhat complicit in this, or certainly not doing enough to stomp it out.
. . .
STECKLOFF: Back in October/November, when Kanye West put that tweet out, the Detroit News editorial board put out an entire article calling Kanye a victim. And still to this day, they refuse, they refuse to retract it. I still go back and forth with the editor of the Detroit News.
. . .
And when you have someone who can tweet out to more people, to double the amount of people than there are Jews in this entire world—there are less than 15 million of us—a majority of people have never met another Jewish person. So their information comes from the media.
HARLOW: Yeah, I read that. I remember that Detroit News op-ed. I know they altered it a bit. They said Kanye was a victim of cancel culture. It still exists: it’s been altered a bit.