The Media’s Cynical ‘Sedition’ Smear

By David Harsanyi

Thursday, January 14, 2021

 

During yesterday’s vote to impeach President Trump a second time, CNN host Jake Tapper described Congressman Brian Mast as “a Republican from Florida — who lost his legs, by the way, fighting for democracy abroad, although I don’t know . . . about his commitment to it here in the United States.” This sounds like pretty Trumpy rhetoric to me, the kind that I’m told corrodes the foundations of comity and civil society, etc.

 

Unlike many of Tapper’s critics, I don’t think veterans such as Mast, who was injured by an IED in Afghanistan, deserve any special dispensation from criticism during a political debate, especially this one. Then again, they probably deserve not to be slandered as a traitor by a television personality who spent four years undercutting public trust in the 2016 election.

 

When Mast confronted Tapper, the CNN host questioned “the commitment to democracy of anyone who spread election lies, signed onto that deranged TX AG lawsuit, and voted to commit sedition. You were not just asking questions.”

 

How exactly does one vote “to commit sedition”? What other congressional procedures and lawsuits does Tapper consider to be treasonous?

 

Rioters carrying zip ties into the Capitol building, threatening lawmakers, murdering a police officer, and disrupting democracy are surely a better fit for the “seditious” label. Not only for the obvious reasons, but also because their grievances were being heard even as they turned violent. However, casting objections in Congress or taking your gripes to a court might be extraordinarily wrongheaded, completely ridiculous, or politically destructive — as I believe the objections to certifying Joe Biden’s win were — but lawful opposition and working within the system are not sedition by any conception. Unless you believe the system itself allows for this kind of perfidy.

 

Tapper’s absurd position reminds me of MAGA fans who passionately claim that impeachment — a mechanism in the Constitution — is somehow unpatriotic. Donald Trump’s post-election behavior was deeply irresponsible, conspiratorial, unpresidential, and incited — not in the legal sense, but in the moral one — a lot of the anger we saw last Wednesday. Congress has every right to remove him. And Mast has every right to vote “no.” If his constituents don’t like it, they can find someone else to represent them. That’s democracy.

 

Or is it only “democracy” if lawmakers vote in a way Jake Tapper approves?

 

I’d say the Capitol riot has given license to liberals to smear Republicans as traitors, but Democrats have been calling them KGB foot soldiers since 2016. In a discussion with CNN personality Chris Cuomo, Tapper’s colleague Don Lemon said that the 75 million or so Americans who voted for Trump made common cause with the Klan and rioters. Not long ago, Cuomo was comparing Antifa to the GIs at Normandy on D-Day and justifying violent leftist political riots. Does Cuomo really believe the firebombing of federal buildings or the earlier murder of five police officers by a BLM activist were just “outbursts”? Fordham Law doesn’t make them like they used to.

 

MSNBC’s Joy Reid talks about the necessity for “de-Baathifying” the Republican Party. The Nobel prize–winning New York Times columnist Paul Krugman expands on the idea, noting that the Capitol riot was a “putsch” decades in the making. (Is there anything Reagan couldn’t do?!) Krugman’s colleague Nicholas Kristof, whose editorial page argued that rioting wasn’t violence, says Fox News needs to be shut down because it’s one of many right-wing “extremist madrasas.”

 

Everyone is guilty, by this logic. And it all leads to Democrats such as Ron Wyden and others arguing that the path to national healing is for Republicans to get on board with the Democratic agenda. “The Only Way to Save Democracy,” says a left-wing activist at Slate, is to completely dismantle constitutional protections for red states so Republicans never win another election.

 

If the impeachment of Trump were a good-faith effort to defend the sanctity of our democracy, liberals wouldn’t be reverting to partisan form so quickly.

 

Joe Scarborough, who worked more diligently, and more obsequiously, than perhaps anyone in media to help elect Donald Trump, now runs around casually accusing senators of treason. I get that it’s likely hyperbole — in his case, almost surely about ratings — but I wonder how many Democrats actually believe Josh Hawley deserves the death penalty? Do they know what “treason” would mean?

 

Now, I’ve been told that mentioning these double standards so close to the Capitol riot is a no-no. But those who condemn all rioting, and all lies undermining public faith in our elections, should be able to proceed without concerning themselves about accusations of “whataboutism” or charges of hypocrisy.

 

This group does not include Jake Tapper. Or Ron Wyden. Or Paul Krugman. Or Don Lemon. Or Joe Scarborough. Or Joy Reid. Or scores of other politicos who believe they can smear or insinuate that their opponents are traitors.