Government and Politics

Progressive "Right-Wing Watchdog" Brian Tyler Cohen

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Brian Tyler Cohen is a progressive "right-wing watchdog." He hosts a weekly Apple podcast entitled "No Lie" where he discusses notable political stories of the week, sometimes including interviews with important political players. Cohen also has a YouTube channel where he posts daily videos including his exhaustive and scathing analysis of recent political news and events.

Below are three recent, representative examples of Cohen's daily YouTube videos.

Feb 6, 2022:

Kevin McCarthy makes the dumbest comment HUMANLY POSSIBLE on air

In this video, Cohen shows a clip aired on Fox News where host Maria Bartiromo interviews U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Republican-California).

McCarthy, after stating that U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Democrat-California) is "hungry for power", starts talking about all of the redistricting that's been happening throughout the U.S. He says that what's happening in the state of New York is "egregious", and that Democrats are "stealing elections in different places by redistricting and gerrymandering."

McCarthy then blames the redistricting situation in New York on Eric Holder (U.S. Attorney General during the Obama administration) and Barack Obama, who he says are responsible for left-leaning Democrats sitting on state supreme courts - courts which are now upholding "egregious" maps. McCarthy says that even the left-leaning Brennan Center (Brennan Center for Justice) says this redistricting is wrong.

McCarthy goes on to say:

They [Democrats] cannot win on their merit and their policies, so now they want to rig the system to be able to keep control of the power.

Cohen points out that Democrats have made significant efforts to ban gerrymandering, and that a provision for this are included in H.R.1 - For the People Act of 2021. H.R.1 was passed in the House on March 3, 2021 by a vote of 220-210 (all but one present Democrat voted in favor and all present Republicans voted against). A Senate version of H.R.1 was blocked from debate in the Senate on June 22, 2021 by a vote of 50-50 (all Democrats in favor and all Republicans against).

Cohen also notes that H.R.4 - John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021 includes a provision to ban gerrymandering as well. H.R.4 was passed in the House on August 24, 2021 by a vote of 219-210 (along party lines with all Republicans voting against). A Senate version of H.R.4 was blocked from debate in the Senate on November 3, 2021 by a vote of 50-49 (along party lines with only one Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski, voting for).

Source:

"HR1, 'For the People Act of 2021'". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2022-02-19

Sprunt, Barbara. (June 22, 2021). "Senate Republicans Block Democrats' Sweeping Voting Rights Legislation". NPR. Retrieved 2022-02-19

Summers, Juana. (August 24, 2021). "The House Has Passed A Bill To Restore The Voting Rights Act". NPR. Retrieved 2022-02-26

Foran, Clare. (November 3, 2021). "Senate Republicans block John Lewis voting rights bill in key vote". CNN. Retrieved 2022-02-26

Commentary:

McCarthy's remarks are another glaring example of Republican hypocrisy. He says that Democrats want to "rig the system" and that they are "stealing elections" by gerrymandering, but he fails to mention three important points.

First, what about all of the state election reforms that have been enacted since the 2020 election? If you think those are nothing more than improvements in election security, then you're probably one of so many Republicans who are completely out of touch with reality.

Second, McCarthy rails about Democrats and how bad things are in the state of New York, but Republicans in other states like Ohio, North Carolina, and Texas are doing the same thing!

Third, on February 25, 2022, North Carolina Republicans submitted a legal filing to the U.S. Supreme Court claiming that the North Carolina Supreme Court does not have the constitutional right to rule on gerrymandering when redistricting is done by the North Carolina state legislature. In other words, redistricting maps drawn by a state legislature would be final, even if they were partisan (an idea known as the "independent state legislature" theory).

As of February 11, 2022, Republicans held 54.4% of all state legislative seats nationally compared to 44.4% for Democrats. As of February 27, 2022, nationally there are 23 Republican trifectas, 14 Democratic trifectas, and 13 divided governments where neither party holds trifecta control. A trifecta is where a party holds a majority in both the state House and Senate, and has a state governor of the same party as well.

Do you think Republicans in North Carolina would be trying to push the "independent state legislature" theory through the U.S. Supreme Court if Republicans didn't have a significant lead in state legislature party control nationwide? No, of course not, because if that were the case it would only help Democrats. This is nothing more than a desperate attempt by North Carolina Republicans to "rig" elections.

Kevin McCarthy is a big-time hypocrite. He's a pathetic GOP clown who's salivating at the prospect of becoming the next U.S. Speaker of the House. To show just how much of a clown he is, in case you missed it, on November 19, 2021, McCarthy made House members sit through a record 8-hour and 32-minute diatribe on the House floor (see links below).

To be fair, in February of 2018 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Democrat-California) delivered a House floor speech that was just over 8 hours long. In my opinion both of these "stunts" are a complete waste of time and taxpayer money (our tax dollars are paying members of Congress salaries, correct?), but the fact that Pelosi did something similar doesn't make McCarthy any less of a clown.

Source:

"Partisan composition of state legislatures'". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2022-02-27

Kevin McCarthy's Very Trumpy 8-Hour Audition for House Speaker | Time

5 key Kevin McCarthy quotes from record-length House floor speech | Fox News

Supreme Court denies GOP requests to halt new maps in NC, Pennsylvania | The Hill

Jan 28, 2022:

Fox host accidentally HUMILIATES herself with brutal misstep live on air

In this video, Cohen shows a clip aired on the Fox News Channel on January 28, 2022 of a group discussion about the recent bridge collapse in Pennsylvania (watch the entire Fox News Channel video here).

In the clip, Fox News Channel anchor Julie Banderas says:

President Biden has been making promises over promises over promises, but as you've noticed, none of them have come true. And when a president makes promises and then doesn't deliver, and then something like this where a bus [referring to the bridge collapse], I mean there could have been multiple casualties.

Banderas then says that back in June of 2021 Biden began talking about his "bipartisan infrastructure deal", going on to say:

There is nothing bipartisan about it...If it was bipartisan it would have been passed by now. So, clearly he's not getting the message across to the other side of the aisle.

Cohen's video then shows a short video clip of the U.S. Senate passing the $1.2 trillion H.R.3684 - Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act by a vote of 69-30 on August 10, 2021 with 19 Republicans voting for the bill. This bill was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 228-206 on November 5, 2021 with 13 Republicans voting for the bill. The bill was signed into law by President Joe Biden ten days later on November 15, 2021.

Source:

"Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2022-02-06

Biden was in Pittsburgh on the day of the bridge collapse, speaking first at the collapse site, then later at a manufacturing research and development center where he said the following:

I've talked about it every time I've come to Pittsburgh, and we finally got it done: a Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, including the largest investment in our nation's bridges since the — since the — Eisenhower put together the Interstate Highway System.

Here in Pennsylvania, that means at least $1.6 billion for bridges alone, $327 million in 2022 alone just to repair bridges. We've got to get on with it. We've got to move. The next time, we don't need headlines saying that someone was killed when the next bridge collapses.

Source:

Farrington, Dana. (August 10, 2021). "Here Are The Republicans Who Voted For The Infrastructure Bill In The Senate". NPR. Retrieved 2022-02-07

Biden, Joe. (January 28, 2022). "Remarks by President Biden on Building a Better America". whitehouse.gov. Retrieved 2022-02-07

(January 28, 2022). "WATCH: Biden visits collapsed bridge in Pennsylvania, touts infrastructure law". PBS. Retrieved 2022-02-07

Commentary:

Here we have a supposedly knowledgeable Fox News Channel anchor who a) doesn't even know that a bipartisan infrastructure bill was signed into law last November, or b) knows a bill was passed but chose to ignore that fact so she could rail against Biden and make him look bad on the day of a bridge collapse. Biden himself mentioned the passing and signing of the "Bipartisan Infrastructure Law" in his speech delivered on the day of the bridge collapse, but apparently that fact escaped Julie Banderas as well.

What's also interesting, and pathetic, is that NONE of the other four discussion panelists (one of which was former Trump White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany) said a word. NONE of them mentioned the fact that a bipartisan bill was passed late last year. Surely, you'd think that at least one of these four would be aware of this, but NONE had the courage to set the record straight and correct what Banderas said.

Many Fox News Channel viewers watching this pathetic "report" would come away from it thinking that Biden was a guy who didn't keep his promises, and that the bridge collapse could have been prevented if only he had followed through on them, and this is exactly what Banderas and the the other four panelists want those viewers to think.

To say that this is pathetic doesn't even come close to calling it out for what it is. It's media "reporting" at its worst. It's just another example of the ongoing, relentless disinformation campaign being conducted by Fox News and so many other news outlets. The point of "reports" like this isn't to convey facts, truth, and objective reality. The point is to report whatever makes the opposition look bad, regardless of the truth, to spread disinformation in pursuit of a political agenda.

That's what's going on here, and THIS is the kind of B.S. that is so damaging to our democracy.

And, as I mentioned previously, 19 out of 49 Senate Republicans voted for the infrastructure bill. In our highly polarized political environment, I think that qualifies as being "bipartisan", negating what Banderas said.

Jan 26, 2022:

Florida Republican can't answer ONE SIMPLE question

In this video, Cohen shows a clip of a state of Florida senate confirmation hearing for Joseph Ladapo, Governor Ron DeSantis' pick to be Florida's surgeon general. When asked several times by Florida state Senator Lauren Book whether vaccines are effective in stopping COVID-19, Ladapo refused to give a simple "yes" or "no" answer.

Cohen notes CDC data which shows that rates of COVID-19-associated hospitalization in adults for December were 16 times greater for unvaccinated adults compared to vaccinated adults, and for adults age 65 and older that rate was 49 times greater. The data Cohen showed is confirmed on the CDC website here.

Controversy over surgeon general continues at confirmation hearing. Democrats walk out | Miami Herald

This isn't the first time Cohen has commented on Joseph Ladapo (see his January 4, 2022 post here).

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