Is Gottheimer a racist and terrorist? The media has lowered the bar.
/By Rubashov
Is the America of “Innocent until PROVEN Guilty” dead?
Despite the best efforts of groups like the Innocence Project, the American media at large is quite happy to pronounce guilt of major crimes, such as terrorism, without even so much as making a case or presenting evidence. And they will do this even if the person they are condemning is little more than a private citizen – and with scant regard to what the label “terrorist” means or the horrors it confers on the family and children of such a citizen. Pure evil.
Last evening, the New Jersey Globe website moderated a live debate between incumbent Congressman Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat, and his opponent, Republican Frank Pallotta. In the course of that debate, Gottheimer employed a tactic he used in 2016 – to link the Republican to what Gottheimer alleged was a “domestic terrorist” group.
This isn’t anything new with Gottheimer, who learned how to use such histrionics from his time as the Number Two man at the global lobbyist and public relations firm Burson-Marsteller. Who is Burson-Marsteller? Well, here’s MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow to give her view on the firm…
Yep, Josh Gottheimer learned his skills while at what MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow called “the PR firm from Hell.” Cute.
Nevertheless, we can expect such exaggeration from a politician in the heat of a live debate. It’s what politicians do. When they can’t defend – or explain – their record, they deflect. They lie. Heck, lying and politicians go together like peanut butter and jelly.
But the media isn’t supposed to reinforce the politicians’ lies. The media is there to catch the lies that politicians tell, examine them, and then place them into perspective – and report the truth. That’s not what happened when Nikita Biryukov, of the New Jersey Globe, reported on the debate. Biryukov wrote:
Pallotta was unabashedly pro-Trump, siding with an administration suit that seeks to strike the affordable care act, pushing aside calls to condemn a domestic terror group while condemning Antifa and downplaying the threat posed by COVID-19.
“1992 called and they want their definition of racism group,” Pallotta said when asked whether he would condemn the Oath Keepers. “My supporters are my supporters. They’re not racist, they’re not xenophobes. They’re not homegrown terrorists. They’re good people. They’re your people. They’re in your district.”
The New Jersey Department of Homeland Security named the Oath Keepers and another far-right militia organization as domestic terror groups. The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League both list the Oath Keepers as an extremist group.
The Oath Keepers were in issue in the incumbent’s 2016 race against Rep. Scott Garret (R-Wantage), who held a fundraiser organized by the regional director of the extremist group’s New Jersey Chapter. Garrett also declined to denounce the organization.
Skylands Tea Party President Bill Hayden, a member of the Oath Keepers, is involved with Pallotta’s campaign.
“They are anti-government, anti-law enforcement, anti-Semitic, blatant racists,” Gottheimer said. “I’m just saying this group that he’s arm-in-arm with one of the guys who runs it, will he please denounce the group?”
Now, let’s remember that terrorism is a crime. As Congressman Gottheimer well knows, Section 802 of the USA PATRIOT Act (Pub. L. No. 107-52) expanded the definition of terrorism to cover domestic, as opposed to international, terrorism. A person engages in domestic terrorism if they do an act “dangerous to human life that is a violation of the criminal laws of a state or the United States, if the act appears to be intended to: (i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.”
Now a responsible journalist would have asked Congressman Gottheimer to back up his allegation. He made the allegation about a private citizen who is a constituent in his district. Gottheimer called Bill Hayden a domestic terrorist, a criminal. Now back it up. Using the legal definition, make your case.
Look, we all have opinions. It is often said that opinions are ubiquitous as arseholes. But when you label someone a criminal, you need to back it up with a little more than, “it’s my opinion.” And that goes for the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Anti-Defamation League. If it is going to be worth something more than your arsehole – take those you accuse to court, make a case, present your evidence… and convict! Or just keep your labels tucked up where the sun don’t shine. Because they are worthless. Mere name-calling.
Otherwise, it would be just as fine to label every Democrat who supports indoctrinating eighth graders in the joys of anal sex a pedophile… and it’s called grooming. Wouldn’t that be a treat? In the future, the parties won’t be donkeys and elephants or blue and red… but pedophiles and racists. Nice. A real step forward for democracy. That’s where we’re heading.
The New Jersey Globe should understand this. It just so happens that the owner of the website, the guy Nikita Biryukov takes his marching orders from, is an actual convicted criminal. Knowing the rules of evidence, as he must, he should have called a time-out on Josh Gottheimer and asked the Congressman to reconsider his rash and inevitably false accusation of criminality against one of his own constituents. But he did not.
Yes, the hypocrisy in this Nikita Biryukov piece was ladled out so thick – and yet is so deliciously Trenton – that if you think about it too long you’d never stop throwing up. That in midst of a debate, wherein a Member of Congress is making false accusations about criminal behavior, for him to purposefully overlook the fact that the debate moderator is, in fact, a self-confessed and convicted criminal is rich indeed. In agreeing to such a moderator, was Gottheimer endorsing his crimes – or just making light of them? Well… we all have our opinions.
And now for some real terrorism that the Trenton media studiously overlooks. We call it real because an actual national government has ruled it so – and that government is an ally of the United States. Our troops are deployed there. And if you go there, and are a member of this group, there will be legal consequences. Not opinions. Legal consequences.
We’re talking here about CAIR – and the far-Left group aligned with it and Linda Sarsour, called Action Together. Congressman Josh Gottheimer is a supporter of Action Together. Even made a video pushing their agenda. And District 25 Assembly candidate Darcy Draeger was happy to accept the endorsement of Action Together.
On February 10, 2018, Action Together New Jersey accepted an award from Linda Sarsour. Accepting the award was Action Together New Jersey’s Executive Director, Uyen “Winn” Khuong; Action Together New Jersey’s Sussex County Co-Chair, Johannah Hinksmon; and Action Together New Jersey’s Director of Operations, Kim Baron.
Linda Sarsour is the controversial Democrat activist who has praised the notoriously anti-Semitic Louis Farrakhan, cop-killer Joanne Chesimard, and the anti-Semitic BDS movement. In 2017, Sarsour famously called for “Jihad” against the elected government of the United States of America.
The award was in recognition of voter registration drives and other political campaigning done by Action Together New Jersey in coordination with a group called CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Presenting the award was CAIR National Chairwoman, Roula Allouch, and CAIR-NJ Founder, Ahmed Al Shehab.
Due to its apparent ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, one of America’s most important Islamic allies – the United Arab Emirates – has designated CAIR a terrorist organization. Yes, CAIR is officially outlawed. By law. Legal. Not someone’s “opinion”. That said, the same Anti-Defamation League in Nikita Biryukov’s story doesn’t have a very high opinion of CAIR. In the manner of Josh Gottheimer, they have repeatedly called on CAIR to "denounce anti-Semitism” at their rallies and events.
To add further to the confusion of “opinions” is the fact that Congressman Josh Gottheimer opposes the pro-Palestinian BDS movement. That makes Gottheimer a “racist” in the opinion of some. Some of U.S. Senator Cory Booker’s biggest supporters think so.
Going by “opinions” instead of legal definitions… does that make Josh Gottheimer a terrorist and a racist?
““Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.”
E.B. White”
