Flashback: CNN, MSNBC ran with 'Jim Crow' voter suppression claims in Georgia before record turnout
By: Brian Flood, Nikolas Lanum
Well I shall be damned. You mean it was all scare tactics. Why yes. Yes it seems it was.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
C NN and MSNBC spent much of 2021 labeling Georgia’s Republican-passed Election Integrity Act as the next Jim Crow, but record-breaking turnout in the Peach State has essentially debunked the once-popular liberal narrative.
Democrats and their allies in the media repeatedly argued that the law was a racist effort to deny people the right to vote, especially minority Americans, and could push U.S. democracy off a cliff. But during the second day of early voting in Georgia this year, the state saw a 75.3% increase from the second day during the 2018 midterms and a 3.3% increase over the second day of early voting in the 2020 presidential election, according to the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
The overwhelming turnout is a far cry from CNN and MSNBC talking points that suggested the new voting law was comparable to Jim Crow laws that enforced and legalized racial segregation in the south. Georgia Office of the Secretary of State chief operating officer Gabriel Sterling, who is also the interim deputy secretary of state, believes record turnout crushed the liberal narrative.
"We’ve been saying for two years, since we passed this law, this would make it easier to vote and hard to cheat, and the numbers tell the tale," Sterling told Fox News Digital.
"You’ve had turnout that has blown doors," Sterling continued. "This proves, at the end of the day, that these laws are about election administration and doing the right thing and protecting voters. Liberals and their allies lied about it, raised money off of it and undermined people’s faith in elections because it was as wrong then as it is wrong now."
Georgia has seen record early voting turnout and Raffensperger’s office believes it will increase going forward. Early, in-person voters accounted for 268,050 of the 291,740 ballots cast through Tuesday, with 23,690 absentee ballots making up the difference.
When Georgia’s new identification requirements, limits on ballot drop boxes and other measures designed to ensure election integrity were announced, CNN’s Don Lemon declared, "It’s voter suppression, it’s the new Jim Crow."
Liberal pundits and Democratic lawmakers alike claimed there would be unmanageable lines, and many would skip the process altogether because the law's changes were designed to prevent government agencies from mailing applications unsolicited. It also required voters using driver's licenses or some other form of photo ID instead of signature-matching to verify their identity in absentee ballot applications, codified ballot drop boxes into law, mandated precincts hold at least 17 days of early voting, and left in place no-excuse absentee voting, while shortening the window to apply for ballots to 67 days.
CNN political analyst April Ryan took shots directly at Republicans, telling left-wing host Jim Acosta they are a party against the "browning of America" and actively "cheating at the polls."
MSNBC host Joy Reid said early last year that the GOP voting legislation was the "end of democracy" in America and the beginning of a strategy reminiscent of apartheid-era South Africa.
"It’s old-school American, it’s Jim Crow American," Reid added.
University of Georgia Professor Joseph Watson was scathing in his assessment of the media but predicted the "suppression narrative" would continue to wither with turnout numbers like those seen this week once again defining the cycle.
"The press coverage of the Election Integrity Act of 2021 has been informed more by the statements and characterizations of advocacy groups than a fair review of the substance of the legislation itself," he told Fox News Digital. "This is, at best lazy journalism, and at worst the kind of biased journalism that fuels the dismal level of public trust in the media. Some outlets provided detailed analyses of what the new law entailed, but they were certainly the exception and not the rule. As concrete data on strong voter turnout for 2022 becomes available, along with court rulings that have thus far sustained the law, I would expect the suppression narrative to recede."
CNN and MSNBC were on the same page as Democratic lawmakers, many of whom used similar rhetoric to describe the law.
President Biden even called the law "Jim Crow 2.0" and was supportive of Major League Baseball moving the 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta as a response to left-wing pressure.
Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson was asked by host Ali Velshi during an MSNBC appearance whether he agreed with Biden’s comments comparing the law to Jim Crow.
"Well, I’d say it is," Robinson replied. "I mean I did grow up under Jim Crow laws."
CNN’s website also published a report claiming the law was "enacted as part of Republican efforts nationwide to limit voting access in the wake of President Donald Trump’s election defeat" and a separate analysis piece headlined, "A short history of the long conservative assault on Black voting power."
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., in April 2021 to explain the Jim Crow comparisons to viewers.
"Come on, just look at the history," Clyburn told CNN viewers. "They can say anything they want to say about it, just look through it, and look throughout history, and you will know that what is taking place today is a new Jim Crow."
Fox News contributor Leo Terrell believes the record turnout suggests liberal pundits and "the entire Democratic Party" were lying about Jim Crow 2.0.
"The most remarkable number is current turnout exceeds the presidential turnout of 2020. The Democratic Party owes the state of Georgia and all the small businesses that were hurt economically and harmed by the constant allegation of racist election laws an apology. Corporations like major league baseball who supported the big lie also owe the state of Georgia an apology," Terrell told Fox News Digital.
Sterling noted that Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams still insists there is voter suppression in the state. Abrams recently claimed that "voter suppression" was "the hallmark" of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp's leadership.
"Right now, from some of the data I’ve seen, African-Americans are voting at a higher percentage than they make up of the Georgia population," Sterling said. "It is impossible. It is a lie to say there is voter suppression going on."
Professor Watson noted it wasn't just left-wing figures who had to eat crow over the numbers. Former President Trump has repeatedly claimed his 2020 election defeat in Georgia was due to voter fraud, but Raffensperger has long insisted the election was aboveboard.
"The strong early voting turnout would also appear to repudiate the false claims made by former President Trump and many of his endorsed candidates that called into question the validity of the 2020 election outcome and the integrity of early voting and elections in Georgia," he said.
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One of those "But they're gonna" scare tactics that just didn't bear the fruit that dem/liv/progressive pundits errantly forecast.
Trump and his supporters are off topic as are any veiled references of the same at seeders discretion
Didn't someone seed this exact same article yesterday?
This article was posted online 7 hrs ago so unless Karnak lives, no.
I thought someone from Tex-ass posted the same article.
They seem awfully proud to point out their plan in Georgia failed. This seeded article does not show that they didn't do exactly as claimed, just that they once again failed at getting what they wanted. Kind of like Durham. He tried, but also failed, but that doesn't mean he didn't try.
Ya! Always failing. You'd think they'd get the hint.
I just posted an article regarding Durham - three years and essentially nothing.
Two DC leftist Juries don't prove anything, except they are dishonest.
The real historical record is coming. It will be called the Durham Report.
You mean the one that 4 others posted as well? And here you want to complain about duplicate articles?
They should call it the Loser Report because he's lost/failed miserably - what, three times now?
No. The first time the leftist, son of a bitch FBI lawyer confessed. Remember?
Huge failure, since over 850,000 Georgians cast early ballots in the may primary, that was 3 times the number that voted in 2018 and more than voted in the 2020 presidential election. The Dem critics must have thought that Georgia Dem voters were stupid to figure out how to vote.
And the Clintons have been over 20 years of investigations, and nothing. But they keep going back there.
Correct, however it was the right wing tactics that failed. Riled up the masses instead.
There are a lot of people here trying to spin this whole thing like nobody was paying attention to the fictitious claims of the left and Democrats.
Laws that attempted to make it too difficult for certain people to vote. Laws that utterly failed.
Gee if I didn't know better, I would say that is a pretty racist statement.
Why do you feel that "certain" people lack the ability to follow the law and others don't? do you think that these "certain" people somehow inferior to others who have to follow the same laws?
That was the claim. Nobody has been able to prove it. But don't let that stop you from pushing the fiction.
What 'leftist son of a bitch FBI lawyer'?
Well don't be sad 'cause two out of three ain't bad. Remember?
Not. A. Single. One. But that won't stop them from running off at the fucking mouth about shit they know nothing about.
An updated campaign tactic to when then VP Biden told a Black audience in VA in 2012 “They’re going to put you all back in chains.”
Sometimes the pandering tactics fall flat, as when Biden told the nation:
"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy, " Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."
Joe Biden claimed that the new voting law made "Jim Crow" look like "Eagle Crow."
Still pandering after all this time.
This time the pandered will be outnumbered by the suffering.
What suffering?
"Clearly the high inflation is undermining Americans’ purchasing power," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's, told NBC News. While inflation moderated to 8.3% on an annual basis in August, it is still higher than the 5.2% hourly earnings growth Americans experienced over the same period, he said.
You'll learn more on November 8th.
Again, what suffering?
What didn't you comprehend?
So what is the republican plan?
Here you go:
What's to comprehend from that blurb? What does that have to do with suffering?
You don't understand a pay cut?
What pay cut?
One more time: While inflation moderated to 8.3% on an annual basis in August, it is still higher than the 5.2% hourly earnings growth Americans experienced over the same period
One more time, what pay cut?
When your pay check buys less, isn't that a pay cut?
Since when?
Nope.
[deliberate obtuseness]
You are going to be busy.
Nice work with Photoshop. Now provide the link to back it all up.
Sad thing is, some think that the people in charge now, and have likely caused half of the ills, aren't doing shit about it either. So yeah. Give me some vote blue. /s
"Please sir may I have another"
You might want to use smaller words so those on the left can understand.
Maybe the word for the dems on election night will be "drubbing."
That's one way to put it. I imagine that many will deny the results. Like Stacey Abrams has been doing for a few years now.
And Hillary Clinton.
They will be very upset.
And MANY other Democrats
and the list goes on.
How come the media doesn't brand them as "election deniers?"
Because if they do, then they can't bitch and whine about certain others doing the same thing.
No wonder so few trust the media anymore.
Senator Elizabeth Warren called the law, “a despicable voter suppression bill” that would “take Georgia back to Jim Crow.”
She looks to be old enough to know!
I think that she and the rest of the mentally deficient really wanted to “take Georgia back to Jim Crow.”
To Liz a free election is showing everyone that she's just like them:
Imagine being 70 years old, growing up under literal Jim Crow laws, and being told that a law allowing voting for weeks is the same thing.
Incredibly insulting.