Leftist ideology is all-encompassing, and so Biden, of course, nominated a cop hater to the FCC. Who better to control communications than some leftist woman who hates the police?
That would be Gigi Sohn, who was nominated 16 months ago. She withdrew her nomination on Tuesday, ending the long battle, after facing severe criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for her anti-police rhetoric and other controversial views.
Attempting to save face when withdrawing her nomination, Sohn said that the decision resulted from her facing “unrelenting, dishonest, and cruel attacks” from lobbyists. Speaking on the matter in a statement to the Washington Post, she said “It is a sad day for our country and our democracy when dominant industries, with assistance from unlimited dark money, get to choose their regulators. And with the help of their friends in the Senate, the powerful cable and media companies have done just that.”
Senator Ted Cruz, the ranking member of the Senate’s Commerce Committee, said in a statement “The withdrawal of Ms. Sohn’s nomination is a major victory and represents a strong bipartisan agreement that we need a fair and impartial candidate who can receive the support needed for confirmation. The FCC is not a place for partisan activists; free speech is too important. Now, it’s time for the Biden administration to put forth a nominee who can be confirmed by the full Senate and is committed to serving as an even-handed and truly independent regulator.”
Sohn’s nomination stalled after William Johnson, the executive director of the association of police organizations, wrote a letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and ranking member Ted Cruz (R-TX) about her anti-police views. In it, Johnson said:
“On behalf of the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) and the more than 241,000 sworn law enforcement officers we represent across the United States, I am writing to advise you of our serious concerns with the nomination of Gigi Sohn to serve as a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).”
He then noted that she has called police “armed goons in riot gear with tear gas,” defended rioters, and called for “defunding the police.”
He then said that she is free to hold those views as a private citizen but that the open hostility to the police should not be encouraged in the government, saying:
As a private citizen, our Constitution affords Ms. Sohn the right to hold and express these views. However, it is profoundly concerning to us that a nominee for commissioner of the FCC has harbored such an openly hostile and defamatory view of police. If Ms. Sohn is confirmed to this position, there is no way to assure those views will not be perpetuated.
We want to move forward with improving our relationship with our communities and enhance their trust in our profession, but if such sentiments are held by high-ranking members [of] federal government, this will be difficult to do. The men and women of the law enforcement community put their lives on the line every day to serve and protect their communities and they deserve the support and respect of their government.
Gigi Sohn image credit: By Joel Sage on Flickr – Mike Masnick (modified by Gazebo with cropping, lossless optimization, the addition of comment and XMP-cc:License and sRGB color space metadata and the removal of JPEG APP2 (ICC profile) metadata), CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33489799
"*" indicates required fields