In the aftermath of black conservative former NFL player Burgess Owens getting elected to Congress in Utah (where Mia Love lost narrowly in 2018), CNN host Erin Burnett was apparently so alarmed by his criticisms of the far-left Black Lives Matter movement that she gave House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn an unchallenged forum to accuse the Utah Republican of historical ignorance.
Concluding Erin Burnett Outfront on Wednesday evening, the CNN host noted that Republicans had gained seats in the House of Representatives and brought up the win by Owens and his political message:
Tonight, House Speaker Pelosi suggesting this will be her last term as Speaker of the House. And it comes as the Democrats' majority in the House is narrowing, Republicans gaining at least 10 seats and leading in several others that CNN has not called yet. Former NFL player Burgess Owens flipping his seat in Utah red with messages like this one.
Then came a couple of soundbites of Owens appearing on Fox News Channel from separate appearances earlier this year: "We find that BLM Inc. is nothing nothing but a Marxist organization. (editing jump) We all know that all lives matter. Only the leftists -- only the godless could ever make that an issue where people are now looked at as being a racist."
Burnett then informed viewers that she had interviewed Congressman Clyburn -- the House Majority Whip -- to get his reaction: "So I spoke with House Majority Whip James Clyburn about the significance of this and Owens's election."
Then came a pre-recorded clip in which Clyburn suggested that Congressman-elect Owens is ignorant of history:
I'm instructed by history. I -- irrespective of what my emotions may be on anything -- I study the history of this country -- I study the history of voting. Maybe Mr. Owens has never been denied the right to vote, but I remember when my parents were first able to register to vote. Maybe he's never heard of John Lewis. Or has he ever heard heard of what it took on Edmund Pettis Bridge to get the right to vote.
He then added: "And a question I would ask him is, 'Whose lives mattered at Emanuel AME Church when nine lives were snuffed out by a young man who said he was trying to start a race war?' Do those nine lives matter? I think they do. And that's all Black Lives Matter is all about."
Since Burnett was setting up lectures and not asking questions, she didn't raise the issue of Clyburn telling the CBSN channel after the election that "John Lewis and I were very concerned when these slogans came out about 'defund the police,'" he said. "We sat together on the House floor and talked about how that slogan... could undermine the BLM movement, just as 'burn, baby, burn' destroyed our movement back in the '60s."
Burgess Owens is right. Jim Clyburn is deeply mistaken. Burnett and Clyburn ignored the documented extreme philosophy of the Black Lives Matter organization, which is very much a burn-baby-burn group: “if this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it.”
This episode of Erin Burnett Outfront was sponsored in part by Fingerhut. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
CNN
Erin Burnett Outfront
November 18, 2020
ERIN BURNETT: Tonight, House Speaker Pelosi suggesting this will be her last term as Speaker of the House. And it comes as the Democrats' majority in the House is narrowing, Republicans gaining at least 10 seats and leading in several others that CNN has not called yet. Former NFL player Burgess Owens flipping his seat in Utah red with messages like this one.
CONGRESSMAN-ELECT BURGESS OWENS (R-UT) (dated August 20): We find that BLM Inc. is nothing nothing but a marxist organization.
CONGRESSMAN-ELECT OWENS (dated July 9): We all know that all lives matter. Only the leftists -- only the godless could ever make that an issue where people are now looked at as being a racist.
BURNETT: So I spoke with House Majority Whip James Clyburn about the significance of this and Owens's election.
JIM CLYBURN, HOUSE MINORITY WHIP: I'm instructed by history. I -- irrespective of what my emotions may be on anything -- I study the history of this country -- I study the history of voting. Maybe Mr. Owens has never been denied the right to vote, but I remember when my parents were first able to register to vote. Maybe he's never heard of John Lewis. Or has he ever heard heard of what it took on Edmund Pettis Bridge to get the right to vote.
And a question I would ask him is, "Whose lives mattered at Emanuel AME Church when nine lives were snuffed out by a young man who said he was trying to start a race war?" Do those nine lives matter? I think they do. And that's all Black Lives Matter is all about.
BURNETT: All right, thanks for joining us. AC360 starts now.
