The liberal media are panicking about California’s impending recall race for Governor Gavin Newsom. So panicked in fact, that they’re resorting to smearing a black Republican candidate as “the face of white supremacy” and claiming that his election would lead to an increase in hate crimes.
On her MSNBC Sunday show, Alicia Menendez teamed up with Los Angeles Times columnist Jean Guerrero to repeat this hateful rhetoric, trashing conservative talk show host and leading GOP contender Larry Elder as an apostle of white nationalism who would “make life harder” for black and Latino Americans.
Menendez opened the segment citing Guerrero with that last quote, before urging her to explain, “what’s on the line here?”
Guerrero panicked that “immigration rights and racial justice issues” were now “in jeopardy.” Showing just how far removed liberal journalists are from the average American, Guerrero was aghast that Elder was against sanctuary state laws and didn’t believe the state’s taxpayers should be paying the tuition for illegal immigrants’ college education.
She also claimed Elder was inspired by a white nationalist author and posed a “danger” to blacks and Latinos:
There is so much at stake in this election for Latinos, for black communities, for communities of color overall. All of the progress that California has made on immigrant rights, on racial justice issues, could be in jeopardy-- Is in jeopardy in this election because the leading candidate, Larry Elder, has pledged to reverse sanctuary laws. He doesn't believe in in-state tuition for dreamers. He doesn't believe in driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants. All of these programs that California has been a leader on as far as immigrant rights and protecting immigrants and making immigrant communities feel safe and thus improving public safety on our economic prosperity, all of them are things he wants to attack...
Menendez wondered how Elder could be competing with Newsom in a place like California and asked Guerrero what she hoped Vice President Kamala Harris would say during an upcoming campaign swing through the state to convince Californians to vote no on the recall.
The columnist bullied Californians to vote no “regardless of how they feel” about Newsom because he’s “done the best he can.” Because she believes voters can’t think for themselves, Guerrero again hammered home her hateful message that electing Elder would “set a nightmarish precedent that would reverberate across the United States and be especially devastating for black and Latino people across the country.”
Divorced from any sort of rational analysis, Guerrero finished out the interview by further claiming Elder would “lead to a rise in hate crimes” because he used “dehumanizing terms” like “illegal alien” instead of “humanizing” terms like “undocumented:"
I mean, Californians need to hear that they need to show up. They need to, regardless of how they feel about Governor Newsom, there is a lot of valid discontent with you know, some of the things that he did during the pandemic, but he has done, you know, the best that he can and we will have an opportunity to vote him out if we want to in the next real democratic election. What needs to happen now is that Latinos turn out. That Democrats turn out and vote no on this recall election because the alternative would be disastrous not only for California. It would set a nightmarish precedent that would reverberate across the United States and be especially devastating for black and Latino people across the country. Larry Elder says he plans to use the bully pulpit. He plans to use dehumanizing terms like illegal aliens. He doesn't believe in humanizing terms like undocumented. And the experts I speak to say this will lead to a rise in hate crimes and we're already seeing a rise in hate crimes. And this would just be devastating for communities of color in a time where we really just can't have anymore of this.
Read the transcript below:
American Voices with Alicia Menendez
MSNBC
8/22/21
ALICIA MENENDEZ: ….[T]rump supporting conservative talk show host, Larry Elder, is leading as a replacement. But who is he and what impact would he have on the democratic state? Elder was a mentor of Stephen Miller, who was the architect of Trump’s cruelest immigration policies, including the separating of migrant families under their zero tolerance policy. My next guest Jean Guerrero writes for the "Los Angeles Times:” ‘If Larry Elder is elected, life will get harder for black and Latino Californians.’ Jean Guerrero joins me now. She's an investigative journalist and author of Hate Monger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump and the White Nationalist Agenda. -- Jean, tell me what's on the line here?
JEAN GUERRERO, LA TIMES: There is so much at stake in this election for Latinos, for black communities, for communities of color overall. All of the progress that California has made on immigrant rights, on racial justice issues, could be in jeopardy-- Is in jeopardy in this election because the leading candidate, Larry Elder, has pledged to reverse sanctuary laws. He doesn't believe in in-state tuition for dreamers. He doesn't believe in driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants. All of these programs that California has been a leader on as far as immigrant rights and protecting immigrants and making immigrant communities feel safe and thus improving public safety on our economic prosperity, all of them are things he wants to attack. This is a man who is to the right of Donald Trump on immigration issues, which is no surprise given the fact he mentored Steven Miller. Larry Elder even defended the most controversial immigration policy to come out of this administration to me, he defended the family separation policy. As I wrote in my column, this is a man who's made a career out of denying the fact of systemic racism by using false stats that paint black people as more violent than white people. Stats that I found based on my analysis of Larry Elder's writings come from a white supremacist named Jarod Taylor who shaped Larry Elder’s views, who Larry Elder repeatedly quoted in his early books and writings who continues--as recently as 2016, he was featuring a white nationalist website on his site. I feel like there's just not enough information out there about the incredible danger that this man poses to immigrant rights and racial justice issues.
MENENDEZ: So, Jean, I'm going to imagine that a lot of people in our audience have the same question that I have as I listen to you tick through the history of Larry elder, which is how is it possible that a state like California, when Californians are polled about this, are showing him to be a, if not the lead contender to go up against Gavin?
GUERRERO: Well, one of the problems I think is the fact there's so little information. The Democrats are not doing a good job of outreach to Latino communities who have the most at stake in this election.
And I think there's a lot of complacency. In part, because people think there's no way such a right wing person could become leader of California, but this is by nature an anti-democratic election. It does not matter if more people vote to keep Gavin Newsom in office. If just one additional person votes yes on the recall, and There are far fewer people that vote for [sic] Larry Elder, Larry Elder could still become the next governor of California and again, this is a man whose views have been shaped by an open white supremacist who as I said is named Jared Taylor and believes in a white majority country and who has, who wrote a classic called the Color of Crime, which uses all sorts of false and distorted statistics about black communities--
MENENDEZ: Jean, let me, I do want to ask you, because the vice president is headed to California. What is it that you think Californians need to hear from her?
GUERRERO: I mean, Californians need to hear that they need to show up. They need to, regardless of how they feel about Governor Newsom, there is a lot of valid discontent with you know, some of the things that he did during the pandemic, but he has done, you know, the best that he can and we will have an opportunity to vote him out if we want to in the next real democratic election. What needs to happen now is that Latinos turn out. That Democrats turn out and vote no on this recall election because the alternative would be disastrous not only for California. It would set a nightmarish precedent that would reverberate across the United States and be especially devastating for black and Latino people across the country. Larry Elder says he plans to use the bully pulpit. He plans to use dehumanizing terms like illegal aliens. He doesn't believe in humanizing terms like undocumented. And the experts I speak to say this will lead to a rise in hate crimes and we're already seeing a rise in hate crimes. And this would just be devastating for communities of color in a time where we really just can't have anymore of this.
