On Monday, CBS Mornings offered up a fawning, softball interview with the radical head of the Biden Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke. While the broadcast swooned over Clarke having “a reputation for not backing down from a fight,” not a single question was asked about her past incendiary claims that black people had “superior physical and mental abilities” to white people or her advocacy for defunding the police.
“As the country pauses to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.....the first black woman to run the Justice Department Civil Rights Division says that voting discrimination persists today,” co-host Gayle King pronounced as she introduced the gushing profile. The anchor and Democratic Party donor touted how Clarke “says that continuing Dr. King’s quest for equal access to the ballot box is one of her department’s top priorities.”
Correspondent Jeff Pegues began the friendly chat by wondering: “What do you think is the state of civil rights in this country right now?” Clarke replied: “We have made a lot of progress as a nation, but we’ve still got a long way to go.”
“Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke hears the frustration of many over new state voting restrictions and says her department is using every tool at its disposal to protect voting rights,” Pegues sympathized as footage ran of far-left protesters holding up signs claiming Republican voting reforms were “Jim Crow 2.0” and “voter suppression.”
The headline on screen throughout the segment blared: “Fighting Voter Discrimination; Assistant AG Clarke on the Crucial Battle to Protect Voting Rights.”
Pegues kept the softballs coming: “Would you say that it’s people of color who are being targeted by these laws?” Clarke warned: “Yes. Voting discrimination is alive and well.” Hoping to get his left-wing guest to attack Republicans, the reporter followed up: “Well, who do you think is behind this effort?” Clarke dodged: “Well, look, I do not view this as a partisan issue.”
Seeming to be dissatisfied by the response, Pegues skeptically questioned: “You don’t?...You might be the only one in this town that doesn’t see it as a partisan issue.” Clarke urged for passage of a federal takeover of elections: “I’m hopeful that we can get back to that place where we’ve been time and time again where Congress has worked in bipartisan fashion to renew the Voting Rights Act.”
“Within the Democratic Party, there is growing frustration that the Justice Department and the President failed to reverse Republican efforts to change state election laws with the midterm election approaching and control of Congress on the ballot,” Pegues lamented. He pressed Clarke: “Do you feel any pressure to get this done?” She appeased the far left: “There is an urgency for sure. I understand the frustration that people feel as we watch states that are working to make it harder for people to vote.”
Pegues hailed: “Clarke has a reputation for not backing down from a fight.” He then spent time going through her biography.
What Pegues conveniently failed to mention was any of Clarke’s wildly controversial beliefs. During her time at Harvard, Clarke wrote this in the student newspaper, The Crimson: “Black infants sit, crawl and walk sooner than whites....Melanin endows Blacks with greater mental, physical and spiritual abilities – something which cannot be measured based on Eurocentric standards.”
In a 2020 op-ed for Newsweek, titled, “I Prosecuted Police Killings. Defund the Police—But Be Strategic,” Clarke demanded that “we must invest less in police.”
After editing out Clarke’s radicalism, Pegues wrapped up the puff piece by declaring: “Today she is the first black woman heading the Civil Rights Division, headquartered in former FBI Director Jay Edgar Hoover’s old office. From her desk, she can see Pennsylvania Avenue and Capitol Hill. But she hasn’t forgotten how she got here.”
King applauded the promotional report: “I knew very little about her. That’s really interesting to hear her story....And look where she sits today and the view from her window. Bravo.”
Fellow co-host Tony Dokoupil remarked: “She also said voting restrictions were not political, not a political issue, in her view.” King fretted: “It might not have started our political, Tony, but it sure feels very political these days.”
Far-left Democrats like Clarke, the inflammatory rhetoric coming from her boss Joe Biden, and their complicit liberal media allies are the ones making things “very political.”
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Here is a full transcript of the January 17 segment:
8:17 AM ET
GAYLE KING: As the country pauses to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., there you see his memorial in Washington, D.C., the first black woman to run the Justice Department Civil Rights Division says that voting discrimination persists today. Assistant Attorney General Kirsten Clarke is her name, talked with our Jeff Pegues in her first TV interview since taking office last year. She says that continuing Dr. King’s quest for equal access to the ballot box is one of her department’s top priorities.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Fighting Voter Discrimination; Assistant AG Clarke on the Crucial Battle to Protect Voting Rights]
JEFF PEGUES: What do you think is the state of civil rights in this country right now?
KRISTEN CLARKE: We have made a lot of progress as a nation, but we’ve still got a long way to go.
PEGUES: Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke hears the frustration of many over new state voting restrictions and says her department is using every tool at its disposal to protect voting rights. Would you say that it’s people of color who are being targeted by these laws?
CLARKE: Yes. Voting discrimination is alive and well.
PEGUES: Well, who do you think is behind this effort?
CLARKE: Well, look, I do not view this as a partisan issue.
PEGUES: You don’t?
CLARKE: I don’t. I was there at the White House when President Bush signed the last reauthorization of the bill into law. It passed in Congress in 2006 by a 98 to 0 vote in the Senate.
PEGUES: You might be the only one in this town that doesn’t see it as a partisan issue.
CLARKE: Well, I’m hopeful. I’m hopeful that we can get back to that place where we’ve been time and time again where Congress has worked in bipartisan fashion to renew the Voting Rights Act.
PEGUES: Right now the legislation is stalled in Congress. The Biden administration and Senate Democrats do not have the votes to pass their election reform measures. Within the Democratic Party, there is growing frustration that the Justice Department and the President failed to reverse Republican efforts to change state election laws with the midterm election approaching and control of Congress on the ballot. Do you feel any pressure to get this done?
CLARKE: There is an urgency for sure. I understand the frustration that people feel as we watch states that are working to make it harder for people to vote.
PEGUES: Clarke has a reputation for not backing down from a fight. She was raised in working class east New York, Brooklyn, one of New York City’s toughest neighborhoods. She says her parents, who emigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica, wanted their kids to get a good education. As a teenager, Clarke attended Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut, one of the most prestigious boarding schools in the country. Alumni include President John F. Kennedy. How did you adapt?
CLARKE: You know, I just settled right in. It was very –
PEGUES: It must not have been easy at that time.
CLARKE: No, not easy. A very different environment than east New York.
PEGUES: During her third year at Choate, she says she learned how the law could be a powerful tool for change when she sat in on a landmark desegregation case focusing on the disparities between urban and suburban schools.
CLARKE: In many ways, Choate has a lot to do with my journey to where I am today.
PEGUES: Today she is the first black woman heading the Civil Rights Division, headquartered in former FBI Director Jay Edgar Hoover’s old office. From her desk, she can see Pennsylvania Avenue and Capitol Hill. But she hasn’t forgotten how she got here.
CLARKE: I know what it’s like for families who grow up poor and who struggle, who live paycheck to paycheck. I know what that experience is like. I know what it’s like to be marginalized, sidelined, and silenced. And that personal perspective shapes who I am.
PEGUES: For CBS Mornings, Jeff Pegues, Washington.
TONY DOKOUPIL: Amazing.
KING: I knew very little about her. That’s really interesting to hear her story. I like when Jeff asked her about going to Choate, which is a predominantly white school, in Wallingford, Connecticut, she said, “I just settled right in.” She said, “I didn’t say it was easy, but I just settled right in.” And look where she sits today and the view from her window. Bravo.
DOKOUPIL: I know. She also said voting restrictions were not political, not a political issue, in her view.
KING: It might not have started our political, Tony, but it sure feels very political these days.
DOKOUPIL: Yeah.
