On Wednesday, the Associated Press spotlighted how "CNN political commentator Sally Kohn, who has heard a lot of trash talk in her job, is working on a book about the benefits of civility." The AP didn't mention that Kohn has her dished out plenty of trash talk of her own during her time at CNN — all of which was targeted at conservatives. The left-wing pundit has likened Christian "hardliners" to ISIS and wildly predicted that a Donald Trump presidency would be like "Nazi Germany."
Earlier in June 2016, after a shooting at UCLA, Kohn underlined in a Twitter post that "prayers aren't enough to end scourge of gun violence." Over a year earlier, the commentator used another Tweet to lament the looting and riots in Baltimore at the time, but added that "FAR MORE shameful is [the] pattern of police violence against [the] black community."
Kohn has reserved much of her invective and hyperbole in recent months against Trump and his supporters. During a July 2015 segment on CNN Newroom, she contended that the billionaire is "speaking to is a part of the American public that for the last seven years has felt outraged. They talk about taking the White House back. They've said, and he retweeted this, they want the White House, capital W-H-I-T-E again."
Kohn reemphasized this point during a panel discussion on Erin Burnett's OutFront program in April 2016: "Look, people are only voting for Donald Trump, most of his supporters are only voting for him because he's a white guy. And frankly, if he were a woman or if he were, I don't know, let's pick, Latino, Muslim, any of the groups that he's stoked hatred amongst his supporters, if he were any of those, I don't think he would be getting support either."
During a March 2016 appearance on New Day, the liberal CNN pundit predicted a large Democratic turnout in the upcoming election in November 2016, with the goal of "stopping us from being Nazi Germany." She made a similarly overblown prediction three days later during live election coverage: "I'm worried. When he institutes internment camps and suspends habeas, we'll all look back and feel pretty bad."
Kohn also tried to link Trump's primary win in Indiana in early May 2016 to the large support for the Ku Klux Klan in the state during the 1920s:
SALLY KOHN: You know, I think people really need to understand the history in Indiana. Indiana was once known for being the state that had the most powerful KKK in the country. In 1924, the KKK elected the governor of Indiana. Indiana is a deeply not only socially conservative but very racially divisive and divided state. And, look, it's not going to be a surprise to see a Donald Trump landslide there, and I think it's -- this is moving the country backwards.
It should also be pointed out the supposedly "civil" Kohn sponsored a $2,000 "abortion access" bowl-a-thon back in March 2015. She revealed on the donation page for the fundraiser that "I'm bowling because I believe that everyone should have access to the abortions they need, regardless of how much money they have. Because of unfair and unnecessary laws, safe and legal abortions can be out of reach of those who don't have the money to pay for them. I don't think that's right, so I'm doing something about it."
The Wednesday article from the AP (which never disclosed the CNN commentator's left-wing political ideology) noted that Kohn's new book is "tentatively titled, 'Mean: How Being Nicer Than Average Can Save Humanity,' and that she "gave a popular TED talk in 2013 on emotional correctness that was viewed by over 1 million people." The pundit also will apparently speak to "a wide range of experts to explore an increasingly nasty culture and the thin line between hostility and 'vicious brutality.'" Perhaps, Kohn can learn a lesson from them, so will be "nicer" than her "average" to conservatives in recent months.
