If you’re single or your Valentine’s Day plans were foiled by bad weather or blue-state lockdowns and you found yourself at home watching CNN on Sunday, then you likely witnessed Brian Stelter’s extremely obnoxious interview with freshman Representative Sara Jacobs (D-CA). Luckily for you, Valentine’s Day falls on a Monday next year.
The Reliable Sources host interviewed Jacobs primarily to get her reaction to President Trump’s recent acquittal in the Senate over the Capitol riot. Stelter introduced Jacobs by unreservedly gushing over the fact that she is new to Congress and had studied radical extremism abroad. "Before running for office, she studied ways to prevent and counter violent extremism overseas. That was during the Obama years."
He didn't say she was an appointee in Obama's State Department. Later, he said she was working "with the State Department," but you could be a contractor and do that.
Stelter’s praise-filled introduction, of course, neglected to mention the fact that Jacobs is the granddaughter of Irwin Jacobs, the billionaire founder of Qualcomm. It is estimated that Jacobs’ grandfather’s wife contributed $1.5 million dollars to a political action committee supporting Jacobs in California’s 53rd Congressional District. Stelter could have conducted a nonpartisan and, quite frankly, an important interview regarding campaign financing or the role of money in politics. Instead, he continued to obsess over the Trump administration and inexorably demand drastic measures to counter "extremism" among conservatives.
During the awkward interview, Stelter asked Jacobs to expound upon her recent call for a “truth commission” in an interview with 19th News. He worried about "a whitelash -- a white, Christian America reaction backlash to a changing country, personified by Trump." Alluding to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission assembled in South Africa subsequent to the end of apartheid, Jacobs happily explained why she believed such a commission is essential for America:
JACOBS: So, I think a part of what we’re seeing, now is because we haven't really done the reckoning with the racial injustice and white supremacy of our past that we need to do. And so, you know, a truth commission, a lot of people will think of South Africa. We have used them in countries around the world. Basically what it is is it's communities, all the way up to the national level, having conversations about both the gory and the glory of our history and what happened both throughout the history of our country and leading up to and on January 6th, so that we can come to a common narrative, moving forward of what we want our country to be.
What’s that “common narrative,” you ask? It’s, of course, the left’s narrative that all conservatives—especially those who voted for Donald Trump—are conspiratorial, racist, bigots who threaten the very stability of America’s democracy.
To further belabor the, ostensible, need for a truth commission, the chyron (which Stelter has admitted to often writing himself) for much of the segment read: REP. JACOBS: I THINK WE NEED A TRUTH COMMISSION.
Instead of questioning or pushing back against the overwrought idea that the United States requires a truth and reconciliation commission at all—much less tantamount to one in South Africa, Stelter concluded his interview by asking Jacobs whether or not she thought Congressional leaders “have the stomach for” for such a commission.
“I think so,” she said before going on to promulgate for further criminal proceedings for the former president and his supporters: " I think that there are a lot of us who know that this impeachment trial was just the start of holding Donald Trump accountable." Like they've only just begun to oppose Trump?
Stelter’s softball interview with a congresswoman who would like to see conservatives essentially reeducated was sponsored, in part, by Jaguar. You can contact this advertiser, and others, via the Conservatives Fight Back page, conveniently linked here.
Click "Expand" to read the entire February 14 transcript:
Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter
11:06 AM
02/14/21
BRIAN STELTER: You know, you wrote a letter to Speaker Pelosi about this subject. You said there’s a media system in place for conflict entrepreneurs. Can you help us understand that term: conflict entrepreneurs?
SARA JACOBS [REPRESENTATIVE FROM CALIFORNIA]: Yes. So lots of countries, lots of places have ideologies that are extreme, people who believe ideologies that are extreme, have conflict, have disagreements within their community. But there are only some areas where that actually turns into violence and that's the role of conflict entrepreneurs—or, in other words, leaders. Um, so, basically, leaders take existing fault lines in society, in our case white supremacy and racial injustice, and mobilize around them using the enabling environment of our media ecosystem and our lack of trust and decreasing trust in our institutions.
STELTER: So in the case of the United States, it is about a whitelash—about a white, Christian America reaction backlash to a changing country, personified by Trump. But, I guess, the point I’m trying to make is and I think you’re trying to make is none of this is going away now, even though the trial is over and even though one phase of Trumpism is over. You also said in an interview with the 19th News website this week that the country needs a “truth commission.” What exactly would a truth commission be?
JACOBS: So, I think a part of what we’re seeing, now is because we haven't really done the reckoning with the racial injustice and white supremacy of our past that we need to do. And so, you know, a truth commission, a lot of people will think of South Africa. We have used them in countries around the world. Basically what it is is it's communities, all the way up to the national level, having conversations about both the gory and the glory of our history and what happened both throughout the history of our country and leading up to and on January 6th, so that we can come to a common narrative, moving forward of what we want our country to be.
STELTER: Do you think the House and Senate leadership have the stomach for that?
JACOBS: I think so. Look, we all were victims of this attack in addition to being the lawmakers this country, and I know for a lot of this, this is very personal. We have had threats to our lives, threats to our homes and our families. And so, I think that there are a lot of us who know that this impeachment trial was just the start of holding Donald Trump accountable, but that we need to make sure that we're doing accountability of anyone who incited, encouraged, or committed acts of violence, and then really looking forward at kinds of things like truth commissions, like democracy, like institution building that we know are going to be the real fixes to what we have seen in this country.
STELTER: Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining me.
JACOBS: Of course! Happy to be here with you.
