It’s the constitutional duty of the Census Bureau to track the population growth and shifts between the states and appropriate House seats accordingly, which feeds into the Electoral College calculation (House seats plus Senate seats). But according to the suggestions of CNN Prime Time host Chris “Fredo” Cuomo and fellow CNN host Michael Smerconish, the bureau exclusively helps Republicans and increases their disproportionate representation in U.S. politics.
With an on-screen headline that dubiously read “Census Shifts 3 House Seats from States Biden Won,” Fredo came back from a commercial break projecting a suspicious tone.
“Did you hear about the Census Bureau and what the census is going to do? It's going to shift some of the seats this Congress. It’s going to make a difference, especially for the left. The House is about to get real skinny real fast,” he warned his viewers.
Flaunting his meager grasp of the subject matter, Fredo began suggesting the Census Bureau was taking away blue “states” from President Biden and the Democrats:
Of course, as you know, the Census Bureau uses its data to decide how many seats each state gets in the House of Representatives and their electors for the Electoral College. Biden, Democrat states or the states that he won, they’re going to lose three states. Given that Democrats only have a 6-vote majority in the House, three states – three seats could matter. Right?
After introducing Smerconish, the pair went on a tangent about January 6 and scoffed at Republican support for police reform (ignoring South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott’s bill). Cuomo tried to gaslight folks by suggesting Republicans had more seats than they deserved as if we lived under a proportional representation system like in the U.K.
“That you have 50-50 in the Senate and your skinny margin in the House, but Republicans represent a fraction of the people that the Democrats do, so the national polls are relevant,” Fredo griped.
But that was another lie. As prescribed by the Constitution, each congressional district had the same amount of people living in it. And if a state’s population meet that amount or didn’t have enough for two, they still have one representative. And the Senate was never meant to be a body elected by the population directly and was meant to allow for equal representation to every state.
For his part, Smerconish argued that just because red states were picking up seats, it didn’t automatically mean they were going to Republicans; citing different demographics. But he built on his premise by suggesting the way Republicans would get those seats was through Gerrymandering:
We presume that if there’s a shift toward the south, in particular, it's to the benefit of Republicans. Nothing says that the seat that gets added in certain of those states is necessarily going to be a Republican state. Not if they do it fairly.
Of course, this was gone without evidence and pushed the false notion that Democrats weren’t ever guilty of the same.
Failing civics. This is CNN.
Chris Cuomo’s perversion of basic civics was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Life Alert and Sandals Hotels & Resorts. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they fund.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time
April 26, 2021
9:33:32 p.m. EasternCHRIS CUOMO: And first, did you hear about the Census Bureau and what the census is going to do? It's going to shift some of the seats this Congress. It’s going to make a difference, especially for the left. The House is about to get real skinny real fast.
Of course, as you know, the Census Bureau uses its data to decide how many seats each state gets in the House of Representatives and their electors for the Electoral College. Biden, Democrat states or the states that he won, they’re going to lose three states. Given that Democrats only have a 6-vote majority in the House, three states – three seats could matter. Right?
Few people know what is at stake better than my next guest Michael Smerconish. Smerc, always good to see you. I want to start with micro, then we’ll go to macro about the census.
McCarthy is moving farther and farther away from the reality of where he was and what he said about January 6, and I think it's instructive.
(…)
9:36:08 p.m. Eastern
CUOMO: But as you've explained so brilliantly here and on your radio show and your TV show, the representation in Congress does not reflect the population of this country. That you have 50-50 in the Senate and your skinny margin in the House, but Republicans represent a fraction of the people that the Democrats do, so the national polls are relevant. Do they want the George Floyd act if they want the base?
MICHAEL SMERCONISH: Well, can I tie this in to the census? Because I'm wondering if maybe the lead is being buried, right? The headline tonight is one of “shift toward the south.” The south tends to be red. The takeaway seems to be this is to the benefit of the Republican Party. But when we get the demographic information as to what populations are growing, my hunch is that you're going to see growth among folks who are black, Latino, and young.
So maybe in the short term there is an advantage for Republicans, but in the longer term, that demographic shift, there will be more folks in the south than there will be in the rust belt, but they tend to be Democratic voters. Where this heads in the long term, I think, is much different than where it goes in the short term.
(…)
CUOMO: It's interesting, you're talking about the states. California and New York are losing seats. That is not a surprising phenomenon to me. Those are expensive states. People are moving away from them. But Colorado, Oregon, Montana, North Carolina, Florida all picking up seats. Is that what you mean by who is it, though?
SMERCONISH: Right. They're growing because of what population within those states. We presume that if there’s a shift toward the south, in particular, it's to the benefit of Republicans. Nothing says that the seat that gets added in certain of those states is necessarily going to be a Republican state. Not if they do it fairly.
Cook Political Report, and I trust their judgment, David Wasserman et al say that the pen will be in the hands of 187 who control Republican districts, 75 whom control Democratic districts, and the rest will be some type of commission.
One other observation, if I can quickly make this. Like you I'm very much attuned to the issue of gerrymandering. I think it's a very serious problem. But don't overlook Bill Bishop and the big sort and the idea that people are choosing to live among the like-minded. The number of blow-out counties continues to grow, and we don't redraw the boundary line on counties every 10 years. There’s something else in the water here. It's not just the way we’re characterizing congressional districts.
(…)
