Jessica Chasmar at Fox News reported that Axios reporter Jonathan Swan grilled Rep. Rashida Tlaib for her support for the BREATHE Act, which calls for the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services to create a "roadmap for prison abolition," including the "full decarceration of federal detention facilities within 10 years" and "a moratorium on all new federal prison, jail, immigrant and youth detention construction."
Swan was broadly celebrated in the liberal media for grilling President Trump. What about this time?
Our Nexis search of "Axios" and "Rashida Tlaib" found that Fox News seemed to be the only outlet that noticed. This time, the only national newspaper noticing this interview was...the New York Post.
There's no incentive in "mainstream media" for grilling radicals of "The Squad."
One caveat: Not all transcripts appear in Nexis. Swan discussed Tlaib's filibuster answers on Tuesday's Morning Joe.
This is quite an interview. Killing the Filibuster then this … https://t.co/gnsze33LKm
— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) November 22, 2021
"To what extent have you wrestled with releasing any potential downsides of releasing into society every single person who currently in a federal prison?" Swan asked the congresswoman.
"Yeah, I think that everyone's like, ‘Oh my God, we're going to just release everybody,’" Tlaib said. "That’s not what I’m—"
"That’s what the act says," Swan fired back.
"Yeah, but did you see how many people are mentally ill that are in prison right now," Tlaib argued.
"No, I know," Swan said. "But the act you endorsed actually says release everyone in 10 years. … There are like, human traffickers, child sex [predators]. Do you mean that you don’t actually support that? Because you endorsed the bill."
It's interesting that Swan appeared on Sunday's This Week on ABC, one day before this interview was aired on HBO. He mentioned his Tlaib interview, but nothing about this section of it! The questions continued:
"What I’m trying to understand is, your proposal is so sweeping," Swan said. "It does release everyone."
"Oh, yeah, within 10 years," Tlaib responded. "Obviously there’s a process of looking at how we can get away from mass incarceration and move toward care first."
"Do you believe that there are still categories of people who should be behind bars?" Swan asked.
"There are absolutely," Tlaib answered. "I don't think there's any rehabilitation happening right now for those that might actually have … mental health issues."
"Do you think all people can be rehabilitated?" Swan asked.
"I don’t think so. I’ve been very clear about that," Tlaib replied.
"I would have to look at every case individually and figure all of that out," she added later. "Everyone in jail is not the same."
Just like the Democrats, the media want to focus on the angriest conservative Republicans, and ignore the leftist radicals, unless they can paint them as sympathetic victims. For example, the Associated Press didn't write up the Tlaib interview, but it did report on Rep. Lauren Boebert apologizing to Rep. Ilhan Omar.
