On Sunday, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) whether or not it is acceptable to harass Republican officials in restaurants or in their own homes. Hirono defended the sentiment behind such harassment, and, when pressed about it, cried “white supremacy!” to avoid condemning rabid protesters.
“Republicans, what they are saying, is that Democratic protesters are ‘an angry mob,'” Bash began. At these words, Hirono audibly chuckled — suggesting her sympathy for the mob and her dismissal of concerns involving political harassment and violence.
“What I want to ask you about, it is one thing to protest at the Supreme Court, to do it at the Capitol,” Bash continued. “That’s been done for generations and frankly since the founding of this country. It’s another thing to run senators out of restaurants, go to their homes. Is that going too far?”
All Mazie Hirono needed to say is, “Yes.” She could have expressed sympathy for the anger of the mob without endorsing political harassment and violence. Instead, she dodged the question, defending what has in fact become a mob.
“I think that it just means that there are a lot of people who are very, very much motivated about what is going on,” the senator said. “Because what happened with Judge Kavanaugh is, from the very beginning, this is not a fair process. What the Republicans did was to telegraph — after Dr. [Christine Blasey] Ford’s account came forward, what they telegraphed was: one, Dr. Ford, we don’t want to hear from you; two, if we have to hear from you, we’re gonna rig the hearing…”
At this point, Bash cut Hirono off, because she wanted an answer to the original question. “Should they be going after people at restaurants?”
That’s when Hirono cried “white supremacy!” just as many would cry “wolf!”
“Well, this is what happens, because when you look at white supremacists and all that, this is what’s coming forth in our country, there’s a tremendous divisiveness in our country,” Hirono said. “But this is the kind of activism that occurs and people make their own decisions. If they violate the law, then they have to account for that.”
In other words, Hirono “telegraphed” that it is acceptable for protesters to harass Republican officials in restaurants or even in their own homes, because the real outrage is how Republicans handled the Kavanaugh confirmation, and the other real outrage is the existence of white supremacy.
White nationalists, the alt-right, “Unite the Right,” and other groups that evoke the specter of white supremacy are indeed horrific, and Republicans condemn them. Hirono resorted to crying white supremacy because she had no other argument. White supremacists are — mercifully — a very small group with an extremely limited impact on politics.
As for Kavanaugh, Hirono was exactly right that his confirmation “was not a fair process.” She can thank herself and her fellow Democrats for that. During the original Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Hirono went after Kavanaugh in a series of questions that amounted to a witch hunt — long before any sexual assault allegations became public. She spread monstrous lies that have enabled unions and abortion activist groups to prey upon workers and pro-life pregnancy centers.
Then, when Christine Blasey Ford’s accusations became public — in a political ploy that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) orchestrated for maximum effect to smear Kavanaugh while dishonoring Ford by refusing to act on her allegations when she could have done so privately — Hirono began a chorus of Democratic voices declaring that Kavanaugh did not deserve the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Finally, the harassment of public figures is no laughing matter. After Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) called on liberal protesters to harass members of the Trump administration wherever they see them, protesters targeted Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen at her home. As the Supreme Court confirmation battle for Judge Brett Kavanaugh picked up steam, insults and threats were directed at Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). Protesters yelled Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) out of a Washington, D.C. restaurant. Two women trapped Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) in an elevator, yelling at him that his support for Kavanaugh told all women that they “don’t matter.” One of those women leads a liberal group funded by George Soros.
On Sunday, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) revealed that his wife received a text message showing a beheading, in the latest personal attack on the families of Republican officials.
Last week, Kelley Paul, the wife of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), wrote a powerful letter to Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), calling on Booker to renounce Democratic calls to harass Republicans in private settings.
“In the last 18 months, our family has experienced violence and threats of violence at a horrifying level,” Kelley Paul explained. “I will never forget the morning of the shooting at the congressional baseball practice, the pure relief and gratitude that flooded me when I realized that Rand was okay.”
Sen. Paul was caught up in the shooting that threatened the life of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.). Mere months after this tragic shooting, Paul faced more violence. As his wife recalled, “He was not okay last November, when a violent and unstable man attacked him from behind while he was working in our yard, breaking six ribs and leaving him with lung damage and multiple bouts of pneumonia.”
Democrats mocked Paul, as his wife recalled. “Kentucky’s secretary of state, Alison Lundergan Grimes, recently joked about it in a speech. MSNBC commentator Kasie Hunt laughingly said on air that Rand’s assault was one of her ‘favorite stories.’ Cher, Bette Midler, and others have lauded his attacker on Twitter.”
Despite all this ugliness, Kelley Paul wrote, “I hope that these women never have to watch someone they love struggle to move or even breathe for months on end.”
When Hirono chuckled at complaints about “mob violence,” she was belittling Kirstjen Nielsen, Kelley Paul, Ted Cruz’s wife Heidi, Cory Gardner’s wife Jaime, and so many others. She may sympathize with protesters’ complaints, but she does not have to defend the harassment or laugh off concerns about “mob rule.”
Hirono should apologize for these disgusting remarks.
Watch the interview below.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member