Recently, we told you about how Richmond's NBC station and the Richmond Times-Dispatch highlighted tiny protests of Republican congressman Dave Brat's office over the separation of illegal immigrants from children at the border. At the very end of the Times-Dispatch story was this: "Brat also introduced legislation related to asylum seekers that would keep families together." That proposal was unveiled on June 22.
On Monday, Brat's office contacted the Richmond paper to tell them they could have an exclusive: Brat's legislation, H.R. 6195 was endorsed by Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee:
“Rep. Brat’s bill doubles the number of immigration judges, which is greatly needed. The legislation also enables immigrant families to stay together during their immigration proceedings. This codifies the Administration’s proposed policy to keep families united while immigration laws are enforced. Congressman Brat’s efforts on immigration issues are much appreciated.”
The paper apparently wasn't interested in Republican developments, and hasn't mentioned the endorsement. Yawn.
But they have found it newsworthy to run long stories on the leftists protesting his office, working to get him replaced with a Democrat. This might explain why the leftists protested after Brat's bill on immigration policy was introduced. They weren't interested, and neither apparently is the Times-Dispatch.
On July 6, the paper's politics columnist Jeff Schapiro suggested with some swagger that it's highly possible that liberal Sen. Tim Kaine's "coattails" in his Senate race could endanger Brat:
In contrast, all of the Democratic House challengers can't get close enough to freshman Sen. Tim Kaine, America's Dad as the 2016 vice presidential nominee. And for good reason.
Kaine is heavily favored for re-election, according to early polls, buoyed by enduring hostility for Trump in blue-trending Virginia.
Tim Kaine, the candidate who led Hillary Clinton to victory? Schapiro was more overt in February:
That Kaine could win Chesterfield [County] with a majority well into five figures — the last Democratic Senate candidate to do so, Mark Warner, crushed Jim Gilmore there by about 30,000 votes in 2008 — suggests Kaine could have coattails long enough to help defeat Brat.
Is this newspaper publishing news events, or just Democratic wishful thinking in the guise of news? Brat won his district in 2016 by 16 points.
