Searches at the Associated Press's main national site and at the New York Times indicate that the last newsworthy thing new Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez did was to demand, i.e., not "ask for," as the AP sanitized it, "resignation letters from all DNC (Democratic National Committee) staffers." This means that neither outlet considers Perez's repeated profanity-laced rants last week that Donald Trump "didn’t win this election” newsworthy.
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As Sam Dorman at the Washington Free Beacon reported:
DNC Chair: Republicans ‘Don’t Give a S*** About People’
Newly elected Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez said Friday that Republicans "don't give a sh*t about people," arguing their plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act does not reflect American values.
Perez gave a fiery speech to gain Democratic support at the We Build the Resistance Rally in Newark, New Jersey, hosted by the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, where he denounced President Donald Trump's efforts to repeal Obamacare.
... Perez also touted the Women's March on Washington, D.C. that took place the day after Trump's inauguration, appearing to validate claims he heard from the event that Trump did not win the 2016 presidential election.
"January 20th was undeniably an important day in this country, but January 21st was far more important," Perez said in an apparent reference to Trump's inauguration and the Women's March.
"'Donald Trump, you don't stand for our values.' That's what they said. ‘Donald Trump, you didn't win this election,'" Perez said in an effort to reiterate the protesters' messages.
Here are short videos of Perez's rant, first the "don't give a sh*t line," followed by the "you didn't win" delusion:
A more comprehensive news search indicates how nearly complete the establishment press's disinterest in relaying Perez's comments have been.
A Google News search done at 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time on "Perez Trump election" (not in quotes, past week, sorted by date, returned just roughly 60 relevant items. Only four were from establishment press sources.
NJTV online, the website of the state's public TV outlet, was on hand when Perez spoke. It did not report the Perez's speech comments. In a one-on-one interview, Perez did repeat his "January 21 was more important than January 20" nonsense, but didn't say anything about Trump not winning the election he really won.
Two other results which were duplicates linked to a story at NBC about how Perez wouldn't back away from what he said on Tuesday's Morning Joe show. Note that this appearance appears not to be news anywhere else.
A report at Philly.com at least carried a mention that Perez "said Trump 'didn’t win' the election." But it was in Paragraph 15 of a 25-paragraph report. That same paragraph contained a profanity-cleansed reference to how Perez claimed, in the reporter's words, that "Republicans don't care about people." (To be fair, the report did link to the first of the two YouTube videos seen above.)
The only genuine establishment press story addressing Perez's radical, profane tone came from Dave Weigel at the Washington Post's "The Fix" blog. Weigel reported that Perez's descent into profanity-laced rhetoric has become habitual, and deliberate:
Tom Perez won’t apologize for insulting Trump and GOP leaders. Here’s why.
... Perez did not apologize. On Saturday, in Texas, he said exactly the same thing. In an email, Perez spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa explained that the DNC chair was not going to stop belittling Trump’s victory.
“Tom has not only pointed out that the Russians interfered in this election to help Donald Trump get elected, but Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 3 million people,” Hinojosa said. “Since before Trump stepped foot in the Oval Office, his divisive and destructive views had already been rejected by a vast majority of the American people.”
Perez’s speeches, which made news on conservative websites all weekend, reflected the tonal shift — perhaps a permanent one — that Democrats have undergone since their 2016 defeat. Covering Perez’s campaign for DNC chair, I saw firsthand how the affable former labor secretary grew more and more aggressive in the ways he mocked and decried the Trump administration.
That sometimes involved four-letter words. At a speech in Detroit, Perez said Trump graduated from “Makin’ S--- Up University,” and at several live-streamed candidate forums, he described the administration’s executive orders on labor rules as “bulls---t.” The New Jersey and Texas speeches were the latest in a string of fiery Perez open mics; they were just the first to cross the radar of conservative media.
... (after losing in November.) progressives stopped caring about the tone of politics. They felt that Clinton, by failing to strip the bark off Trump’s record and policies, had blown an advantage with voters who saw her as more qualified to be president. In the moment, Michelle Obama’s saying that “when they go low, we go high” mirrored what progressives felt about the campaign. As soon as Clinton lost, it felt like a giant strategic error.
Concerning Perez spokesperson Hinojosa's "rejected by the vast majority" claim, it's not a "vast majority" by any reasonable definition. As to the "well, it's still a majority" argument, we must remember that Hillary Clinton, at 48.2 percent, also did not win a majority of the popular vote, and was thus also "rejected by a majority."
Readers at NewsBusters have seen various members of the media say the very same things Perez said — sometimes even with the same or greater level of profanity. So why aren't they gleefully relaying his statements (Weigel being the not-gleeful exception)?
The answer is that they realize they need to convince the nation that the Democratic Party, even though it is now in its most collectively unhinged state ever — and yes, that includes 1972 — is really a group of very reasonable people, and that it's Republicans and conservatives who are "hard-line," "far-right" and "uncompromising" — along with racists, bigots, homophobes, blah-blah-blah.
If Weigel's take is correct, Perez's and other Democrats' overheated rhetoric and the profanity won't stop. If so, neither will the establishment press's determination to keep that reality away from low-information voters.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
