CNN anchor Poppy Harlow invoked FDR’s Japanese internment camps when discussing the Georgia massage parlor shootings, insinuating the murders were due to America’s hatred of Asians even though there is no evidence it was a hate crime.
She attempted to link the World War II internment camps to the deadly shootings at three different “spas” in Atlanta. One of the problems with her premise is that there were nine victims and not all of them were Asian. Eight of those shot passed away. The ninth is in critical condition. Six of the victims were Asian, two were white, and one was Hispanic.
On Tuesday, 21-year-old Robert Long shot five women at one of the spas he entered, then traveled to two more where he killed others. Long has confessed but he claims that the motive was sex-addiction. Investigators noted that racism “did not appear to be the motive.” He has been charged with multiple counts of murder and assault.
But that did not stop Harlow from pushing the anti-Asian hate crime angle. She spoke with Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, who is the son of Chinese immigrants.
(Video Credit: Fox News)
“You’ve been a victim of hate speech like this, repeatedly, and you made a really important point recently and that’s that this country has a long history and legacy of hate and racism against Asians, just going back to the internment camps,” Harlow dramatically intoned. “And you also point to this as just being the latest round of scapegoating. It makes me wonder if you think we’ve learned much as a country.”
“Yeah, you have to wonder,” Tong agreed. “And this is a history that people don’t really know well. And that’s what it means to be an Asian-American in this country today. You’re largely invisible in the discussion about racism. People are surprised to hear about anti-Asian hate. They don’t know the legacy of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the beating death of Vincent Chin, and the internment of 125,000 Japanese American citizens in camps on American soil when we blamed them for Pearl Harbor.”
Tong added, “Yeah, it happens to me. It happens all the time. I’ve been called ‘The Manchurian AG.’ My name has been mocked. And just yesterday someone accused me of being an agent of the Chinese Communist Party. I was born in Hartford, Connecticut. But I’m the attorney general, I can take it.”
“If it happens to me, it must happen a lot to everyday people who aren’t attorneys general who don’t have the same protection and public profile that I do, and I worry about families across Connecticut and across this country,” Tong concluded.
”That’s what it means to be an Asian-American in this country today — largely invisible in the discussion about racism.” — Connecticut Attorney General @AGWilliamTong to me following 8 murders in Georgia. pic.twitter.com/fWDQWT6zcx
— Poppy Harlow (@PoppyHarlowCNN) March 18, 2021
Even leftist HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher is questioning the slant that the Atlanta shootings were a hate crime. He quoted FBI Director Christopher Wray, who stated that “it does not appear” that the murders were racially motivated. Maher compared Wray’s remarks to those of Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-WA) who dismissed the idea that the shooting was the result of “economic anxiety or sexual addiction.”
“But what if it is that?” Maher wondered. “Everything I read about this guy, Robert Aaron Long, conservative Baptist, he’s an albino assassin. He’s flagellating himself because he feels bad about sex, ‘sexual urges, shouldn’t be doing this, porn addiction, massage parlors, seeks treatment for sexual addition.’ The roommate said, ‘Whenever we’d talk about visiting massage parlors, it was in the context of God and his parents.'”
“Wouldn’t the roommate know that it was about race?” Maher posited. “Maybe we’ll find out something that’s not there, but it seems like people insist, ‘No, this is what I thought it was and I’m just going to insist.'”
Maher later concluded in his segment, “Is it that hard to keep two thoughts in our mind at the same time, that this epidemic of violence against Asians is horrible and we have to do something about it and this probably isn’t part of it! It’s just something else!”
What Maher did not do was raise the issue of a Democratic president’s Japanese internment camps to somehow insinuate racial hatred and anti-Asian sentiment by Americans like CNN’s Poppy Harlow inexplicably did.
DePauw University professor and media critic Jeffrey McCall stated: “The news industry should be very careful to measure its coverage of the tragic Atlanta shootings and not impose simple explanations for what could well be a highly complex situation. The investigation needs to run its course and no good can come from media pundits outkicking their coverage, so to speak, with speculation or premature conclusions in any direction.”
Fox News contributor Leo Terrell also slammed Democrats for spinning the tragic murders as racially motivated acts: “Democratic politicians have not a single fact to justify a hate crime argument, they were not in that detective room, there was not a single shred of evidence coming from this assailant, this nut, who talked about hating someone based on race,” Terrell declared. “He’s a sex addict but that doesn’t stop the Democrats. That doesn’t stop all these pundits, and the Democrats are playing this race card that does not exist, trying to throw President Trump under the bus.”
DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW
Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!
- Walmart begins nixing self-checkouts and returning to ‘traditional’ lanes – here’s why - April 24, 2024
- ‘A real failure’: DeSantis slams Johnson, GOP House, says they ‘capitulated entirely on the border’ - April 24, 2024
- ‘Keep the John Boltons of the world outside’: Don Jr., Eric Trump take charge of transition team - April 24, 2024
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
BPR INSIDER COMMENTS
Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!
