Apparently not content to allow the GOP and Donald Trump a moment to celebrate, CNN’s headline to a story about Republican Mike Garcia’s victory in California—taking a Democrat-held seat for the first time in more than two decades—found a way to be negative against the president.
A leading national gun rights organization describes Garcia’s win as a signal to Democrats their gun control platform is beginning to collapse.
“Republican victory in California special election undercuts Trump’s unfounded claims about mail-in voting” is how CNN chose to report Garcia’s capture of the seat from Democrat opponent Christy Smith. They were racing to fill the seat vacated by former Congresswoman Katie Hill, who resigned last year “amid controversy last year,” CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza wrote separately.
Cillizza did report the fact that the suburban 25th District supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 7 points.
In Wisconsin, Republican Tom Tiffany won in Wisconsin’s 7th District by a comfortable 15-point margin, according to CBS News, which did not appear to have scrambled to make the story negative about Trump.
CNN’s beef was about the president’s opposition to mail-in ballots. His objection is based on his belief that mail-in ballots are “subject to tremendous corruption.” Many people believe voting by mail is extremely vulnerable to vote fraud.
But CNN couldn’t resist, reporting, “As President Donald Trump held forth in the Cabinet Room on Wednesday railing against voting by mail, the Republican candidate in a hotly contested special election in California was being declared the winner after voting was conducted almost entirely by mail.”
With such “Gotcha” reporting, many believe the president is right when he describes the news as “fake.”
But there is nothing “fake” about the reaction of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms to Garcia’s victory. CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb was blunt, stating, “There is a message in Mike Garcia’s victory. You can be a conservative, pro-Second Amendment candidate and win in California, a state dominated politically by anti-gun Democrats, in the legislature and governor’s office in Sacramento, and within the delegation to Capitol Hill.”
Garcia is a first-generation citizen, graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, a decorated combat Navy pilot and has been successful in the private sector. He had the president’s support.
“Smith’s campaign was supported by the gun control lobby,” he added, “but dollars don’t vote, people do. And people are getting tired of far-left politics that trample on fundamental rights, especially the Second Amendment.”
Gottlieb used the opportunity of Garcia’s win to take on Democrat politics.
“Evidently,” he contended, “the gun control crowd learned nothing from Michael Bloomberg’s disastrous presidential campaign, which revolved around his extremist gun control agenda. He spent more than $300 million and finished last, and that was among Democrat primary voters, nobody else. Now Bloomberg’s Everytown is planning to spend $60 million to flip Congress and state legislatures this fall, electing more anti-gunners.
“Garcia won on a campaign promoting American values, including the Second Amendment,” the gun rights leader said. “Those ideals seem foreign to the gun ban bunch, which thinks the constitution is for sale to people with the most money. Garcia’s victory this week proves otherwise, and it’s a warning that gun control is not the winning proposition far-left Democrats think it is.”
Gottlieb also took advantage of the fact that Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home district is in San Francisco.
“Garcia’s victory is also a message to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, that her party’s gun grabbing agenda could cost them the House this fall,” Gottlieb said. “She couldn’t even protect a Democrat seat in her own state, which should raise alarms with vulnerable Democrats in other districts all over the country.
“And Joe Biden should also be worried,” he suggested, “because his anti-gun-rights agenda is not going to play well in the critical battleground states, where voters are tired of being attacked by politicians like Biden who want to take away their rights.”
Democrat Smith expressed confidence she will win the seat from Garcia in this fall’s general election.
