Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
On Friday's New Day show, CNN co-host Alisyn Camerota put on display how reflexively liberals can be about blaming anything on racism even when there is a more obvious explanation. Speaking with Dallas County district attorney John Creuzot about President Donald Trump's Thursday panel discussion on race, the CNN host actually asked him if he believed he and other local law enforcement officials were excluded because they are black.
It seemed to go completely over her head that the three officeholders in question were either elected as Democrats or appointed by Democrats. And, what makes her suggestion even more ridiculous is that most of the panel members who took part were black.
Camerota could have easily discovered details on the panel members by either reading up on the roundtable or by taking a look at the video which had been live-streamed and posted on Thursday.
The CNN host cynically set up the segment:
[video:https://www.mrctv.org/node/550918 align:center]
ALISYN CAMEROTA: President Trump went to Dallas yesterday to attempt a conversation on race and policing reportedly, but missing from the discussion were the three top law enforcement officials of the county -- Dallas police chief Renee Hall, Sheriff Marian Brown, and my next guest, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot. And District Attorney Creuzot joins us now.
She then began by asking: "Why weren't you and the police chief and the sheriff invited to this roundtable?"
After Creuzot simply claimed not to know why he was not invited even though his Democratic partisan affiliation should make the reason obvious, Camerota then pounced on race as she followed up: "Do you think it has anything to do with the three of you being black?"
Creuzot again claimed not to know why they would be excluded as he recalled that two of them had been elected and one appointed by the city council, but neither he nor host Camerota divulged the relevant information of their political affiliations.
Camerota then gave him an unchallenged forum to argue in favor of engaging in less prosecution of some criminal offenses.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Friday, June 12, New Day on CNN:
8:27 a.m. Eastern
ALISYN CAMEROTA: President Trump went to Dallas yesterday to attempt a conversation on race and policing reportedly, but missing from the discussion were the three top law enforcement officials of the county -- Dallas police chief Renee Hall, Sheriff Marian Brown, and my next guest, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot. And District Attorney Creuzot joins us now. … Why weren't you and the police chief and the sheriff invited to this roundtable?
DISTRICT ATTORNEY JOHN CREUZOT, DALLAS COUNTY: Well, I don't know. You'd certainly have to ask the President or his advisors as to why you would come to one of the largest metropolitan areas with the problems that we have systemic problems in policing not only here but across the state and across this great country and then leave out the leaders and don't hear from them. That's unexplainable to me.
CAMEROTA: Do you -- do you think it has anything to do with the three of you being black?
CREUZOT: I would hope not, but I don't know. I mean, the sheriff and I are both elected across the county -- and this is a vast county of more than two million people -- and the sheriff -- I mean, the police chief is appointed by the city council and the city manager of the city of Dallas, so I don't know why we were left out.
CAMEROTA: So if it was a conversation about policing and reform, who was there? And what message do you think the President received?
CREUZOT; Well, one of our suburbs with a population of somewhere between 11,000 and 13,000 people, that police chief was there. He's very young, very intelligent, very nice man, and understands police reform, but I don't know that the conversation went in that direction. If he wanted to talk about race and policing and disparate policing, I would be the person to talk about because that is the platform that I ran on. I've implemented policies to reduce disparity in arrests -- at least the implications of the criminal courthouse, and I've kept the numbers -- I know what they are -- I know what policing looks like across this county -- and if he wanted to have a serious discussion, certainly I should have been there to have that discussion.
CAMEROTA: What would you have told him?
CREUZOT: Well, I would have explained to him that we have two policing systems in Dallas County -- one for people of color and one for everyone else -- I could have given him examples -- real-life examples of how individuals of color are arrested and detained and sometimes booked into jail for minor offenses that the Anglo community is hardly ever, if at all, arrested for and prosecuted.
And I would explain to him why I have prosecution policies to not prosecute the poor -- not prosecute the mentally ill and the homeless -- and not prosecute first-time misdemeanor marijuana cases because those are all the areas where people of color are targeted and become a person with a criminal record, and this is keeping our young people from getting jobs -- from completing school -- having an impact on their families. So if he really wanted to understand what the disparate impact of criminal justice is having on people of color, it seems that I would have been there, and I certainly would have shared that with him had I been asked.
. Ryan Foley
