by Eric Lendrum
A far-left group funded by radical billionaire George Soros submitted a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) calling for Republicans to be murdered, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
The group in question is Free Press, which is funded by Soros’s Open Society Foundation, as well as the Center for American Progress, the Tides Foundation, and other far-left organizations. Free Press, whose stated goal is to “reshape media” in the United States, submitted a letter signed by almost 5,000 of its members baselessly accusing the FCC of systemic racism.
Free Press’s letter called for the FCC to “investigate its own history of racism and examine how its policy choices and actions have harmed black people and other communities of color.” But at one point in the letter, the following question was asked: “Are we going to have to shoot Republicans to reclaim our democracy?”
The violent threat was made by a California member named David Lyons, who went on to make even more inflammatory statements as well as false claims, asserting without proof that “racist horsesh** like FOX and the other ultraconservative outlets and Christians” currently own “most of our media.”
The FCC announced that they dismissed the letter immediately upon reading the portion containing Lyons’ threat. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr gave a statement announcing that “the only action the FCC should take on a request like this – one based on a comment asking whether Republicans should be shot – is to dismiss it with prejudice. The FCC should not endorse this type of call for violence by opening an FCC proceeding on it.”
Following the failure of its effort, Free Press issued a statement saying that the group “deeply regrets that this incident occurred,” and claiming that they would “take measures in the future to closely review public comments to ensure that this never happens again.”
However, this is not the first time members of Free Press have called for violence. The group’s CEO, Jessica Gonzalez, wrote in 2018 that “if ‘civility demands we STFU and politely welcome White supremacists from this [Trump] Administration who are committing atrocities and violence against our communities, then F**K civility. You will not distract us with this bullsh**.” Gonzalez has also claimed, with no evidence, that the holiday of Thanksgiving is a legitimization of an alleged “genocide” carried out against Native Americans.
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Eric Lendrum graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was the Secretary of the College Republicans and the founding chairman of the school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter. He has interned for Young America’s Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, and the White House, and has worked for numerous campaigns including the 2018 re-election of Congressman Devin Nunes (CA-22). He is currently a co-host of The Right Take podcast.
Photo “George Soros” by Niccolò Caranti. CC BY-SA 3.0. Background Photo “FCC HQ” by Ser Amantio di Nicolao. CC BY 3.0.
