By Dave Workman | Editor-in-Chief
Republicans scored a rare victory in California when former Navy combat pilot and successful business executive Mike Garcia won handily over a Democrat in a special congressional election to fill a seat vacated last year by another Democrat.
But the win didn’t go by without CNN spinning its report to take a political shot at President Donald Trump.
“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 “amid controversy last year,” CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza wrote separately.
The “controversy” in question was described by One America News as a “sex scandal.”
Garcia is a first-generation citizen who graduated from Annapolis, was a decorated Navy combat pilot and entered politics only after also working in private industry. His father came to this country from Mexico.
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.”
One online publication referred to this as “gotcha reporting.”
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms 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.”
He called the election upset—Garcia won with a 12-point spread—a “warning to the gun prohibition lobby that their big bucks spending effort to fill Congress with anti-gunners is in trouble.”
Garcia and Smith will be in a rematch in November when he runs for a full term. Smith will try to dislodge him, and Democrats will likely pour lots of money into the effort.
“Smith’s campaign was supported by the gun control lobby,” Gottlieb said, “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.”
Garcia was endorsed by President Donald Trump. He told reporters, “I don’t want my country to turn into what my state has become.” Among other things, California is known for extremist gun control laws.
“Garcia won on a campaign promoting American values, including the Second Amendment,” Gottlieb 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 proves otherwise, and it’s a warning that gun control is not the winning proposition far-left Democrats think it is.”
“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.”
“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.
