Steve Cohen Archives - Page 3 of 3 - Tennessee Star

Electrolux of Memphis, which Took More Than $100 Million in Corporate Welfare, Calls it Quits

February 1, 2019January 31, 2019 Chris Butler

Electrolux officials announced Thursday they are shutting down their Memphis plant sometime next year, even though they took more than $100 million in corporate welfare from the city, county, and state governments eight years ago. The Memphis Electrolux plant employs about 530 people, all of whom will likely lose their jobs when the plant closes, according to The Memphis Commercial Appeal. In a press release, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, said the “Swedish appliance maker failed to live up to its job-creation promise.” “I’m very disappointed that the employees of Electrolux learned today that Memphis’ economic development investment in one company’s future apparently won’t pay off,” Cohen said. “The company’s abandonment of Memphis will mean potential financial hardship for its employees and suppliers, and should result in more careful review of promises made by corporations about local job creation in the future.” Electrolux officials plan to consolidate all U.S. cooking manufacturing into an expanded facility in Springfield, Tennessee, according to The Commercial Appeal. The article not did specify why Electrolux officials are pulling out of Memphis, but it did cite unnamed company officials complaining about “challenges they face in today’s global economy.” Tennessee officials announced in 2011 that Electrolux would…

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Despite Steve Cohen Efforts, Leftists Have Previously Defended Electoral College

January 5, 2019January 4, 2019 Chris Butler

Steve Cohen

Memphis-area U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) may want to do away with the country’s Electoral College, but scholars and journalists alike – even liberal ones – have said in years past that it’s a bad idea. As The Tennessee Star reported, Cohen, a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, has introduced a bill to eliminate the Electoral College used to select U.S. presidents. Cohen, of course, is unhappy that current Republican President Donald Trump took the presidency by winning the electoral college but not the popular vote. But many people say Cohen’s perspective is a flawed one. The Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution, for example, cited the 2000 presidential election where George W. Bush prevailed over Al Gore in the electoral college but not the popular vote. “Whoever won, Bush or Gore, it was going to be by a hairsbreadth. Because of the Electoral College, we did not have to recount the whole nation. Instead we could focus on a more manageable task—recounting the state of Florida,” according to the Brookings Institution. “Imagine the problems that would arise, tensions that would exist, and the claims of illegitimacy likely to follow if the entire nation had to be counted, and then…

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Rep. Steve Cohen: Republicans in Congress ‘Complicit with Trump and Everything He’s Done to Violate the Constitution’

December 31, 2018December 30, 2018 Chris Butler

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, went on CNN this week and attacked President Donald Trump as “out of control,” without providing evidence to support this assertion. As reported, Cohen is about to assume a senior position on the House Judiciary Committee once Democrats officially retake that branch of Congress. Cohen’s statements were so transparently anti-Trump that even CNN host Dana Bash had to ask if he was concerned — as a Democrat in a red state — about overreach. “I don’t think there will be overreach because I think this man has done more things that need oversight that have been neglected for the last two years,” Cohen said. Cohen went on to say Trump is “out of control” and there “are numerous areas” where Trump needs oversight. Cohen, however, failed to offer any specifics to back up what he said. Bash then asked Cohen how he plans to proceed once Robert Mueller releases his report on alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Cohen immediately drew a comparison between the Mueller investigation and Watergate, which brought down President Richard Nixon. “Like in Watergate it will be a roadmap in areas where we need to proceed,” Cohen said,…

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Steve Cohen Celebrates People on Welfare Not Having to Work

December 24, 2018December 24, 2018 Chris Butler

After a lot of debate, certain food stamp recipients won’t have to work for their benefits, as certain Republicans in Washington, D.C. wanted. And for U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, that’s a cause for celebration. “On Wednesday, I voted for and the House passed a five-year Farm Bill that protects food assistance, conservation and animal welfare policies that are priorities for residents of the 9th Congressional District,” Cohen said in a newsletter last week to his constituents back home. “We successfully blocked efforts by the Majority to impose punishing work requirements for food stamp recipients.” But were those work requirements really punishing, especially in exchange for taxpayer money? According to The Huffington Post, more than 38 million Americans receive monthly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits they can use only to buy food in grocery stores. “The program already has work requirements for the subset of recipients who are able-bodied adults without minor children,” according to the website. “The House bill would have applied the requirements to parents of children older than 6 and unemployed adults in their 50s, who had previously been exempt.” According to The Washington Post, the House and Senate deadlocked over multiple issues in the bill, including the work requirements. Those…

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Steve Cohen Compares Marsha Blackburn to The Waterboy

October 19, 2018October 19, 2018 Chris Butler

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis last week compared Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn to The Waterboy. Adam Sandler portrayed the character in a movie 20 years ago. In the movie, The Waterboy’s real name is Bobby Boucher. Boucher, according to IMBD, is “a socially inept, stuttering, simpleton” with hidden anger issues “due to constant teasing and excessive sheltering by his overbearing and domineering mother.” As reported, this is not the first time Cohen has publicly tried to demean Blackburn. Do Republican women threaten Cohen? No one at Cohen’s office returned The Tennessee Star’s request for comment Monday. Cohen made his remarks on MSNBC. The MSNBC host asked Cohen for his opinion on the latest polls in the U.S. Senate race between Blackburn and her Democratic opponent Phil Bredesen. One poll showed Blackburn has a 14-point lead over her opponent. “The Kavanaugh hearings had an effect, and I don’t know that former Governor Bredesen helped himself by saying he would have voted for Kavanaugh at the end, but he did and it cost him some enthusiasm among Democrats,” Cohen said. Cohen went on to describe a coming “big blue wave and a big turnout” among Democrats. That’s when he delivered…

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Felons Who Can’t Vote Reportedly Try to Register in Memphis

October 15, 2018October 14, 2018 Chris Butler

The number of people filing voter registration applications has surged dramatically in Shelby County, yet county officials have deemed 55 percent of them invalid, according to The Memphis Commercial Appeal. “A large share of the influx of voter registration applications has been duplicates of already-registered voters, incomplete applications, and applications from felons who can’t vote or are otherwise unable to be processed,” according to the paper. Shelby County Election Commission Administrator of Elections Linda Phillips told the paper she typically gets 10,000 forms in a mid-year election cycle. Since August, though, her office has received 30,000 applications. Members of I am a Voter and the Tennessee Black Voter Project have submitted thousands of voter registration applications, according to the paper. “The Tennessee Black Voter Project has submitted the most – nearly 9,000, as of Friday,” the paper reported. “The Tennessee Black Voter Project worked with five local organizations, including Rise Up North Memphis and Up the Vote 901, to ramp up voter registration this election cycle.” The statewide organization, based in Nashville, had earlier announced plans to register 55,000 Tennessee voters before the Oct. 9 deadline. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) weighed in on the matter in a press release Friday,…

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Steve Cohen Takes Personal Jabs at Marsha Blackburn on Al Sharpton Show

October 13, 2018October 12, 2018 Chris Butler

U.S. Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) went on MSNBC recently to personally disparage U.S. Senate Republican candidate Marsha Blackburn as someone who lacks the capacity to think for herself. During his appearance, Cohen also stressed the importance of honor and integrity with Sharpton, of all people. Sharpton hosted Cohen on his MSNBC talk show PoliticsNation. Cohen, who has knocked Republicans for supposedly mistreating women, recently said Blackburn should jump off the Harahan Bridge in Memphis. Rep. Cohen said Blackburn’s Democratic opponent Phil Bredesen, is “light years beyond” her. “Blackburn would put us back into an anti-diluvian period,” Cohen said. “She described herself from one of her first ads as proudly a knuckle-dragging creature from the past. She has total fealty to Trump and no individual unique thoughts that will help us in our country.” As The Tennessee Star reported, the Brett Kavanaugh U.S. Supreme Court nomination hearings prompted Cohen to take to the floor of the House of Representatives. While there he delivered a fiery speech against Republicans and their supposed problems with the #MeToo Movement and respecting women. During his PoliticsNation appearance, Cohen called now U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh “a flawed candidate who perjured himself before the United States Congress.” Sharpton — who helped…

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Steve Cohen ‘Condescending’ and ‘Despicable’ to Conservative Female Columnist

October 4, 2018October 3, 2018 Chris Butler

Only days after he scolded Republicans for supposedly mistreating women, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, insulted a conservative female Boston Herald columnist at a subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C. That columnist, Adriana Cohen, apparently of no relation to the Tennessee congressman, came to discuss how social media censors conservatives, including her popular column. In a new article, Adriana Cohen described Steve Cohen as putting on “a condescending, despicable display” as she testified. “Cohen kicked off his opening statement trashing the president, saying the hearing was a huge waste of time, while accusing conservatives of ‘making a fetish out their own supposed victimhood,’” Adriana Cohen wrote. No one in Steve Cohen’s office returned a request for comment Tuesday. “Voters know full well that if any Democratic-favored special interest group was being wrongfully discriminated against by an American company, liberal lawmakers would be screaming from the rooftops,” Adriana Cohen wrote. “But since social media censorship is squarely impacting Trump supporters, Democrat lawmakers — many who receive hefty donations from Silicon Valley — don’t give a hoot. Why would they bite the hand that feeds them?” Powerful tech companies, she went on to say, meddle in elections by allowing Democrats to connect with…

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Steve Cohen Lectures Republicans on Brett Kavanaugh

September 30, 2018September 29, 2018 Chris Butler

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, who recently suggested Marsha Blackburn jump off a bridge, said this week Republicans treat women poorly. Just as you knew he would, Cohen opined on the Brett Kavanaugh U.S. Supreme Court nomination hearings. How members of the GOP-led U.S. Senate have handled matters was foremost on his mind. Saying the “soul of the country is in jeopardy,” because of the hearings, Cohen took to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives to scold his opposition. “The two most pressing issues that will be heard are the #MeToo Movement and respect for women and their safety from sexual assault and the truth and whether or not the truth is something that matters to people anymore or whether it is just spin and lies to get ratings,” Cohen said in his address. Cohen, who told now disgraced former FBI agent Peter Strzok he deserved a Purple Heart, also lectured the GOP about integrity. Specifically, Cohen spoke of how he thought Republican members of the U.S. Senate’s Judiciary Committee treated Christine Ford. Ford accuses Kavanaugh of an alleged sexual assault in 1982. “She should be given respect, and there should be an attempt to find the truth.…

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Police May Take Sensitivity Training, Per Steve Cohen

September 28, 2018September 27, 2018 Chris Butler

If U.S. Rep. Steven Cohen (D-TN-09) has his way then police officers nationwide will undergo a series of sensitivity training seminars, according to proposed legislation he’s filed. Race sensitivity training. Ethnic bias sensitivity training. Disability sensitivity training. Police officers would also have to take sensitivity training on how to interact with new immigrants. They would also have to learn how no to behave properly with different groups on a conscious level. Police would also have to learn how to act on a sub-conscious level — whatever that means. And if and when police use deadly force then state officials would have to adopt new laws mandating an independent prosecutor oversee matters. But what is the process for selecting an independent prosecutor? How can anyone know the prosecutor truly is independent? Better yet, what, specifically, does Cohen mean when he asks for sensitivity training for police officers? Unfortunately, no one in Cohen’s office returned The Tennessee Star’s requests for comment Monday. Going by its formal name, the Police Training and Independent Review Act is Cohen’s response to police shootings in Missouri, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Maryland, among other places. “Asking local prosecutors to investigate the same law enforcement officers with whom…

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Phil Bredesen Donated Nearly Half a Million Dollars to Left-Wing Democrats

September 24, 2018 Chris Butler

U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Phil Bredesen of Tennessee gives vast sums of his wealth to the most left-wing Democrats in America, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Steve Cohen. This, according to a super PAC called the ‘Committee to Defend the President.’ According to the PAC’s research, Bredesen donated exactly $460,691.11 to Democratic Party interests from 1987 through 2014. Chairman Ted Harvey asks the following question: “How can a loyal Clinton and Obama donor be trusted to work with President Trump?” In an emailed statement, PAC Committee spokeswoman Amanda Head continued with that theme. “The Committee to Defend the President remains committed to exposing Phil Bredesen for the left-wing Democrat he’s always been,” Head said. “Bredesen may claim to be a ‘moderate,’ but his liberal policy positions and long history of donations to far-left Democrats tell the true story. Tennessee needs a pro-Trump conservative like Marsha Blackburn, not an anti-Trump liberal like Bredesen.” Bredesen donated extensively to Bill Clinton and Al Gore and other Democratic Party interests in Virginia, Florida Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and Ohio, records show. Bredesen also donated $63,700 to the Democratic National Committee, according to the Committee to Defend the President. He also made the…

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Did Steve Cohen Block You on Twitter? Sue Him, Expert Says

September 7, 2018September 6, 2018 Chris Butler

Steve Cohen

If U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-9) blocks you on Twitter or any other social media then you can take him to court. This is the opinion of a top official with the New York City-based Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. This is the same organization that sued the Trump Administration and forced the president to stop blocking people on his Twitter page. As reported, Cohen also blocks certain of his critics on social media. “I do think that people who have been blocked by a member of Congress can take action,” said Katie Fallow, Knight’s senior staff attorney. “I do think it will depend on the facts of how that person is using their social media accounts, but, yes, I think they would have a plausible claim.” Courts, of course, have already ruled on this issue as it pertains to executive-level offices in government, including governors and the U.S. president. They have yet to rule on members of Congress. Fallow told The Tennessee Star she’s gotten complaints about members of Congress blocking critics on social media. No one in Cohen’s office has returned repeated requests for comment this week. To have a plausible claim for legal action, first…

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Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen Possibly Breaking Law for Blocking People on Twitter

September 6, 2018September 5, 2018 Chris Butler

One could argue U.S. Rep Steve Cohen (D-TN-9) breaks the law every time he blocks someone on Twitter who speaks up against him. A federal judge, for instance, said it’s unconstitutional for U.S. President Donald Trump to do the same thing. There is legal precedent to say the same rules apply to Cohen. Cohen, like Trump, is an elected federal official. No one in Cohen’s office returned repeated requests for comment Tuesday. “Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, addressing a novel issue about how the Constitution applies to social media platforms and public officials, found that the president’s Twitter feed is a public forum,” according to The New York Times. “As a result, she ruled that when Mr. Trump or an aide blocked seven plaintiffs from viewing and replying to his posts, he violated the First Amendment.” The newspaper said the ruling would have implications far beyond Trump and his Twitter feed. “Public officials throughout the country, from local politicians to governors and members of Congress, regularly use social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to interact with the public about government business,” the newspaper said. “This ruling should put them on notice, and if they censor critics from social media accounts used for…

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Complaint: Too Many White Republicans Accompanied Steve Cohen to South America

September 4, 2018September 4, 2018 Chris Butler

Now we know why U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, (D-TN-9) traveled to South America at taxpayer expense. As reported, Cohen and eight other congressmen undertook a super-secret mission to meet with Guyanese leaders last week. But many locals reportedly resented the visit. There were just too many white Republican men, according to published reports. Cohen, of course, is a Democrat. The only other Democrat was Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.-52). The remainder of the group were all GOP. According to the Caribbean News Now, the trip was a “fact-finding mission to continue stronger engagement between the two countries.” “During the meeting, discussion centered on Guyana’s political stability, security, border issues with Suriname and Venezuela; Guyana’s emerging oil and gas sector and environmental issues,” the website reported. Geologists estimate 13.6 billion barrels of oil and 32 trillion cubic feet of natural gas exist in the Guyana-Suriname Basin, the website reported. Exxon officials have already signed an oil deal with Guyanese-leaders. The Guyanese media portrays the Exxon agreement as “another form of economic-colonization.” Guyana borders Venezuela. According to the BBC, Venezuela’s economy is in freefall due to hyperinflation, power cuts, and food and medicine shortages. A recent New York Post article blames socialism. As…

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Memphis Needs $200,000 to Study Why Kids Gain Weight

September 4, 2018September 4, 2018 Chris Butler

Steve Cohen

The Feds are forcing taxpayers to fork over nearly $200,000 so researchers in Memphis can analyze whether stress makes kids fat. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, (D-TN-9), announced the money, exactly $189,929, in a press release late last week. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases — part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services — gave the money to the University of Memphis. The formal name of the project is The Impact of Stress and Resilience on Obesity-Related Metabolic Complications in Adolescents. “Childhood obesity is a national epidemic and Tennessee’s childhood obesity rate is a staggering 38 percent,” Cohen said in the release. The national childhood obesity rate is 31 percent. “This award will help researchers at the University of Memphis study youth obesity, its causes, and find solutions on how to reduce it,” Cohen said. More specifically, according to the press release, the grant will fund research to study “the relationship between stress and resilience in youth and how it can lead to childhood obesity.” Cohen defined resilience as how “one adapts to trauma, tragedy, and threats.” Idia Binitie Thurston, the Director of CHANGE Lab at the University of Memphis, will lead the research…

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Steve Cohen Blocks Critics on Twitter

August 30, 2018August 29, 2018 Chris Butler

Steve Cohen

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, is prone to fits of hyperbole and spastic verbal outbursts, mostly directed at Republican politicians, seemingly the bane of his existence. There’s that time he warned of a massive outbreak of Ebola if Republicans didn’t expand Medicaid in Tennessee. There’s that time he compared Republicans to Nazi propagandists Joseph Goebbels. Heck, most recently he said Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn should kill herself. But Cohen evidently can’t handle what he throws out, even when what he gets back is sarcasm — and nowhere near the verbal overkill he’s delinquent of. This, according to Twitchy.com this week. Cohen blocked the account of Twitter user Sean Spicier, a parody account and a play on the name of President Donald Trump’s former White House communications front man Sean Spicer. “Our favorite parody account and yours, @Sean_Spicier, seems to have gotten himself blocked by the one and only Rep. Steve Cohen,” the website reported. “Granted, Cohen blocks anyone with a pulse who disagrees with him even slightly but part of us would like to think the representative who wanted to award Peter Strzok the Purple Heart for ****-talking Trump thought for just a moment Spicer himself was busting on…

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Report: Taxpayers Pay for Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen’s Hush-Hush Trip to South America

August 28, 2018August 27, 2018 Chris Butler

Steve Cohen

You, the taxpayer, just reportedly spent an unknown sum of money to send U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, and eight other congressmen on a super-secret mission to Guyana, in South America, this week. Officials involved have cut off all information to members of the press, including The Tennessee Star. Six publications based out of Latin America, however, reported the trip this week. Going by a Google search, no U.S.-based media outlets have mentioned it. The Congressional delegation reportedly consists of seven Republicans and two Democrats, including Cohen. The other Democrat is Rep. Scott Peters of California. The seven Republicans are Reps. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, John Rutherford of Florida, Mark Sanford of South Carolina, John Curtis of Utah, Todd Rokita of Indiana, Richard Hudson of North Carolina, and Darrell Issa of California. The last time Sanford traveled to South America without anyone knowing about it, of course, was to break his marriage vows. No one in Sanford’s office returned The Star’s repeated requests for comment Monday. Neither did anyone in Cohen’s office. Only staff members from two of the nine congressmen would comment. Katie Thompson, Curtis’ spokeswoman, did not dispute the accuracy of the reports coming out of Latin America.…

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Steve Cohen Will Push For Nancy Pelosi as Next Speaker of the House

August 22, 2018August 21, 2018 Chris Butler

Steve Cohen

If Democrats retake the U.S. House of Representatives this fall then U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, said he’ll support Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House yet again. Cohen made his remarks on MSNBC this past weekend. While there, he also called Republican President Donald Trump “a maniac.” No one from Cohen’s office returned The Tennessee Star’s request for comment this week. Cohen said Pelosi is “the strongest, most experienced, and best tactician there is.” “When you have someone to stand up to the most corrupt president, the most bullying president we have ever had and fight to create health care, fight to create jobs and fight to end the culture of corruption he has created in Washington then you want Nancy Pelosi,” Cohen said. “She is a proven leader. She is a star. She doesn’t back up to anybody. The people who vote for Democratic candidates will want a check and balance on Donald Trump. You don’t put a rookie in the big game of the World Series or the seventh game of the NBA. You go in with the pro who has been there and delivered.” Pelosi will never back down to Trump, Cohen went on to say.…

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Tennessee Democratic Spokesman Calls Evangelical Christians Racist

August 22, 2018August 21, 2018 Jason M. Reynolds

Mark Brown

The Daily Caller is calling out Tennessee Democratic Party spokesman Mark Brown’s offensive language against Republicans, evangelical Christians who support President Donald Trump and even country music. Brown also serves as spokesman for Phil Bredesen’s U.S. Senate campaign. “Many of Brown’s most offensive tweets have been deleted but have been documented with screensaver captures,” David Krayden writes for the Daily Caller, and lists several instances. “On October 31, 2017, Brown, who is trying to get Democratic candidates elected in the Bible Belt, tweeted out an article from the LA Times entitled, ‘Under Trump, Evangelicals show their true racist colors.” Brown, who lives in the heart of the country music capital, also tweeted, “If forced to pick my favorite mainstream country act, I would gouge out my eardrums with a f—ing icepick.” Scott Golden, Tennessee Republican Party Chairman, said in a statement, “For him to attack people of faith for supporting the President is truly a new low. Such hateful vitriol is always a bad look, but Phil Bredesen and his followers continue to double down on their disdain for Tennesseans.” Brown has been cursing up a storm. Brown, who has been promoting Bredesen’s campaign in his role as a spokesman for the Tennessee Democratic…

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Commentary: Mainstream Media Is a Watchdog on Republicans, But a Lapdog for Democrats

August 18, 2018August 17, 2018 Chris Butler

Kathleen Sebelius

This week mainstream media reporters nationwide took a posture against President Donald Trump and asserted they act with integrity and objectivity and that his attacks on them are attacks on democracy itself. Hook people in the mainstream media up to polygraph machines and ask them if they really believe that. They’ll pass with flying colors. But as someone who spent nearly 10 years in the mainstream press, I witnessed things that tell me people in the media aren’t necessarily looking out for you and your best interests. The year was 2006, and I had a newspaper job in Central Florida. The Congressional mid-term elections were coming. That election was a topic at one morning staff meeting. One reporter said far more Democrats than Republicans in the county were voting early, obviously a bad sign for the GOP. He wanted to do a story. Our editor shot him down flat. “If you publish that story then it might prompt more Republicans to get out and vote early, and I don’t want to see that happen,” our editor, who is now deceased, said at the time. This was a corporate-owned daily newspaper that served thousands of people every day. A few weeks…

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Marsha Blackburn Blasts Phil Bredesen, Who Was in the Audience, for Not Calling Out Steve Cohen for Bridge Jumping Comments

August 16, 2018August 15, 2018 Jason M. Reynolds

Phil Bredesen

U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN-07) spoke to Fox & Friends Wednesday about her Democratic counterpart Steve Cohen’s violent remarks about wishing she would jump off a bridge. The interview is available here. Ainsley Earhardt played the Huffington Post’s audio of U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) saying he wished President Donald Trump would tell Blackburn, a U.S. Senate candidate, to jump off the Harahan Bridge in Memphis. The Tennessee Star reported that Cohen made the remarks last month at a prayer breakfast at Broadway Baptist Church in Memphis that was hosted by Democrat Phil Bredesen’s campaign for the U.S. Senate. Cohen said, “The big orange president. He’s going to come down here and he is going to endorse Marsha Blackburn. Because Marsha Blackburn, if he says, ‘jump off the Harahan Bridge,’ she’ll jump off the Harahan Bridge. I wish he’d say that.” Blackburn told Earhardt, “I thought surely he really didn’t say this and surely there was not laughter. You’d expect that with Phil Bredesen, my opponent, in the audience, he would have said, ‘We don’t say things like that. We don’t wish someone’s demise or death.’ “But Ainsley, I’ll tell you, I believe in what Matthew 5 commands us — that…

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Democrats Double Down on Personal Attacks Against Marsha Blackburn: She ‘Can Swim’

August 14, 2018August 14, 2018 Jason M. Reynolds

Marsha Blackburn “can swim,” a Democratic consultant said Sunday in response to U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen’s violent remark about wanting President Donald Trump to tell the Senate candidate to jump off a bridge. Cohen (D-TN-09) made the remark last month to a group of pastors at a prayer breakfast meant to increase Democratic turnout for the Aug. 2 elections. The breakfast was held at Broadway Baptist Church in Memphis and was hosted by Democrat Phil Bredesen’s campaign for the U.S. Senate. “The big orange president …. He’s going to come down here and he is going to endorse Marsha Blackburn, because Marsha Blackburn, if he says, ‘Jump off the Harahan Bridge,’ she’ll jump off the Harahan Bridge,” he said in the audio obtained by The Huffington Post. “I wish he’d say that,” Cohen said. Democratic consultant John Rowley added to the violent attacks on Rep. Blackburn (R-TN-07). He told Fox 17 Nashville In Focus on Sunday that Cohen’s remark was “totally inbounds” because “Steve Cohen knows Marsha Blackburn can swim.” You can watch the clip here. Rowley said the incitement to violence was “nothing.” “It could be a good publicity stunt for the city of Memphis,” he added. “You never…

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Marsha Blackburn Responds to ‘Hurtful’ Violent Remarks Steve Cohen Made About Jumping Off Bridge

August 12, 2018August 11, 2018 Jason M. Reynolds

Marsha Blackburn

Ed Henry of Fox News interviewed Tennessee U.S. Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn Friday about U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen’s violent remarks about her. Henry remarked, “It seems like incivility in politics is growing worse by the day.” He then played audio of Cohen (D-TN-09) saying he wished President Donald Trump would tell U.S. Rep. Blackburn (R-TN-07) to jump off a bridge in Memphis. The increasingly erratic Memphis Democrat made the statements at a prayer breakfast last month that was hosted by former Gov. Phil Bredesen, Blackburn’s opponent in the Senate race. The audio recording revealed that Cohen said, “The big orange president…he’s going to come down here and he’s going to endorse Marsha Blackburn, because Marsha Blackburn – if he says, ‘Jump off the Harahan Bridge,’ she’ll jump off the Harahan Bridge. I wish he’d say that.” Henry asked Blackburn for her reaction to the recording and Cohen’s claim he was joking. Blackburn said, “It’s hurtful to hear that. Steve is someone who was a colleague of mine in the state Senate and then we’ve served in Congress together. I have worked with him on issues like infant mortality issues in Shelby County, and we serve in the same delegation so…

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Rep. Steve Cohen Wants President Trump to Tell Rep. Marsha Blackburn to Jump Off a Memphis Bridge

August 10, 2018August 10, 2018 Jason M. Reynolds

Donald Trump, Steve Cohen

Just as you can count on the sun to rise tomorrow, you can expect U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen to make an inappropriate statement. Now, he has ratcheted it up by saying he wants President Donald Trump to tell U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn to jump off a bridge, The Huffington Post reported. Cohen (D-TN-09) made the remark last month to a group of pastors at a prayer breakfast meant to increase Democratic turnout for the Aug. 2 elections. The breakfast was held at Broadway Baptist Church in Memphis and was hosted by Democrat Phil Bredesen’s campaign for the U.S. Senate. One political analyst recalled how this mirrored an infamous moment in Democratic Party history. Tennessee Star Political Editor Steve Gill said,“The Democrats actually voted against and booed God at their Convention in 2012, so it isn’t really surprising that we would get these comments from Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen at Democrat Phil Bredesen’s so-called prayer breakfast. Bredesen’s silence about Cohen’s words speaks volumes about Bredesen’s character—or lack thereof.” Blackburn (R-TN-07) is running as the GOP’s U.S. Senate candidate against former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen. “The big orange president …. He’s going to come down here and he is going to endorse…

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Tennessee Kids Awarded Federal Money for Hunger and Obesity

August 10, 2018August 9, 2018 Chris Butler

Steve Cohen

Up until at least 2014, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, complained too many of Tennessee’s kids were malnourished and starving and only government could step in to fix the problem. And, yes, Cohen got grant money for that. Now we have the reverse. This year, according to Cohen’s office, too many Volunteer State children are pudgy and, as you may have surmised, taxpayers have to get involved to amend that too. And, yes, Cohen wants grant money. Did the government programs meant to purge kids’ hunger work a little too well, making all the kids flabby? Do standardized test scores have something to do with this? Why the sudden U-turn? The Tennessee Star got no answers Thursday, as no one from Cohen’s office returned a request for comment. But Cohen explained some of his reasoning in a new press release. “We have a real problem with childhood obesity in this country and I am disheartened to note that Tennessee has the highest rate of any state at 38 percent,” Cohen announced. The national childhood obesity rate, however, is 31 percent, Cohen said. Cohen’s new Reducing Obesity in Youth Act will create grant programs to encourage kids to exercise and eat…

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Feds Give Memphis Airport $43 Million, Despite Traffic Decrease

August 9, 2018August 8, 2018 Chris Butler

Memphis Airport

Federal taxpayers will shell out $43.3 million to improve the Memphis International Airport, despite reports traffic has fallen dramatically in recent years. U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, announced the funding, which came from the Federal Aviation Administration. Exactly $28.5 million of that will reimburse airport officials for reconstructing two taxiways. The remaining $14.7 million, meanwhile, goes to what Cohen called “the rehabilitation of the Memphis International Airport’s Concourse B.” Northwest Airlines was once the airport’s most dominant carrier. Then Delta gobbled it up. Delta decided it only needed one hub in the South, in Atlanta. That decision cost Memphis almost two-thirds of its passengers, according to a recent New York Times story. The result — three concourses are left and most of its gates are unused. Airports officials will spend $219 million to close and renovate Concourse B and mothball concourses A & C. No one at Cohen’s office returned requests for comment Wednesday. Memphis International Airport spokesman Glen Thomas, in an emailed statement, said the airport qualified for the federal funding, even though it might seem like a ghost town. These funds, Thomas said, involved federal Airport Improvement Program money. Under federal law the aviation system generates that money.…

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Taxpayer-Funded Program Didn’t End Homelessness in Tennessee

August 9, 2018August 8, 2018 Chris Butler

homelessness

Five years ago, Nashville officials launched an initiative to end homelessness as we know it. The program, part of the “How’s Nashville” campaign, promised homelessness would end before 2017. Seeing as how we’re more than halfway done with 2018 it’s time to assess — did the program do what Nashville officials said it would do? After all, they promised. Unfortunately, city officials did not return requests for comment Wednesday. Back in 2013, the city’s Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency paired up with the Metropolitan Homelessness Commission and announced 200 housing opportunities for the chronically homeless. They offered an unspecified amount of federal taxpayer money, via Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant money. Apparently, though, city officials didn’t get enough cash the first go-round. Last month, according to Nashville NBC affiliate WSMV, city officials announced yet another initiative to end homelessness, this time among young people, using $3.54 million of federal taxpayer money, again from HUD. “HUD is awarding $43 million to 11 local communities across the country,” the station reported. “The money will fund rapid re-housing, permanent supportive housing, transitional housing and other programs.” There were other times officials in Tennessee used taxpayer money to end homelessness as…

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