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The American right has found a quick and easy way to push back against critics. When the going gets tough, they’re turning to what’s become their go-to trope: “Soros-backed.”
Manhattan District Alvin Bragg, who is investigating former President Donald Trump over alleged hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, is now at the center of GOP efforts to link Holocaust survivor and progressive Hungarian Jewish billionaire philanthropist George Soros to an accusation tied to a litany of conspiracy theories and historic antisemitic canards.
But he's not the only one.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was quick to play the played the “Soros-backed” card last year in an announcement that he was suspending state attorney Andrew Warren over his views on abortion and trans youth. The likely 2024 presidential candidate disparaged Warren as a “Soros-backed state attorney.”
The Washington Post’s Philip Bump, in a column Monday titled “What it means to be ‘Soros-backed," said that “it’s worth reflecting on what earned Bragg and Warren this appellation — and why it’s become so useful for Republicans and others on the right to deploy it,” noting that the term’s vagueness makes it particularly useful.
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“There’s no reason to think that Bragg is targeting Trump or the Trump Organization because he was indirectly backed by Soros or because he is unusually left-wing,” Bump argues.
“On the other hand, it’s quite obvious that the phrase ‘Soros-backed’ is meant, as with Warren, to cast each as illegitimate and biased.”
The “Soros-backed” trope is not unique to American politics, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
“In far-right circles worldwide, Soros’ philanthropy often is recast as fodder for outsized conspiracy theories, including claims that he masterminds specific global plots or manipulates particular events to further his goals,” the ADL’s website says.
“In the United States, Soros long has been a favored target of the so-called alt right and other right-wing extremists. Their online echo chambers reverberate with conspiracies about Soros, accusing him of attempting to perpetrate “white genocide” and push his own malevolent agenda. In a report published earlier this year that analyzed antisemitic speech on Twitter, ADL found that Soros figured prominently in a significant number of antisemitic tweets.
“One noteworthy allegation claimed that Soros was responsible for the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in August 2017 in Charlottesville, Va. Other tweets referred to his Jewish heritage in pejorative terms and claimed that he’s trying to undermine all of Western civilization.”
The trope has become “useful shorthand” for the right, according to Bump.
“The real reason Bragg and Warren are dismissed as ‘Soros-backed,’” Bump writes, “of course, is that it’s a useful shorthand for several of the right’s favorite targets.”
Added Bump: “Saying “Soros-backed” simply means 'unacceptably left-wing' with no further delineation required.”
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Donald Trump's attorney general, Bill Barr, appointed special counsel John Durham to "investigate the investigators." It was all part of Trump's demand to probe Robert Mueller's investigation into the Russia scandal that resulted in the indictment of 34 people.
Durham never found any wrongdoing in Mueller's investigation, and even his indictments were dismissed. One former FBI agent pleaded guilty to giving a false statement. He never went to prison.
Documents on the Justice Department website detail the accounting of how the $2,076,068 Durham budget was spent. According to one excerpt, Durham spent over $200,000 on travel expenditures during the six months that he should have been preparing for trial, remarked former Mueller prosecutor on Twitter.
"Why is Durham investigation spending over $200,000 on travel in a 6-month period in 2022, especially since they were supposed to be in DC (preparing to lose their second of two federal cases)?" Andrew Weissmann asked.
From April 1, 2022, to Sept. 30, 2022, Durham columnists were already writing that he was being humiliated.
In the middle of Sept. 2022, CNN reported that Durham's own prosecutors were already jumping ship.
"Top Durham prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis – who led the team’s case against a Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer earlier this year, which ended in a swift acquittal – was supposed to handle another trial next month, but instead is leaving the Justice Department for a job at a private law firm," CNN said citing its sources. "DeFilippis in recent months was at one point working on writing a report on Durham’s findings, which will be submitted to Attorney General Merrick Garland."
While there isn't a final report from Durham's team that has become public, the way that there was in Mueller's case, Durham has resigned from the position, having failed in his task.
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GOP pundit smacked down for suggesting Alvin Bragg is ignoring NYC crime to go after Trump
March 20, 2023
Former Donald Trump adviser David Urban tried to claim on CNN Monday that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was ignoring skyrocketing crime in New York City to go after the former president's hush payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels instead — even though major violent crime has declined on Bragg's watch.
Anchor Pamela Brown was quick to point this out to Urban.
"So what does it say DeSantis went out of his way to go after the district attorney and chose not to defend Trump's acts and poke fun?" asked Brown.
"It tells me he's running for president is what it tells me," said Urban. "Look, I think his message probably resonates with lots of Americans who are tuning in and watching. Looking at shoplifting, crime, hearing about people being assaulted in the city and being let free in New York City, and yet they see the district attorney going and drudging up these seven-year-old charges. That's the point that Governor DeSantis is trying to make. That resonates with the Republican voters, not the Trump part, but the pure nature of the entire prosecution. I think Republicans view it as persecution, not prosecution."
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"What Bragg's office said — they just released a statement tonight saying 'Under Alvin Bragg, homicides are down 32%, Manhattan shootings are down 14%, and New York remains one of the safest big cities in the U.S.' Pointing out that is what Bragg's office is saying tonight amid that criticism."
Despite a lot of media coverage focusing on crimes in New York City, it remains one of the safest parts of the country — far safer than much of rural America, not just in terms of crime but all deaths, including accidents.
In fact, DeSantis especially has little grounds to criticize Bragg on crime, as New York City's property and violent crime rates are significantly lower than that of Jacksonville or Tampa, and about half the rates of Orlando or Miami.
Watch the segment below or at this link.
Pamela Brown points out to David Urban crime is down in NYC www.youtube.com
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