Controversial Biden FCC nominee steps down after Democrats concern over anti-police rhetoric

Sohn pulled out shortly after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he would oppose her, saying she couldn’t rise above her “toxic partisanship.” His nomination had been blocked after a contentious confirmation hearing in mid-February before the Senate Commerce Committee.

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) had expressed doubts about Sohn’s anti-police rhetoric.

“I would like to echo the concerns raised about the nominee’s positions on important law enforcement issues, both nationally and in Nevada,” Rosen said during the Feb. 14 hearing.

The Fraternal Order of Police and the National Association of Police Organizations said Sohn’s anti-police rhetoric should disqualify her from the job.

William Johnson, the executive director of the Association of Police Organizations, noted that Sohn once retweeted someone who called law enforcement “armed morons in riot gear with tear gas” while she defended the rioters.

Biden reappointed Sohn this year after Senate Democrats failed to secure a majority to confirm her as commissioner last year due to her far-left sympathies and controversial statements.

Breitbart News senior technology correspondent Allum Bokhari reported that Sohn was named to the board of directors of the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) in 2018, two years before the group presented its “pioneer award”. to a dominatrix named Mistress Blunt.

Sohn called Fox News “state-sponsored propaganda” that is “dangerous to democracy” and called on the FCC to investigate whether Sinclair Broadcast Group, a conservative-run local TV network, should have a broadcast license.

Sohn was the co-founder and CEO of the left-leaning advocacy group Public Knowledge, which called on cable and satellite providers to cancel One America News Network.

In October 2020, Sohn claimed that Facebook and Twitter “don’t have a problem with censorship, they have a problem with transparency, consistency, standards and practices. Their decisions to remove or not remove content are opaque, ad hoc, and arbitrary. Which bothers people on both sides. #section230.”

Breitbart News reported in March 2022:

Sohn retweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who wrote in November 2020, “When it comes to ‘funding’ and ‘socialism’ attacks, people need to realize it’s acts of attacks of racial resentment. You’re not going to make this go away. You can make it less efficient.

Sohn retweeted a user who described federal law enforcement guarding federal property in Portland, Oregon in July 2020 as “armed morons in riot gear with tear gas.”

The FCC nominee also liked a tweet calling for an end to “qualified immunity,” which would remove legal protections for officers in the line of duty.

During a confirmation hearing in February 2022, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) lambasted Sohn for calling Republicans “white supremacists”:

I don’t see how you can be impartial. “Fox News is state-sponsored media…propaganda…Republicans know the only way to win is to suppress the vote.” They are yours. Here’s a retweet: “Your ragged white supremacist president and his cowardly enablers would rather kill everyone than stop killing black people.” Damn. It’s the exit. I mean, do you think most Republicans are racists and white supremacists?

C-LIFE

Sean Moran is a political reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.