In this election cycle, the mainstream media loves Donald Trump.
While the positions and style of the brash tycoon are certainly out of step with the mainstream media’s left-wing narrative, his presence in the race has been a boon for ratings, leading journalists to attempt to spin a Trump angle into places where it doesn’t exist, hoping to drive the advertising revenue needed to rescue traditional media outlets from a tsunami of red ink while damaging mainstream Republicans through a tired Democratic tactic of guilt-by-association.
The latest episode of “Finding Trump” played out last night in Loudoun County, Virginia, amid a packed house attending Congresswoman Barbara Comstock’s kickoff rally.
Antonio Olivo, a reporter from the Washington Post, ventured out of D. C. to the Sterling event, where his attempts to insert Trump into the narrative fell flat on truth, just as his attempts to find a “close” race for Democrat John Foust in 2014 ended when his laughably incorrect characterization was blown out of the water by Comstock’s 16.1% margin of victory.
“U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) kicked off her reelection bid Wednesday night amid questions over whether she should switch her support from struggling presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) to front-runner Donald J. Trump,” wondered Olivo, this morning in the Washington Post.
From the reporting, one would think Olivo attended an entirely different event. Though Comstock spoke on substance, Olivo was looking to find a circus. When that effort failed, the Trump narrative was inserted regardless, alongside regurgitated Democratic talking points from 2014.
Though the story’s nominal headline referenced Comstock’s event, its reporting devoted more ink to tired and failed talking points from 2014 than it did to coverage of what was said last night.
Furthermore, while a few did comment on the Republican race in general, the only person at the event who seriously “questioned” whether Comstock should abandon her principles and switch to Trump was the reporter, as evidenced by the lack of anyone willing to opine in favor of the switch.
Unfortunately for Olivo, pesky and inconvenient facts stand in the way of his quest to find Trump in the Tenth District. Though a Trump narrative was nowhere to be seen last night, media bias and malpractice were on full display this morning.
Although Trump barely won Virginia, he was not the frontrunner among the Tenth District voters relevant to Comstock’s re-election, who backed Rubio over Trump by a margin of 7.6%, compared to Trump’s 4.2% margin of victory throughout the rest of Virginia.
In total, the Rubio-Trump spread in the Tenth District compared to the rest of Virginia stood at +11.8% in favor of the Senator from Florida.
Despite Olivo’s clumsy hypothetical questioning, why would any rational observer believe Comstock would switch her support to a candidate who is out of touch with her district, did not win her district, and has only declined in popularity since then?
Among the attendees, many hailed from the Indian-American and Asian-American communities in Loudon and Fairfax Counties, including several for whom Comstock’s rally marked the first political event they had ever attended. Though their stories varied, one theme unified the swell in new involvement: Barbara Comstock, and the candidate she’s endorsed, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, both espoused an optimistic and solutions-oriented vision for strengthening the American Dream they chose to seek here in Northern Virginia.
As video cameras from an Indian-American community organization rolled, Comstock rallied her supporters by sharing her record, including passing and personally signing for the House a five-year transportation plan which addresses the needs of Northern Virginia without raising taxes – an accomplishment for Northern Virginia strengthened by her positions on key House committees.
Comstock also spoke of her record fighting for pro-growth policies, including tax credits for information technology and medical research, while recounting her efforts in leading the fight against human trafficking and heroin abuse.
The Congresswoman then introduced former Congressman Frank Wolf, whose seat she won in 2014 following his retirement. Wolf shared with the assembled crowd his longstanding work in standing up for human rights around the world along with his pride in Comstock having successfully carried on his legacy in her first term.
Yet, despite nearly 45 minutes of policy-heavy speechmaking by an incumbent Representative and the district’s beloved 17-term former Congressman, the Post saw it fit to barely mention public policy towards the end of the report, along with no mention of the former Congressman or Loudoun Sheriff Mike Chapman, who has worked closely with Comstock in fighting the heroin epidemic.
“Our Indian communities, our Pakistani communities, Korean communities, Hispanic communities, obviously, African-Americans can look at [Rubio] and say: ‘he gets my life’,” Comstock told Bearing Drift, in explaining her support for Marco Rubio. “’He understands I’m struggling and I need less regulation on my business, I need to be able to keep more money to take care of my kids.’”
Comstock’s support for Rubio is clearly in-touch with the district she represents.
For left-wing Democrats, this reporting serves a purpose. When confronted with inconvenient facts contrary to the pre-determined narrative, what do they do? Ignore them.
This pattern is not new.
Stunningly, in 2014, the same reporter observed the Tenth District race was, “appearing close with less than a month to go before the Nov. 4 election,” in the very same article in which he covered the epic meltdown of Democrat John Foust’s campaign, following his sexist remarks that Comstock, an accomplished attorney who balanced her career on Capitol Hill with the demands of motherhood, had never held a “real job.”
Contrary to Olivo’s panicked claims of a “close” race made while Foust was already in full-meltdown, Comstock would go on to win her district by 16.1% less than a month later.
This disastrous prediction wouldn’t be the last time Olivo carried water for Foust. In 2015, when Foust faced a challenge to his bid for re-election to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Olivo’s last-minute coverage of the race touched upon the controversy over the siting of NoVA Firearms in McLean, with clear bias towards Foust, despite Foust inflaming the controversy for political gain according to emails obtained through FOIA.
Olivo’s reporting failed to mention the falsity of Foust’s smears against opponent Jennifer Chronis in multiple rounds of negative mailers which cited statistics debunked by Politifact and given four Pinocchios by the Washington Post’s own fact checkers.
This reporting precisely fits the mainstream media’s narrative spun upon a script written by their allies within the DCCC. When inconvenient facts present themselves, ignore the facts.
Anything else would be troublesome to the effort to defend the barely-noticeable campaign of Comstock challenger LuAnn “LuHaul” Bennett, who incredibly had to be recruited out of her penthouse at Washington, D. C.’s Ritz-Carlton to move to Virginia for a run at the Virginian serving in Virginia’s Tenth District.
Comstock will continue to outperform, Bennett will continue to stumble, and, on November 9th, the Washington Post will again be shocked to report a Comstock victory in a race they’re likely to again categorize as “close.”
