Wednesday on the RealClearPolitics podcast, Tom Bevan, Andrew Walworth, and Carl Cannon discuss the DOJ indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, accused of improperly paying leaders of the extremist groups it was monitoring, and Virginia Democrats’ successful referendum to temporarily redraw congressional maps ahead of November’s elections. Dr. Cory Franklin joins the show to challenge the prevailing narrative on rising measles cases, arguing that under-vaccinated immigrant populations-not declining childhood vaccination rates-are the primary driver. Plus, the panel examines the Washington, D.C., mayoral race and California’s gubernatorial contest, and what both reveal about the direction of the Democratic Party. You can listen to the show live, weekdays at 11:00 a.m. on SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly Channel 111, and then on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and here on our website. *** The show opens with the DOJ indicting the Southern Poverty Law Center on fraud charges related to paying informants inside the racist organizations it said it was monitoring. Watch: FBI Director Patel: SPLC Used Money Raised To “Dismantle Extremist Groups” To “Pay The Leadership” Of Those Same Groups Tom Bevan argued the indictment reinforces long-standing concerns about the SPLC’s methods, including its alleged role in helping organize the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, while Carl Cannon questioned whether the conduct described in the indictment rises to the level of criminal fraud. “They’ve been a bad actor for a long time-and now they’re finally being held to account,” Bevan said. “And this was also the stated reason Joe Biden gave for running for president-to save the soul of this nation from these racists. But now we find out that it was all orchestrated; it was basically a false flag.” “It’s essentially a hate group pretending to be an anti-hate group. They have done real damage to the country,” Cannon said about the SPLC. *** At minute 12, the panel reacts to Virginia Democrats winning last night’s referendum to redraw the state’s congressional districts to their partisan advantage ahead of November’s elections. “This is what everybody’s going to do, right? As soon as you get control, as soon as you have the option to pursue a maximalist policy or a maximalist strategy in terms of your agenda or accumulating political power, they’re going to do it,” Bevan said. “Both parties are going to be doing it, 24/7, every two years.” *** At minute 22,Dr. Corey Franklin disputes the narrative that declining childhood vaccinations are driving measles outbreaks, pointing instead to under-vaccinated immigrant populations and gaps in public health data. “The most likely candidate is that you have a significant number of people who’ve come from other countries under-vaccinated, and they’ve created high-risk susceptible pools of patients,” Dr. Franklin said. “The best example right now is Spartanburg, SC, where there are almost 1,000 measles cases. They have the highest percentage population of Ukrainians in the U.S., and during the last two decades, Ukraine has had an extremely low vaccination rate.” “I’m not anti-immigrant by any stretch of the imagination,” he said. “But we should know the screening process and the procedures for a lot of these diseases.” *** At minute 38, the panel turns to the Democratic primary to replace Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, where “crime is on the ballot,” framing the race between Democratic socialist Janice Lewis George and “moderate” Kenyan McDuffie as a choice between progressive social policy and traditional law-and-order strategies. “This is proof that when crime goes down-which is a good thing-the importance of crime as an issue in the city goes down because it’s less of an issue and other things rise to the top,” Bevan said. “But they had historic carjackings last year. I mean, we’re not talking about a long-term trend of lower crime,” Cannon added. *** Finally, at minute 44, the group discusses a very fluid California governor’s race, where the remaining candidates are set to meet for a debate tonight, opening up ideological divides within the Democratic Party. Watch: Candidates Face Off In First Major Debate In California Governor Race “Matt Mahan, who’s the San Jose mayor. He’s got Silicon Valley support. He’s a true moderate, and the progressives just detest him,” Cannon said. “This is his chance because he’s not known statewide.” “And meanwhile, defying gravity, Steve Hilton and Sheriff Bianco, the two Republicans in the race, are still at 12 or 13 or 14. They’re right there. One of them-it looks like Hilton-if the primary were today, he’d make the runoff,” he said. “So they’ll probably criticize those two as much as each other, maybe more, in the debate.” “Becerra definitely got the biggest pop out of Swalwell leaving the race, and so he’s got a little bit of momentum here,” Bevan added. “So Katie Porter and Tom Steyer, if they want to stop his momentum, they’re going to have to do it tonight.” *** Don’t miss a single episode of the RealClearPolitics weeknight radio show – subscribe at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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