Charlottesville shines bright despite Virginia’s own ‘shut up for a second’ Ken Cuccinelli [UPDATED]

SUMMARY: Ken “The Cooch” Cuccinelli was inexplicably invited on CNN’s “New Day” to comment on the Charlottesville riots and promptly stepped on a rake. Meanwhile, an interview on The Stephanie Miller show with 94.7 WPVC‘s Jeff Lenert is the best analysis you’ll read about the tragic events there. “It felt like a war zone,” he said. 

[ this post has updates where noted below ]

“Virginia is for lovers” is the state’s official slogan, but a faction within the state (and as you’ll read later, around the country) wants that slogan to be “Virginia is for Crackers Only.”

I split time between Charlottesville and Atlanta, so I felt the need to speak up today. My place there is literally a few blocks from the Downtown Mall where paralegal Heather Heyer was murdered in cold blood by neo-Nazi from Ohio, driving a car at speed. I will not mention his name in this post.

It’s been surreal watching the events in C’ville, because you can bet your ass I’d be down there marching and standing up for the rights of marginalized people. But I’m Atlanta right now watching in horror with the rest of the world.

What got me fully twirling today: radically conservative and disgraced attorney general Ken “The Cooch” Cuccinelli telling Symone Sanders to “shut up” on national TV. I cued up the footage above to the kerfuffle so you can take a look. It’s the saddest piece of tape I’ve seen in a long time, and that’s saying something in the age of Trump.

It should be noted that The Cooch tried to pooh-pooh the idea that Trump has white nationalists around him in the likes of Sebastian Gorka and Steve Bannon (it’s demonstrably proven that they are). “That’s an outrageous overstatement,” he said.

Simone Sanders wasn’t having it. “In Germany, there are no statues of Nazi soldiers. Children don’t go to schools named after Nazi generals. In the United States our children go to schools named after generals of the confederacy.

“Mr. Cuccinelli, are you really going to dismiss this as though it isn’t bigger than just Charlottesville?” she added.

This is where the “shut up and let me finish” happened but I’m not going to quote the rest of it here. You can watch from that moment if you like.

Asking The Cooch to come on and discuss this is like asking the fox to comment on the hen house’s architecture. He and his ilk don’t give a horse’s ass about rooting to the cause of what happened in Charlottesville. The incredible thing? Both Sanders and The Cooch were in basic agreement that Trump should do more to condemn and name what happened.

Charlottesville shines bright

I’m happy to report another development that tells me it ain’t all gloom and doom in C’ville today. Stephanie Miller did a fantastic interview with 94.7 WPVC‘s Jeff Lenert, a local radio presenter in Charlottesville. Lenert said the support and show of solidarity from other cities (including Atlanta) was a huge lift for C’ville residents.

“We can’t express how helpful that is for us,” Lenert told Miller. “We’re a sleepy college town. Armed marauders were marching down the street assaulting people at will. You can’t imagine how traumatizing this is for the community.”

A new factoid emerged during this discussion that I hadn’t heard: Lenert said Charlottesville’s peaceful counter-protestors knew the Neo Nazis were focused on causing havoc on one of C’ville’s minority communities, and proceeded down there to protect them.

“That’s where the terrorist assault occurred,” he said. “All those people were coming back from defending that community” when the horrific car incident happened and Heather Heyer sadly lost her life.

The white supremacists “have been probing our town for a couple of months,” he added, explaining that an earlier KKK rally in Charlottesville was tightly controlled by local police and “they got backlash for it.”

Stephanie Miller said she watched the footage in disbelief. “It was heartbeaking to watch—it must’ve felt like an alien invasion to you,” she said. “How did it feel to have the Mayor of Charlottesville [Michael Signer] show more leadership than the president* of the United States?”

Trump is a disgusting human being. I’ve stopped saying ‘he can’t go any lower’ because best case scenario is that he’s got white nationalists around him—worst case, Trump is himself a white nationalist.

“For Trump to insinuiate that we had some blame for this is disgusting,” Lenert said. “He’s a disgusting human being. I’ve stopped saying ‘he can’t go any lower’ because the best case scenario is that he’s got white nationalists around him—worst case, Trump is himself a white nationalist.”

Which brings us back to the initial interview The Cooch: he took it upon himself to deny that Steve Bannon and Seb Gorka are part of this fringe white-nationalist movement—which everyone knows is true except for Cuccinelli.

Lenert praised Miller for her work on the radio. “You are making an impact. You are heard in this town.”

He closed by saying that people need to voice their outrage—forcefully and often.

“If you’re on the fence you’re not paying attention and you’re living in your own priviledged bubble.” 🔵

 

UPDATE: Memorial for Heather Heyer is growing on C’ville’s downtown mall. Have a look below (and also check out the Twitter moment I created on this post):

UPDATE 2: Please donate to WPVC Charlottesville’s fund drive. The station is run by volunteers exclusively so they need your help to buy equipment. I’ve donated and you should, too!

 

Writer’s notes: Sign up for The Stephanie Miller Show membership here—I’m an annual member and get goodies like NSFW Happy Hour podcasts and whole lot more. I watch Mama & The Mooks every morning on FreeSpeechTV, too. Second note: I will not repost nor share the vehicle murder footage, ever. That’s exactly what that person wants and I’ve made the editorial decision not to do it.

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Will Pollock is an Atlanta-based freelance multimedia journalist focusing on pop-culture, politics, journalism & media, retail, real estate, travel, politics, and human interest. 

He is the author of two books (Pizza for Good & Leaving Triscuit), with more on the way. Sign up for the mailing list, follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram—and check out the book links below.

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