Nevada Republican Senate Nominee Adam Laxalt called out Democrat incumbent Senator Catherine Cortez Masto for backing Gigi Sohn, a President Joe Biden nominee to the Federal Communications Commission. In a press release, Laxalt challenged Masto to oppose Sohn’s nomination as the deciding vote in the Senate based on anti-police rhetoric:
“Catherine Cortez Masto has a responsibility to strongly oppose Biden’s nomination of Gigi Sohn to the FCC. Sohn is an anti-police radical who has publicly supported defunding the police and repeatedly promoted social media posts attacking law enforcement.”
The Fraternal Order of Police, which represents 33,000 officers across the nation, mirrors Laxalt’s position, publicly calling on Sen. Masto to vote against the nomination citing:
“…overwhelming and substantial concerns regarding her views and past history. Gigi B. Sohn’s social media, public policy stances, and employment history has indicated serious animus towards law enforcement officers and the rule of law.”
FOP has compiled an archive of rhetoric Sohn has published attacking law enforcement. FOP is just one of eleven law enforcement representative groups that have endorsed Trump-backed Adam Laxalt, after previously endorsing Sen. Masto in her 2016 Senate race.
Masto continues to tout the remainder of her law enforcement endorsements in her heated re-election race, ignoring that she has fallen out of favor with many police groups as she stumbles in the polls. Recent polling from Emerson College shows Laxalt pulling ahead of the incumbent by one point. Last week, NBC called Masto “the most endangered Democratic incumbent this cycle” and Laxalt a “serious threat” to Masto’s re-election, noting the outsized impact COVID policies had on Nevada. Both Laxalt and Masto have previously served as Nevada’s Attorney General.
Sohn’s proposed role in the FCC may have much to do with her beliefs that law enforcement spies on civil rights leaders in public places. Breitbart reported on a July 5, 2020, podcast hosted by Sohn where she hosted a Color of Change senior campaign manager. Color of Change is a racial justice group that advocates to “defund the police” and against cash bail. The organization is backed by Democracy Alliance, a shadow group of invite-only leftist elite donors that interject hundreds of millions of dollars into elections and progressive organizations. George Soros is an original member of Democracy Alliance.
AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool
Biden’s nomination of Sohn as the fifth member of the FCC commission’s 2-2 split board has grown stale as she was initially proposed for the position over a year ago. The Hill reports the board has operated in a four-member capacity successfully for 25 percent of its existence. To push the controversial nomination through would have more to do with politics than policy, based on a fear that the razor-thin margin in the US Senate may be lost in the midterm elections.
In Nevada, refusal to back law enforcement has been a recent point of contention after the embattled Democrat Governor, Steve Sisolak, ignored the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s role in solving the homicide of local investigative journalist, Jeff German, following the arrest of Democrat sitting public official Robert Telles. To be mum on law enforcement’s efforts is perceived as a political move due to the Republican nominee for Governor being the current Clark County Sheriff, Joe Lombardo and also a means to downplay Sisolak’s appointment of accused murderer Telles to a state board. In one week’s time, Nevada saw two murder arrests of a current and former public official after an ex-deputy Attorney General was implicated in a 50-year-old cold case regarding the vicious slaying of a teen in Hawaii.