Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: It's about much more than gun violence

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We begin today with Charles Blow of The New York Times utilizing racist text messages sent by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson to examine why lynch mobs behave the way they do. (Warning: link contains narratives of extreme violence.)

The Times reported Tuesday that one of the texts that most likely contributed to Carlson’s firing from Fox News was one he sent to a producer, describing a video of a street fight in which “a group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid” and beat him. “Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously,” Carlson continued. “It’s not how white men fight.”

He then confessed: “Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they’d hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it. Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: This isn’t good for me.”


That’s a lot to unpack.

To start, Carlson attempts to racialize the idea of dishonor in combat, exempting white men from it, which is ridiculous. Human beings behave both honorably and dishonorably, regardless of race.

But more important to me was his description of his immediate descent into sympathizing with the savagery, and how that kind of descent is a mental progression that has, in so many instances, fostered or tolerated all types of violence in this country and around the world.

Note: The collection of relics from public executions and lynchings isn’t necessarily racist; no matter whether the relic is real or imagined or fake. I do think that collecting “souvenirs” from public executions and lynchings is rather macabre which is also to say that I find relic collection to be somewhat fascinating.

Zeeshan Aleem of MSNBC looks at the circumstances behind the death of Jordan Neely on a New York subway train this past Monday (a death which has now been ruled a homicide).

Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old man who reportedly was homeless and had a history of mental health issues, started shouting at passengers while traveling on the F train in Manhattan. “'I don’t have food, I don’t have a drink, I’m fed up,’” the man yelled, a witness told The New York Times. “‘I don’t mind going to jail and getting life in prison. I’m ready to die.’” He also apparently used threatening language — a law enforcement source with knowledge of the case told NBC News that an eyewitness said Neely said, “I’ll hurt anyone on this train.” Then, according to the New York Post, a 24-year-old Marine veteran came up behind Neely, took him to the ground and put him in a chokehold.

The chokehold was notable for a few reasons. No reporting indicates that Neely attempted to harm someone before he was placed in it. The person who placed Neely in a chokehold approached him from behind. The chokehold — a potentially lethal restraining position which aims to restrict blood flow or air flow —lasted 15 minutes, according to a witness. And news reports and video footage indicate that the chokehold was held well after the train had stopped and authorities were alerted, with multiple men helping restraining Neely after most passengers had left the subway car. In footage of the incident, a bystander can be heard expressing concern about the risk of Neely dying, in part because of the perceived intensity of the chokehold.

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It can't be forgotten that Neely's death took place as a broader policy regime and culture of stigmatizing people without housing makes incidents like this more likely. New York Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, has pushed for aggressive encampment sweeps and involuntarily hospitalizing mentally ill people while simultaneously pushing for cuts to homeless services. One point of focus for him has been removing homeless people from the subway system. Coupled with his fearmongering about crime and emphasis on aggressive policing, Adams and his allies have contributed to an atmosphere of paranoia about some of the most marginalized people in the city. But what's needed is far more investment in social services and supportive housing — and a culture of compassion for people who are suffering.

There has been an increasing “permission structure” in the U.S. for killing or injuring homeless people, whether homeless people are creating a disturbance, whether they sit by themselves, or even if they’re sleeping in the public eye. And frequently, it is groups of people that do the attacking.


Aaron Blake of The Washington Post cites new polling that continues to show (among other things) that even a sizable portion of Republican-leaning voters think that Fox News lies.

In a new poll from the Economist and YouGov, Americans say, 51 percent to 21 percent, that Fox hosts said things about the 2020 election that they knew to be untrue. Remarkably, even Fox’s base of Republican-leaning Americans takes a dim view: Nearly as many Republicans said Fox hosts effectively lied (31 percent) as dispute that assertion (34 percent). The near-even split was similar among supporters of Donald Trump: 30-35.

The poll also shows Fox ranking last for “accurate” coverage of the 2020 election. Only 12 percent overall said Fox’s 2020 coverage was “almost always accurate,” which was less than the percentages for CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC and CBS. And less than half (49 percent) said Fox’s coverage was at least “mostly accurate.” This was again lower than all six broadcast outlets tested, which ranged between 56 percent and 58 percent. (This poll, as it happens, comes from the same organization whose findings Fox touted in its newspaper ads.)


The result aligns with other polling showing that, despite Fox’s claims to high viewer trust, the network actually ranks toward the bottom when you ask Americans of all stripes for an up-or-down vote.

Roger Sollenberger of the Daily Beast reports that former U.S. Senate candidate from Texas Georgia Herschel Walker is as much of a grifter as the rest of the Republican Party, with campaign finance crimes included, apparently.

Emails obtained by The Daily Beast—and verified as authentic by a person with knowledge of the exchanges—show that Walker asked Washington to wire $535,200 directly to that undisclosed company, HR Talent, LLC.

And the emails reveal that not only did Washington complete Walker’s wire requests, he was under the impression that these were, in fact, political contributions.


In the best possible circumstances, legal experts told The Daily Beast, the emails suggest violations of federal fundraising rules; in the worst case, they could be an indication of more serious crimes, such as wire fraud.

But Walker—who had been schooled on campaign finance rules since his campaign launched in August 2021, according to a person involved in those conversations—appears to have dismissed the Washington team’s concerns that the money may have gone to the wrong place. When a third party informed a Washington Companies executive that the money couldn’t be used for political purposes, they raised the issue with Walker, asking at one point whether the funds should be redirected to a super PAC supporting his candidacy.

Bob Hennelly of Work-Bites reports that the fatality rate for Black and Latino workers dying on the job is increasing.

In 2021, the fatality rate for Black workers spiked from 3.5 to 4.0 per 100,000 workers with more than 650 dying on the job, the most in nearly two decades,” according to the AFL-CIO’s 32nd annual report, Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.

“Latino workers have the greatest risk of dying on the job, with a fatality rate at 4.5 per 100,000 workers that has grown by 13 percent over the past decade,” according to a press release that accompanied the report released to mark Worker Memorial Day on April 28. “There was also a slight uptick in deaths for Latino workers in 2021” with the overwhelming majority of the 1,130 who died being immigrants.

Overall, in 2021 nearly 5,200 workers were killed on the job, with close to 500 of those having been murdered. Another 120,000 workers died prematurely from a disease they had contracted as a consequence of their employment.

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The only government data on occupational COVID deaths was kept by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for nursing homes. Since June 2020, 3,009 nursing home workers have died from COVID with the country averaging 18 nursing home worker COVID deaths per week, according to the AFL-CIO research report.

Helen Branswell of STATnews reports that the FDA has licensed the first-ever RSV vaccine.

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday licensed the first-ever vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, completing an elusive quest that has been decades in the making. The product, GSK’s Arexvy, was approved for adults ages 60 and older.

GSK beat a crowded field of competitors to cross the finish line first. A vaccine that was developed by Pfizer and aimed at the same demographic is expected to be approved by the end of the month.

Phil Dormitzer, GSK’s senior vice president and global head of vaccines research and development, spoke of the sense of promise that many in the field of RSV research and prevention are currently feeling.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must recommend the vaccines before they can be pushed into the marketplace. That will likely happen after a CDC vaccine expert panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, meets on June 21 and 22.

David Ignatius of The Washington Post reports that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is considering possible scenarios in which China might play a role in mediating an end to the war in Ukraine.

When I asked Blinken about working with China to achieve a stable outcome in Ukraine, he gave a surprisingly frank answer: “In principle, there’s nothing wrong with that if we have a country, whether it’s China or other countries that have significant influence that are prepared to pursue a just and durable peace. … We would welcome that, and it’s certainly possible that China would have a role to play in that effort. And that could be very beneficial.”

Blinken said there were some “positive” items in the 12-point peace plan that China announced in February. The Chinese proposals includes respecting “the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries,” which implies a Russian troop withdrawal; “reducing strategic risks” and agreeing that “nuclear weapons must not be used”; and taking steps “to gradually de-escalate the situation and ultimately reach a comprehensive cease fire.”

Ukraine wants China to play a mediating role, and President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke last week by phone with President Xi Jinping. Zelensky said later that the two had discussed how to achieve a “just and sustainable peace,” without territorial compromises by Ukraine. A Chinese readout stressed that “all parties should seize the opportunity to accumulate favorable conditions for a political solution to the crisis.”

A Le Monde editorial says that it is imperative that La France Insoumise leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon get out of the way so that the French Left can unify under another leader.

Mélenchon's behavior during the pension reform conflict is all the more surprising because none of his predictions have come true: young people have not taken to the streets en masse, the Fifth Republic has not been brought down, the calls for "insurrection" have not yielded any conclusive results. Even if the anger of the French is undeniable, it has not led, at least for now, to the collapse of a central political bloc. Mélenchon is betting this collapse will lead to a direct confrontation with Le Pen from which he hopes to emerge a winner. On the contrary: the more radical he becomes, the stronger she gets.

The malaise is palpable within La France Insoumise where its leader, over the months, has lost his clout. First, he no longer is a member of parliament, by his own choice. Second, he no longer unites, giving instead the impression of retreating against potential competitors. François Ruffin has become one of the most serious. Strengthened by his experience, Ruffin dreams of rebuilding a social left capable of rallying voters from LFI to the center.

The history of the left has been marred by power struggles. The current one, however, is taking place in the particular context of the rise of the far right. In order to hope to counter this, the left must remain united. And in order to hope to remain united, the left must find the means to make all its different branches coexist. Until now, Mélenchon has been a fierce opponent of pluralism, which he associates with inefficiency and dilution. Today, he must reevaluate this stance or risk becoming the gravedigger of what he has managed to build so far.

Finally today, Christian Oliver of POLITICO Europe gives a preview of the upcoming May 14 presidential elections in Turkey.

Turkey’s brutal cost of living crisis is the No. 1 electoral battleground. Kılıçdaroğlu hit a nerve when, onion in hand, he delivered a warning from his modest kitchen — no Saray for Mr. Kemal — that the cost of a kilo of onions would spike to 100 lira (€4.67) from 30 lira now, if the president stays in power.

Stung, Erdoğan insisted his government had solved Turkey’s food affordability problems, saying: “In this country, there is no onion problem, no potato problem, no cucumber problem.” But most Turks know Kılıçdaroğlu’s arithmetic is not outlandish; he is an accountant by training, after all. Annual inflation hit a record high of 85.5 percent last October, and ran at just over 50 percent in March. The Turkish lira has plunged to 19.4 to the dollar from about 6 to the dollar in early 2020.

In contrast to those bread-and-butter campaign issues, the main thrust of the opposition’s manifesto for switching power away from the presidency sounds legalistic. There are provisions to end the president’s effective veto power, ensure a non-partisan presidency and impose a one-term limit. Parliament will be strengthened by measures ranging from a lower threshold for a party to enter the assembly to greater use of independent experts in committees.

Try to have the best possible day, everyone.