The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation to boost law enforcement efforts to combat anti-Asian hate crimes. Prior to the bill's passage, however, Democrats united to block an amendment designed to discourage universities from discriminating against Asian Americans.
The amendment, submitted by Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), would have prohibited federal funding for universities whose admissions practices are detrimental to qualified Asian-American students. It failed on a party-line vote of 49-48. Sens. Mike Lee (R., Utah), Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.), and Tina Smith (D., Minn.) did not vote.
The vote came on the heels of the Biden administration's controversial decision to drop a Justice Department lawsuit, initiated under former president Donald Trump, alleging that Yale University's application process was unlawfully biased against Asians. A coalition of Asian-American groups has urged President Joe Biden to reinstate the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, an Asian-American Democrat, Andrew Yang, has established himself as the frontrunner to win the New York City mayoral race in November. Yet for some reason, the Democratic establishment and its ideological cohorts in the mainstream media do not appear eager to see Yang succeed.
An anti-Yang hit piece published in the New York Times, for example, accused Yang of making insensitive comments during a meeting with LBGT activists. "I genuinely do love you and your community," he said, insensitively. "You're so human and beautiful. You make New York City special. I have no idea how we ever lose to the Republicans given that you all are frankly in, like, leadership roles all over the Democratic Party."
The Times piece goes on to suggest that Yang has always been a problematic candidate, noting that his 2020 presidential campaign "has been trailed by allegations of a 'bro' culture" and "in one of his own books, he admits to having named his pectoral muscles, Lex and Rex."
In reality, media outlets have consistently struggled to cover Yang's political ambitions. MSNBC's coverage of Yang's primary campaign was especially bad. Yang accused the Democratic-aligned network of "trying to suppress and minimize my campaign because there are certain other candidates that they might favor."
During the primary, Yang was routinely omitted from MSNBC graphics depicting the latest poll results, even though he polled higher than white rivals such as Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) and Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.). When MSNBC did cover Yang, he was repeatedly misidentified. On one occasion, he was "John Yang." On another, the network appeared to mistake him for a Japanese billionaire. (Yang's parents emigrated from Taiwan, and his net worth is estimated at between $1 million and $4 million.)
Yang also accused NBC of muting his microphone during a June 2019 primary debate, preventing him from speaking unless called upon.
These concerning developments raise a number of troubling questions. For example: Why don't Democrats want Asians to succeed? A Washington Free Beacon investigation was unable to find a satisfactory explanation.