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A Republican’s vigorous defense of Donald Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol four years ago turned an on-air CNN discussion into a full-on debate about who was peacefully protesting, who was trespassing, and who should’ve been prosecuted.

The moment came Monday evening on CNN’s“The Source” when GOP strategist David Urban said that not only was the issue of Jan. 6 litigated in the courts, but also in the last election – “and the American people dismissed it as well.”

“I agree the beating of police officers – Donald Trump said it himself – violence is never acceptable,” Urban said Monday. “Those people that beat the police officers, that injured a police officer, should go to jail. There's no ifs, ands or buts.”

However, Urban added, “there’s a completely different story” on the Supreme Court side of the Capitol, where he said people “were allowed in” and officers “didn't seem frightened or outnumbered.”

He also told the panel that “to be factual” Ashli Babbitt “was the only person who died” on that day.

ALSO READ:'Bring it on': Defiant Raskin responds to GOP threats of retaliation for J6 investigation

But the longtime Republican’s separation of the violence didn’t sit well with CNN’s Kate Bedingfield or Sarah Matthews, Trump’s former deputy press secretary who resigned on Jan. 6, 2021, over the Capitol riot.

“That is beyond splitting hairs,” Bedingfield said referencing the Capitol police officer who died the day after the attack. “Come on."

“She wouldn't have been there that day if Donald Trump didn't spread conspiracy theories about an election that he knew was not stolen,” Matthews told Urban. “And he told those people to go to the Capitol. And so, she was there as a result of him telling her. She would not have died if it weren't for Donald Trump refusing to accept the results of the election, and you know that.”

Urban concluded the dust-up by adding that he doesn't believe that Trump should pardon Jan. 6 defendants on day one.

“I think there are lots of things the American people care about much more so than January 6," he said.

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CNN host Jim Acosta couldn't contain his laughter when a conservative commentator suggested that former President Donald Trump may have been given a green light by President Joe Biden's administration to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin. vid]

, Acosta interviewed GOP lobbyist David Urban and retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton about the new revelations that Trump had as many as seven private calls with Putin after he left office in 2021. The segment began with a clip of journalist Bob Woodward — author of the new book "War" — recounting how he learned of Trump's friendly calls with the Russian dictator as a private citizen.

Despite Woodward's reporting, Urban insisted that Trump had been "tough" on Russia during his administration, citing the stationing of U.S. Marines in Norway to shore up the NATO ally's defenses. He also argued that Russia didn't invade Ukraine until 2022, a year after Biden replaced Trump in the White House.

READ MORE:Mar-a-Lago 'is like North Korea': Here are the 5 biggest bombshells from Woodward's book

At that point, Acosta interrupted Urban to remind him that during Trump and Putin's 2018 summit in Helsinki, Finland, the former president sided with Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies on the issue of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Urban conceded that while he would have chosen to rely on U.S. intelligence over Putin, and Acosta insisted it was "hyperbolic" for Urban to claim Trump's administration was the toughest administration "in history" when it came to Russia.

Leighton weighed in during the exchange, and told Urban that the reason Putin didn't invade Ukraine during the Trump administration was because "they were already there," in reference to Russia's illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014. That invasion was widely condemned by both the U.S. and the international community and resulted in Russia's expulsion from the G8 (now G7).

"You're absolutely right colonel, they did not go in further," Urban countered, before Acosta redirected him to the original question.

"I do think we started the segment asking you, David, you know, what's he doing talking to Vladimir Putin? I mean, he didn't deny it I guess, so what does that tell you?" Acosta asked.

READ MORE:'Stop trying to make the Logan Act happen': Why Trump is unlikely to be prosecuted under law

Urban then said he didn't know "the details" of the conversations and that it could be that Trump is warning Putin to not go further into Ukraine. That prompted Leighton to interject, saying: "Oh bull."

"There is one commander-in-chief at a time. For a former president to do this kind of stuff, to talk to Putin or any rival of the United States when he is not the commander-in-chief is actually illegal," Leighton said. This is a reference to the Logan Act, which prevents any private citizen from talking to foreign governments without obtaining prior clearance from the sitting administration. Urban responded that "maybe Donald Trump was given the green light by the CIA." Acosta then cut in, asked Urban if he truly believed that, and chuckled when Urban doubled down.

"OK David. I don't know about that," Acosta said, as he and Leighton both laughed.

Watch the segment below, or by clicking this link.

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[### David J Urban Lobbying Profile - Lobbyists

OpenSecrets

https://www.opensecrets.org › lobbyists › summary](https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/lobbyists/summary?id=Y0000040965L)

David J Urban is a lobbyist who has lobbied for 9 clients in 2024, so far. See the details.

[### David J. Urban | Senior Political Strategist at BGR Group

BGR Group

https://bgrdc.com › team › david-j-urban](https://bgrdc.com/team/david-j-urban/)

=David J. Urban is a Managing Director at BGR Group. He has more than three decades of experience in the military, law, business, politics and public service ...}:

[### David Urban

Torridon Group

https://www.thetorridongroup.com › david-urban](https://www.thetorridongroup.com/david-urban)

With more than three decades of experience in lobbying and politics, the law, on the Hill and in the military, David Urban has established trusted ...

[### David Urban | American Continental Group

Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association

https://www.sifma.org › people › david-urban](https://www.sifma.org/people/david-urban/)

David Urban serves as the President of the American Continental Group (ACG), a consulting firm based in Washington, DC.

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › David_Urban](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Urban)

David Urban (born March 6, 1964) is an American lobbyist and political commentator for CNN. He is the managing director for BGR Group and serves on the ...

[### David J Urban Lobbying Profile - Lobbyists

OpenSecrets

https://www.opensecrets.org › lobbyists › summary](https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/lobbyists/summary?cycle=2020&id=Y0000040965L)

David J Urban is a lobbyist who lobbied for 53 clients in 2020. See the details.

[### David Urban

Ballotpedia

https://ballotpedia.org › David_Urban](https://ballotpedia.org/David_Urban)

David Urban is a lobbyist and political consultant. As of April 2020, Urban served as the president of American Continental Group, a bipartisan lobbying firm ...

[### David Urban | Meet our team

Gothams

https://www.gothams.com › team › david-john-urban](https://www.gothams.com/team/david-john-urban)

When business executives, government officials and nonprofit leaders face a seemingly intractable challenge, they turn to David Urban to find the solution.

[### David John Urban

American Battle Monuments Commission (.gov)

https://www.abmc.gov › node](https://www.abmc.gov/node/533370)

David Urban joined the Trump campaign in its early days as an advisor in the Pennsylvania and Indiana primaries. At the Republican Convention he served as ...

Missing: lobby ‎| Show results with: lobby

[### 🇺🇸 David J. Urban 🇺🇸 (@DavidJUrban) ...

X · DavidJUrban

96.9K+ followers](https://twitter.com/davidjurban?lang=en)

Yinzer+@WestPoint_USMA+ @USArmy/@101stAASLTDIV+ @TempleLaw+@PennFels+ @SenateGOP CoS+ @realDonaldTrump '16/'20+ 10th Chair @USABMC+@GOP on @CNN (r/t ...

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nation mag 2020

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Every West Point class votes on an official motto. Most are then inscribed on their class rings. Hence, the pejorative West Point label “ring knocker.” (As legend has it, at military meetings a West Pointer “need only knock his large ring on the table and all Pointers present are obliged to rally to his point of view.”) Last August, the class of 2023 announced theirs: “Freedom Is Not Free.” Mine from the class of 2005 was “Keeping Freedom Alive.” Each class takes pride in its motto and, at least theoretically, aspires to live according to its sentiments, while championing the accomplishments of fellow graduates.

But some cohorts do stand out. Take the class of 1986 (“Courage Never Quits”). As it happens, both Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are members of that very class, as are a surprisingly wide range of influential leaders in Congress, corporate America, the Pentagon, the defense industry, lobbying firms, big pharma, high-end financial services, and even security-consulting firms. Still, given their striking hawkishness on the subject of American war-making, Esper and Pompeo rise above the rest. Even in a pandemic, they are as good as their class motto. When it comes to this country’s wars, neither of them ever quits.

Once upon a time, retired Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute (Class of ’75), a former US Ambassador to NATO and a senior commander in Iraq and Afghanistan, taught both Esper and Pompeo in his West Point social sciences class. However, it was Pompeo, the class of ’86 valedictorian, whom Lute singled out for praise, remembering him as “a very strong student—fastidious, deliberate.” Of course, as the Afghanistan Papers, released by The Washington Post late last year, so starkly revealed, Lute told an interviewer that, like so many US officials, he “didn’t have the foggiest notion of what we were undertaking in Afghanistan.” Though at one point he was President George W. Bush’s “Afghan war czar,” the general never expressed such doubts publicly and his record of dissent is hardly an impressive one. Still, on one point at least, Lute was on target: Esper and Pompeo are smart, and that’s what worries me (as in the phrase “too smart for their own good”).

Esper, a former Raytheon lobbyist, had particularly hawkish views on Russia and China before he ever took over at the Pentagon and he wasn’t alone when it came to the urge to continue America’s wars. Pompeo, then a congressman, exhibited a striking pre–Trump era foreign policy pugnacity, particularly vis-à-vis the Islamic world. It has since solidified into a veritable obsession with toppling the Iranian regime.

Their militarized obsessions have recently taken striking form in two ways: The secretary of defense instructed US commanders to prepare plans to escalate combat against Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, an order the mission’s senior leader there, Lt. Gen. Robert “Pat” White, reportedly resisted; meanwhile, the secretary of state evidently is eager to convince President Trump to use the Covid-19 pandemic, now devastating Iran, to bomb that country and further strangle it with sanctions. Worse yet, Pompeo might be just cunning enough to convince his ill-informed, insecure boss (so open to clever flattery) that war is the answer.

The militarism of both men matters greatly, but they hardly pilot the ship of state alone, any more than Trump does (whatever he thinks). Would that it were the case. Sadly, even if voters threw them all out, the disease runs much deeper than them. Enter the rest of the illustrative class of ’86.

IFrame Content

As it happens, Pompeo’s and Esper’s classmates permeate the deeper structure of imperial America. And let’s admit it, they are, by the numbers, an impressive crew. As another ’86 alumnus, Congressman Mark Green (R-TN), bragged on the House floor in 2019, “My class [has] produced 18 general officers…22-plus presidents and CEOs of major corporations…two state legislators…[and] three judges,” as well as “at least four deans and chancellors of universities.” He closed his remarks by exclaiming, “Courage never quits, ’86!”

Current Issue

However, for all his gushing, Green’s list conceals much. It illuminates neither the mechanics nor the motives of his illustrious classmates; that is, what they’re actually doing and why. Many are key players in a corporate-military machine bent on, and reliant on, endless war for profit and professional advancement. A brief look at key ’86ers offers insight into President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s military-industrial complex in 2020—and it should take your breath away.

The West Point Mafia

The core group of ’86 grads cheekily refer to themselves as “the West Point Mafia.” And for some, that’s an uplifting thought. Take Joe DePinto, CEO of 7-Eleven. He says that he’s “someone who sleeps better at night knowing that those guys are in the positions they’re in.” Of course, he’s an ’86 grad, too.

Back when I called the academy home, we branded such self-important cadets “toolbags.” More than a decade later, when I taught there, I found my students still using the term. Face facts, however: those “toolbags,” thick as thieves today, now run the show in Washington (and despite their busy schedules, they still find time to socialize as a group).

Given Donald Trump’s shady past—one doesn’t build an Atlantic City casino-and-hotel empire without “mobbing it up“—that “Mafia” moniker is actually fitting. So perhaps it’s worth thinking of Mike Pompeo as the president’s latest consigliere. And since gangsters rarely countenance a challenge without striking back, Lieutenant General White should watch his back after his prudent attempt to stop the further escalation of America’s wars in Iraq and Iran in the midst of a deadly global pandemic. Worse yet for him, he’s not a West Pointer (though he did, oddly enough, earn his Army commission on the very day that class of ’86 graduated). White’s once promising career is unlikely to be long for this world.

In addition to Esper and Pompeo, other Class of ’86 alums serve in key executive branch roles. They include Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Joseph Martin, the director of the Army National Guard, the commander of NATO’s Allied Land Command, the deputy commanding general of Army Forces Command, and the deputy commanding general of Army Cyber Command. Civilian-side classmates in the Pentagon serve as: deputy assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy, and environment; a civilian aide to the secretary of the Army; and the director of stabilization and peace operations policy for the secretary of defense. These Pentagon career civil servants aren’t, strictly speaking, part of the “Mafia” itself, but two Pompeo loyalists are indeed charter members.

Pompeo brought Ulrich Brechbuhl and Brian Butalao, two of his closest cadet friends, in from the corporate world. The three of them had, at one point, served as CEO, CFO, and COO of Thayer Aerospace, named for the “father” of West Point, Colonel Sylvanus Thayer, and started with Koch Industries seed money. Among other things, that corporation sold the Pentagon military aircraft components.

Brechbuhl and Butalao were given senior positions at the CIA when Pompeo was its director. Currently, Brechbuhl is the State Department’s counselor (and reportedly Pompeo’s de facto chief of staff), while Butalao serves as under secretary for management. According to his official bio, Butalao is responsible “for managing the State Department on a day-to-day basis and [serving as its] Chief Operating Officer.” Funny, that was his exact position under Pompeo at that aerospace company.

Still, this Mafia trio can’t run the show by themselves. The national security structure’s tentacles are so much longer than that. They reach all the way to K Street and Capitol Hill.

From Congress to K Street: The Enablers

Before Trump tapped Pompeo to head the CIA and then the State Department, he represented Wichita, Kansas, home to Koch Industries, in the House of Representatives. In fact, Pompeo rode his ample funding from the political action committee of the billionaire Koch brothers straight to the Hill. So linked was he to those fraternal right-wing energy tycoons and so protective of their interests that he was dubbed “the congressman from Koch.” The relationship was mutually beneficial. Pompeo’s selection as secretary of state solidified the previously strained relationship of the brothers with President Trump.

The ’86 Mafia’s current congressional heavyweight, however, is Mark Green. An early Trump supporter, he regularly tried to shield the president from impeachment as a minority member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee. The Tennessee representative nearly became Trump’s secretary of the Army, but ultimately withdrew his nomination because of controversies that included his sponsoring gender-discrimination bills and commenting that “transgender is a disease.”

Legislators like Green, in turn, take their foreign policy marching orders from the military’s corporate suppliers. Among those, Esper, of course, represents the gold standard when it comes to “revolving door” defense lobbying. Just before ascending the Pentagon summit, pressed by Senator Elizabeth Warren during his confirmation hearings, he patently refused to “recuse himself from all matters related to” Raytheon, his former employer and the nation’s third-largest defense contractor. (And that was even before its recent merger with United Technologies Corporation, which once employed another Esper classmate as a senior vice president.) Incidentally, one of Raytheon’s “biggest franchises” is the Patriot missile defense system, the very weapon being rushed to Iraq as I write, ostensibly as a check on Pompeo’s favored villain, Iran.

Less well known is the handiwork of another ’86 grad, longtime lobbyist and CNN paid contributor David Urban, who first met the president in 2012 and still recalls how “we clicked immediately.” The consummate Washington insider, he backed Trump “when nobody else thought he stood a chance” and in 2016 was his senior campaign adviser in the pivotal swing state of Pennsylvania.

Esper and Urban have been close for more than 30 years. As cadets, they served in the same unit during the Persian Gulf War. It was Urban who introduced Esper to his wife. Both later graced The Hill’s list of Washington’s top lobbyists. Since 2002, Urban has been a partner and is now president of a consulting giant, the American Continental Group. Among its clients: Raytheon and 7-Eleven.

It’s hard to overstate Urban’s role. He seems to have landed Pompeo and Esper their jobs in the Trump administration and was a key go-between in marrying class of ’86 backbenchers and moneymen to that bridegroom of our moment, The Donald.

Greasing the Machine: The Moneymen

Another ’86er also passed through that famed military-industrial revolving door. Retired Col. Dan Sauter left his position as chief of staff of the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command for one at giant weapons maker Lockheed Martin as business developer for the very systems his old unit employed. Since May 2019, he’s directed Lockheed’s $1.5 billion Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program in Saudi Arabia. Lockheed’s THAAD systems have streamed into that country to protect the kingdom, even as Pompeo continually threatens Iran.

If such corporate figures are doing the selling, it’s the Pentagon, naturally, that’s doing the buying. Luckily, there are ’86 alumni in key positions on the purchasing end as well, including a retired brigadier general who now serves as the Pentagon’s principal adviser to the under secretary for acquisition, technology, and logistics.

Finally, there are other key consultants linked to the military-industrial complex who are also graduates of the class of ’86. They include a senior vice president of Hillwood—a massive domestic and international real estate development company, chaired by Ross Perot Jr.—formerly a consultant to the government of the United Arab Emirates. The Emiratis are US allies in the fight against Pompeo’s Iranian nemesis and, in 2019, awarded Raytheon a $1.5 billion contract to supply key components for its Air Force missile launchers.

Another classmate is a managing partner for Patriot Strategies, which consults for corporations and the government but also separately lands hefty defense contracts itself. His previous “ventures” included “work in telecommunications in the Middle East…and technical security upgrades at U.S. embassies worldwide.”

Yet another grad, Rick Minicozzi, is the founder and CEO of Thayer Leader Development Group (TLDG), which prides itself on “building” corporate leaders. TLDG clients include: 7-Eleven, Cardinal Glass, EMCOR, and Mercedes-Benz. All either have or had ’86ers at the helm. The company’s CEO also owns the Thayer Hotel located right on West Point’s grounds, which hosts many of the company’s lectures and other events. Then there’s the retired colonel who, like me, taught on the West Point history faculty. He’s now the CEO of Battlefield Leadership, which helps corporate leaders “learn from the past” in order to “prepare for an ever-changing business landscape.”

A Class-wide Conflict of Interest

Don’t for a moment think these are all “bad” people. That’s not faintly my point. One prominent ’86 grad, for instance, is Lt. Gen. Eric Wesley, the deputy of Army Futures Command. He was my brigade commander at Fort Riley, Kansas, in 2009 and I found him competent, exceptionally empathetic, and a decidedly decent man, which is probably true of plenty of ’86ers.

So what exactly is my point here? I’m not for a second charging conspiracy or even criminal corruption. The lion’s share of what all these figures do is perfectly legal. In reality, the way the class of ’86 has permeated the power structure only reflects the nature of the carefully crafted, distinctly undemocratic systems through which the military-industrial complex and our political world operate by design. Most of what they do couldn’t, in fact, be more legal in a world of never-ending American wars and national security budgets that eternally go through the roof. After all, if any of these figures had acted in anything but a perfectly legal fashion, they might have run into a classmate of theirs who recently led the FBI’s corruption unit in New Jersey—before, that is, he retired and became CEO of a global security consulting firm. (Sound familiar?)

And that’s my point, really. We have a system in Washington that couldn’t be more lawful and yet, by any definition, the class of ’86 represents one giant conflict of interest (and they don’t stand alone). Alums from that year are now ensconced in every level of the national security state: from the White House to the Pentagon to Congress to K Street to corporate boardrooms. And they have both power and a deep stake, financial or otherwise, in maintaining or expanding the (forever) warfare state.

They benefit from America’s permanent military mobilization, its never-ending economic war footing, and all that comes with it. Ironically, this will inevitably include the blood of future West Point graduates, doomed to serve in their hopeless crusades. Think of it all as a macabre inversion of their class motto in which it’s not their courage but that of younger graduates sent off to this country’s hopeless wars that they will never allow to “quit.”

Speaking of true courage, lately the only exemplar we’ve had of it in those wars is Gen. “Pat” White. It seems that he, at least, refused to kiss the proverbial rings of those Mafia men of ’86.

But of course, he’s not part of their “family,” is he?

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cNN's paid partisan commentators continually misled viewers about the supposed “double standard” faced by former President Donald Trump in his federal criminal indictment for allegedly mishandling and withholding classified documentsand obstructing federal law enforcement, which these CNN contributors falsely claimed to be no different than cases involving Democratic politicians — former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden in particular — which did not lead to criminal prosecution.

On Friday, a criminal indictment against Trump was unsealed, alleging that he had intentionally retained hundreds of classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, was caught on-tape bragging to guests that he was in possession of classified documents, and knowingly packed the classified documents as he was preparing to leave the White House in 2021.

In the indictment, Trump faces 37 chargesrelated to conspiracy to obstruct justice, making false statements, and withholding or corruptly concealing documents in a federal investigation. These charges make Trump the first former president to be federally indicted. (Earlier this year, Trump became the first former president to face criminal charges in an unrelated case in New York, and he still faces additional legal jeopardy in ongoing state and federal investigations stemming from his failed effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.)

After he was indicted, Trump himself, his political allies, and sycophants in right-wing media were quick to invoke federal investigations into Biden and Clinton to defend Trump. But the three cases have three vastly different sets of facts, and these erroneous comparisons do not prove that Trump is being politically persecuted.

Trump's indictment substantially differs from investigations involving Biden and Clinton

While the Biden probe is ongoing, he, unlike Trump, has cooperated with the Department of Justice investigation into his handling of classified documents. He returned documents to the government after they were found and willingly allowed the FBI to search his properties for additional material.

As the indictment details, Trump actively worked to obstruct the DOJ’s investigation and lied to the government about what documents were in his possession.

The DOJ’s decision to not indict Clinton after the probe into her use of her personal email for work also does not prove “political persecution,” nor does it undermine the seriousness Trump’s indictment.

Political lawyer Robert Kelner said that there is no “plausible comparison between the Trump case and the Hillary Clinton case.” While he believes that the FBI’s investigation into Clinton “pulled punches,” Kelner also argued that the “fundamental difference” between the cases is that Trump allegedly sought to obstruct justice, while Clinton did not.

Ultimately, according to former federal prosecutor Robert Mintz: “This is not a case about what documents were taken, it’s about what former president Trump did after the government sought to retrieve those documents.”

CNN's partisan commentators ignored these differences

Despite these facts, CNN has repeatedly allowed two of its paid conservative commentators, Scott Jennings and David Urban, to push these bogus comparisons, both explicitly and implicitly, by false claiming that the Justice Department is being ‘weaponized’ against Trump.

• On the June 8 edition of CNN Tonight, Jennings said that “the word of the night for the Republican Party is ‘weaponization.’ … This word, weaponization, this is a key argument that Trump is making and will continue to make, that your government is being weaponized against you if you are a Republican.”
• Later on the same show, Jennings repeated this, saying: “The real issue for me long-term is what does this do to the trust of institutions? You cannot have a criminal justice system where half the country believes it is weaponized, biased, politically motivated, whatever you want to call it. And so we're in this cycle now where it’s becoming more true every day.”
• On the June 9 edition of CNN This Morning, Jennings and Urban said that Republicans believe that Trump is being held to a different standard than Democrats. Jennings said: “The Republican answer to these things overnight has been how is it that Donald Trump's the only person that gets persecuted — you got Hunter Biden running around out there doing stuff, you got Joe Biden documents in the garage, Hillary Clinton bleaching servers.” Jennings added, “The Republican mindset is, if you're a Republican or if you're Donald Trump, you get held to one standard and if you are these other people you get off. That's the mindset.” When one of the anchors said “mindset is different from fact,” Urban said, “They could both be true at the same time,” that the case against Trump can be correct, and “the mindset held by a third of Americans is true and correct. Those can both exist and be true.”
• Later that day on Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, Jennings said of Republican presidential candidates criticizing the indictment: “The criticism is really all related to what they're calling the weaponization or the double standard. Why does this happen to Donald Trump? It doesn't happen to Hillary Clinton, doesn't happen to Joe Biden.” Jennings then seemingly criticized that position, which he himself has been pushing, saying: “What I find interesting though about that argument is that inherent in it is that if you believe Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden should be prosecuted for what they did, then I guess you're also arguing that Donald Trump is guilty. I mean, what you're saying is, the pantheon of this conduct is illegal across the board. And so I’m not quite certain they’ve thought that argument through to its logical conclusion.”

Urban, whom CNN has inexplicably continued to employ and allow on-air in the face of his numerous, undisclosed conflicts of interest, additionally warned that when Trump surrenders to authorities on June 13, “the Brooks Brothers Riot in 2000 ... will look like a Boy Scout camp compared to what is going to happen on Tuesday.” CNN also hosted one of Trump’s lawyers, James Trusty, to talk about the indictment before he quit representing Trump the following day.

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cNN’s State of the Unionand host Dana Bash held a Sunday roundtable discussion about the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment featuring CNN political commentator David Urban, who said that “there's plenty of blame to go around on this” and pivoted to criticizing the Biden administration. CNN never disclosed or asked Urban about his  work for Norfolk Southern, which paid him and his then-lobbying firm over a million dollars.

Urban was until 2020 the president of the lobbying firm American Continental Group, where he lobbied for Norfolk Southern on “transportation issues related to railways”starting in 2009, according to federal disclosure forms. He and his firm collected at least $1,140,000, according to a calculation of federal data by ProPublica. 

The Republican commentator is now the managing director for BGR Group, a leading lobbying firm that presents countless conflicts of interest for his on-air work. In its most recent lobbying quarter, BGR has continued to lobby on transportation issues. Its website also states: “Our clients in the aviation, automotive, rail, shipping and mass transit industries rely on BGR to educate political leaders about how vital these industries are to domestic and international commerce.” 

Urban also played a key role in the election of former President Donald Trump, who weakened safety regulations in the rail industry.

He appeared on the February 26 edition of CNN’s State of the Union,where he participated in a panel discussion about East Palestine. CNN identified him on screen as a CNN political commentator and former Trump campaign adviser.

During the segment, Bash said that the Trump administration rolled back regulations, to which Urban replied: “There's plenty of blame to go around on this, on these kind -- when these kinds of things happen. But what's important is what we do moving forward, right, to take care of the people in these towns and communities.” He then went on to criticize the Biden administration for allegedly “sloughing off” the crisis.

CNN and Bash didn’t disclose Urban’s work for Norfolk Southern and BGR’s connections to the railroad industry. And Bash didn’t challenge him on whether any of the “blame” should go to Norfolk Southern or about his own work for the company. Norfolk Southern, specifically, lobbied against safety regulations.

CNN has continued to employ Urban despite a dizzying array of ethical problems. For example:

• Urban urged a military strike against Iran without any disclosure that he worked for defense contractors.
• Urban praised then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper without the network disclosing that he personally lobbied the Defense Department on behalf of defense contractors.
• Urban repeatedly attacked environmental protections without disclosing he lobbied for fossil fuel-related clients including Norfolk Southern, which transports coal. 
• Urban repeatedly pushed for the passage of a trade agreement on-air after he was hired to lobby for it. The network didn’t disclose the conflict of interest.
• Urban touted a lobbying client’s opposition to a tax bill without any disclosure that they paid him.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/cnn/cnns-conservative-contributors-still-pushing-false-notion-fox-has-separate-straight-news-and

The latest filing in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News further demonstrates that there is no difference between the network’s purported “straight news” and opinion divisions. However, during CNN’s coverage of the filing, conservative commentators, includingDavid Urban,Alyssa Farah Griffin, and Jonah Goldberg, continued to claim otherwise — contradicting CNN’s own journalists. 

On February 27, the latest filing in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit was released to the public and revealed that Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox News’ parent company Fox Corp., and other executives knew that claims about Dominion and election fraud during the 2020 presidential election were false, but allowed hosts and guests to continue to push them.

The filing also included new details about how decisions around reporting were made to appease the network's pro-Trump viewers, rather than on the basis of facts. In one instance, the filing revealed that Murdoch instructed Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to fire then-Managing Editor Bill Sammon, who oversaw the network’s call of Arizona for now-President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election and drew ire from former President Donald Trump, his supporters, and hosts such as Tucker Carlson. The filing also showed that Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch complained that coverage of a Trump rally was too critical, telling Scott, “News guys have to be careful how they cover this rally. So far some of the side comments are slightly anti, and they shouldn’t be. … The narrative should be this is a huge celebration of the president.”

Since the release of the filing, which clearly laid out how Fox personalities on both the “straight news’ and opinion sides were influenced to deprioritize factual information, some mainstream media figures, including a CNN host and some reporters, acknowledged that Fox News does not truly have separate “straight news” and “opinion” divisions. Yet, some of CNN’s paid contributors, who have ties to the Trump administration, Fox News, or conservative circles, have continued to push the fiction that Fox distinguishes between real reporting and opinion.

CNN pundits are still pushing Fox talking points, saying that there is a distinction between “straight news” and opinion at the network 

Conservative CNN contributors Urban, Griffin, and Goldberg continued to defend Fox’s reputation as a news outlet during CNN’s coverage of the latest filing.

• Urban said that there’s a difference between “hard news and entertainment” on Fox, calling shows like Hannity or Tucker Carlson Today “the news equivalent of the WWE.” Urban has been a paid contributor at CNN for years, and Media Matters has previously highlighted numerous ethical problems with the arrangement, as the network has repeatedly failed to disclose Urban’s lobbying efforts and role in the Trump campaign. Most recently, Urban participated in discussions about the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, during which the network failed to disclose that Urban lobbied for the train operator Norfolk Southern. On the February 27 edition of CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper, Urban pushed the false notion that Fox has separate news and opinion divisions.
• [ vid]
• jaKE TAPPER (HOST): And David, Fox viewers heard these false claims night after night after night, and Murdoch apparently, according to Oliver, said it was damaging. What was it damaging though?

DAVID URBAN (CNN CONTRIBUTOR): You know what it was damaging? Their brand. Their price. How much the company — how much Fox was valued at, right? That’s what it was damaging. They weren't concerned about damaging the body republic. They were concerned about damaging corporate profits and that's what I think is the most troubling. And what Fox viewers, and what people don't understand is there's a difference between hard news and the entertainment it is, you know, 7 p.m. on, on Fox News, right. Hannity, Tucker, and those shows, which are purely — they’re the news equivalent of the WWE.  

• Griffin placed blame on Trump for Fox News hosts spreading conspiracy theories in hopes of retaining their viewership, while claiming that “there’s a lot of really good journalists at Fox, dayside programming I don’t have really any major problems with.” CNN formally hired Griffin in December 2021, despite her lengthy history of lies and distortions, including during her tenure as a spokesperson for the Trump administration. In December 2020, Griffin had appeared on Fox News and claimed there had been voter fraud in the election[ vid]

aLYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN (CNN CONTRIBUTOR): Donald Trump is a big part of this by the way, because he started to create the narrative after he spread the election lies that, you know, Newsmax is where we should go, One America News Network is where true believers are going. So there was a sense of fear within Fox that they were going to lose market share to the outlets. The reality is that they never even picked up enough that it in a major way affected the very high viewership that Fox News had. But you can just see sort of the fear he instilled in the big-time hosts, the prime-time hosts. And I just want to say, like there’s a lot of really good journalists at Fox. Dayside programming I don't have really any major problems with. But prime-time is where they make their money and it has descended into conspiracy-mongering. It is basically anything to get people to tune in and drive viewership and not risk losing to the fringier outlets.

• Goldberg placed blame on Fox CEO Suzanne Scott for her “lack of leadership,” claiming that, when it comes to Fox’s role in the lawsuit, “the opinion side basically became the dog wagging the tail instead of the other way around, and the news side basically became sort of this cleanup crew.”Goldberg is a former Fox News contributor and founding editor for conservative magazine National Review, who now simultaneously works as a CNN contributor and editor-in-chief of right-wing online magazine The Dispatch[ vid]

• jONAH GOLDBERG (CNN CONTRIBUTOR): I know too many people who work in the Fox News division to this day who are serious, honest, and sincere journalists trying to do the job right. There are too many people, including who work at CNN, who got their starts or worked at Fox for a while and have warm things to say about it, to just say that it was always a political operation. I think the problem that happened at Fox was that the opinion side was allowed to run free. Everyone likes to think that this was some grand policy, the transformation of Fox, set from above. It was really the lack of leadership under Suzanne Scott, the CEO, to reign in, curtail, discipline the prime-time people in any way to the point where the opinion side basically became the dog wagging the tail instead of the other way around. And the news side just became sort of this cleanup crew. Even in the Dominion filings, the news division comes out OK in this. Bret Baier and Special Report fact-checked this stuff.

CNN’s own journalists point out that there is little difference between Fox’s opinion and news branches 

Others at CNN, such as host John King and reporters Oliver Darcy and Phil Mattingly, have emphasized that the most recent Dominion filing shows Fox’s lack of news credibility because “news networks are supposed to inform viewers what's the truth.”

• CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy has repeatedly pointed out the lack of distinction between opinion and news at Fox.On Monday, he said, “I think this really actually exposes the fact that Fox is not at its core a news network. News networks -- they deliver the truth as they know it to viewers. They do the best job to attain the truth and sometimes it's not perfect but that's what they do.” CNN, *Anderson Cooper 360*, [2/27/23]
• When asked if he would call Fox News a “news organization” on Tuesday’s edition of CNN’s This Morning, Darcy said: “No, and that’s because news networks are supposed to inform viewers with the truth. In this case we know that Fox News knew the truth and refused to not only tell their viewers but they actually fed them lies to keep their audience because of the financial incentive. That's not what news networks do. That's what maybe, you know, propaganda outlets might do, but it's certainly not what a news network would do.” CNN, *This Morning*, [2/28/23]
• Darcy also wrote an analysis on some of the biggest revelations from Dominion’s legal filing, saying that Fox “continues to be exposed for the dishonest organization that it is – this time, with the help of its billionaire owner.”He later continued, “In totality, the documents continue to underscore that at its core, Fox News is not a news network. News networks work hard to deliver the truth to their viewers. … The documents lay bare that the channel’s business model is not based on informing its audience, but rather on feeding them content — even dangerous conspiracy theories — that keeps viewers happy and watching.” CNN, [2/28/23]
• Darcy said that “the perception that they are a news company is crumbling.” According to Darcy, “To preserve these business relationships they have to at least, have some reputation they're a legitimate news company. And I have been saying obviously that that's not the case. But the perception that they are a news company is crumbling, and this could result in damage to the actual Fox Corp. brand and really result in problems for shareholders.” CNN, *This Morning*, [3/1/23]
• On Inside Politics with John King, King claimed that “Fox is not about news, it's about opinion.” King then played clips of Fox hosts airing claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election and said, “It was not just once, it was not twice. It was this over and over and over again.” CNN, Inside Politics with John King, [2/28/23]
• In response to King, CNN reporter Phil Mattingly said, “These filings are laying bare the fallacy of the idea that there is a separation between opinion and editorial.” CNN, Inside Politics with John King, [2/28/23]

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jim h

https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/meet-the-true-trump-loyalists-influence-peddlers-practicing-the-dark-art-of-bending-government-power/

the Donald is in a funk. He’s been outsmarted by an inert virus. His poll numbers are tanking, and even his demagogic pep rallies are falling flat.

So, who to turn to for political comfort? Why, of course, Trump’s true loyalists: his diehard cadre of Washington’s corporate lobbyists. I don’t merely mean those elites of K-Street and Wall Street who dominate his Cabinet, constituting the official Trump government of, by, and for corporate greed. He also has a “kitchen cabinet.” Operating out of public view, it’s an unofficial collection of highly paid influence peddlers who’re still practicing the dark art of bending government power to the wishes of selfish corporate interests. Each of them is paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by brand-name clients — from Amazon to Walgreens — to get favors from Trump. In turn, these little-known lobbyists have now adopted The Donald as their chief client, funneling millions of special-interest dollars into his reelection campaign with the understanding that he’ll keep channeling tax breaks, regulatory exemptions and public dollars to the corporate donors. It’s the Washington money-go-round, merrily corrupting our government.

Who are these no-name corrupters?David Urban is one, considered the best-connected corporate huckster in the Trump swamp. He’s an old college pal of both Pentagon chief Mark Esper and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Moreover, he’s become such a close buddy of Donald himself that he’s known as a “Trump Whisperer,” able to work around the furies that rage in that strange orange head.

Such cozy ties to the top mean Urban gets his calls returned, an invaluable asset for his favor-seeking clientele, including Raytheon, Goldman Sachs, Bayer, Nike and Toyota. They, in turn, have made Urban rich, paying the once-obscure lobbyist more than $25 million since the Trumpeteers took office. And why wouldn’t they? For example, in 2019 the giant weapons maker Raytheon wanted to sell several billion dollars’ worth of missiles to Saudi Arabia’s royal rulers, but there was a congressional ban on such sales. No problem: (1) Raytheon enlisted Urban as their fixer; (2) he asked his pal Pompeo to meet with Raytheon’s CEO; and (3) voila! — the arms dealer promptly got a state department waiver to make the sale.

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So, Washington lobbyists like Urban are now the top strategists and fundraisers for Trump 2020, hoping to get another four-year ride on the corrupt money-go-round.

During today’s COVID-19 crisis, the PR departments of every brand-name corporation are running slick ads nobly proclaiming: “We’re all in this together!”

Simultaneously, the corporate lobbying departments are ignobly using the public’s focus on the health crisis as cover for selfishly grabbing government favors for the corporation — everyone else be damned. And Trump’s totally corporate White House has been their corrupt cohort, serving as a front-end loader for everything from more corporate tax giveaways to jiggered labor rules that stiff workers.

One of the grabbiest special interests are well-off corporate and parochial private schools, where students from some of America’s wealthiest families get their education. For years, the nonpublic entities have been lobbying relentlessly to make taxpayers finance their schools, even though the schools are not open to all and usually have a narrow ideological or religious curriculum — including some extremist courses teaching that public schools should be eliminated.

That extremist nook is where Betsy DeVos resides. She’s a multibillionaire heiress and long-time funder of far-right causes. Chosen by Trump to run America’s education department, she’s been trying — by hook or crook — to run our schools straight into private hands… but with no success. Along came the COVID-19 federal relief package, including funds to help meet the education needs of low-income students in hard-hit public schools.

Hallelujah! shouted DeVos, grabbing the coronavirus as a way to advance her ideological agenda. In May, she issued an edict from on high requiring local public school districts to divert millions of the relief dollars from their disadvantaged students, forcing them to share their allotment with even the richest private schools. Astonishingly, Trump’s haughty education secretary rationalized her directive as a matter of economic fairness, piously informing locals that they must not “discriminate” against the rich.

DeVos’ “share-with-the-rich” dictum can be a bit imbalanced. Officials in New Orleans, for example, note that under her formula, 77% of its allotment would end up in private hands. Luckily, her “order” does not have the force of law, and public schools are fighting back. For information and action, go to the National Coalition for Public Education: NCPEcoalition.org.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2019/07/26/cnn-s-ethics-mess-employee-again-used-network-job-promote-his-lobbying-client-s-cause/224331

no lnx vid

CNN political commentator and megalobbyist David Urban again used his network job to push for the passage of a trade agreement favored by President Donald Trump. Urban’s lobbying firm is being paid by a Trump-aligned group to lobby for the passage of the agreement, a blatant financial conflict of interest that CNN (again) didn’t disclose to viewers.

Trump has been trying to pass the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) as a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) since he signed the deal during November’s G-20 summit. In February, Axios reported that Republicans formed the 501(c)(4) group Trade Works for America with the specific purpose of pressuring members of Congress, especially Democrats, to support the USMCA.

On April 1, Trade Works for America retained Urban and his firm American Continental Group to lobby for the USMCA. The group has paid Urban's firm $90,000 so far, according to a lobbying report filed by the firm last week.

As Media Matters reported earlier this month, Urban used his CNN job to -- unprompted -- push for the agreement’s passage just three days after he was retained to lobby for it. On the April 4 edition of The Lead with Jake Tapper, Urban said that the USMCA has been “getting some momentum, some traction with Democrats in the House” and Trump’s threat to close the U.S.-Mexico border would “kind of blow that up” and be “a tragedy.” Media Matters asked CNN why the network didn’t disclose Urban’s financial conflict of interest during that segment but received no response.

Urban again appeared on CNN and urged the passage of the USMCA, this time on the July 24 edition of Anderson Cooper 360. Urban brought up the USMCA essentially unprompted and said that “people want to see legislators legislate” and that “the path of success for Democrats” is to pass things like the USMCA.

DAVID URBAN: So I would say what David [Axelrod] was talking about in the 2018 midterms, people want to see legislators legislate. They want to see things happen. I think the path to success -- you just saw debt ceiling raised, people -- every side kind of got half a loaf. Republicans took it on the chin, I think, in terms of, you know, incredible runaway spending, you know, which is very interesting.

ANDERSON COOPER (HOST): It is extraordinary for the Republicans.

URBAN: Very extraordinary, right? And so USMCA is coming up on the table here. There's going to be a move to -- whether they're going to pass -- the House is going to do something there. I think the path of success for Democrats is legislatively forward, pass some things, look like the body -- we can work. We're functional, not just somebody who keeps throwing bricks through the window.

DAVID AXELROD (CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR): They would say that they've passed -- they say that they passed a ton of things and they've died in the Senate.

URBAN: But, you can -- but, David, my point is pass things that get signed into law --

COOPER: All right.

URBAN: -- that's legislative.

Neither CNN, Cooper, nor Urban disclosed that he’s a lobbyist for the passage of the USMCA.

Basic ethics failures have become standard operating procedure for CNN in its handling of Urban. CNN has not disclosed Urban’s lobbying conflicts of interest on other topics such as military issues, environmental protections, and tax policy.

Urban is scheduled to appear on the July 28 edition of CNN's State of the Union. The network did not respond to a request for comment.

Posted In

Ethics

Network/Outlet

CNN

Person

David Urban

Show/Publication

Anderson Cooper 360

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Trump’s re-election campaign has been producing news-style videos featuring numerous media figures, including commentators for CNN and Fox News.

The president’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump has been hosting the video series “Real News,” which includes guest interviews and campaign propaganda. The videos, which are posted on the president's Facebook page and carry “paid for by Donald J. Trump for president” disclaimers, ask viewers to sign up for mobile alerts from the campaign, a list-building activity that the 2020 campaign can use to raise money and organize get-out-the vote activities.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Jeremy Barr reported on March 19 that conservative commentators and sisters Diamond and Silk appeared in a recent video with Lara Trump. Fox News attempted to distance itself from the campaign video by stating that Diamond and Silk “license short weekly videos to Fox Nation – they are not Fox News contributors or employees. When they appear on FNC and FBN, they do so as guests." That explanation contradictsFox News’ own identifications of the two as “Fox News Channel contributors,” “Fox Nation contributors,” and “Fox Nation hosts.”

Regardless of Diamond and Silk’s employment classification, several Fox News contributors have appeared in Trump campaign videos with Lara Trump. They include Deneen Borelli, Alveda King, David Bossie, and Mike Huckabee.

CNN analysts have also appeared in Trump campaign videos despite the president’s frequent trashing of the network as “fake news.”

[pix]CNN's David Urban and Stephen Moore with Lara Trump.

David Urban is a CNN commentator who previously worked as apaid consultant for Trump’s 2016 campaign.During a March Trump video appearance, the campaign identified him as the president of American Continental Group, a major lobbying firm that lobbies the Trump administration and Congress on a variety of issues. (Urban has used his CNN gig to specifically push a lobbying client and its interests without disclosing the connection to viewers.)

In that video, which did not mention his CNN role, Urban spoke like a Trump surrogate. The Republican commentator, who directed Trump's 2016 operation in Pennyslvania, said that “Pennsylvania is always a tough state to win. I predict, I'll say it here again, I think we’re going to win in 2020. It’s going to be close, but we’re going to win, the president’s going to put the time in; you know, we’re going to work hard and we’re going to win. I have no doubt that he will win in 2020 in Pennsylvania." He also lied about the Green New Deal, claiming that “you’re not going to have a car; forget, you know, no cows ever again.” (Urban’s firm does lobbying work on behalf of oil and gas interests.)

At the conclusion of the video, Lara Trump thanked Urban for “the job you do every single day out there fighting for the president. You really do an incredible job, and we are so lucky to have you.” Urban responded by saying that he loves President Trump and relayed that people tell him, “You may not hear it on the mainstream media, but we really like” the president. Urban also appeared in a June 2018 video and touted Trump ahead of the then-upcoming midterm elections.

Stephen Moore is a senior economics analyst for CNN who advises Trump (during a recent appearance, CNN described Moore as “an informal White House adviser”). He has made several appearances on Trump’s video program and promoted Trump’s economic message.

Other media commentators who have appeared in the Trump campaign’s videos include Fox 5 DC host, Daily Caller video columnist, and Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Stephanie Hamill; Talking Point USA’s Candace Owens; conservative troll Dinesh D’Souza; and Trump sycophant Bill Mitchell.

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ref

https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=D000021831&year=2018

2018

Total Lobbying Income: $13,270,000

Groups That Have Retained American Continental Group:| Client | Total | Subsidiary (Lobbied For) | Industry |

bunch of lobbyists, this is urban

Aiteo Global Group

Ambac Financial Group (Ambac Assurance)*

Anadarko Petroleum

AT&T Inc (WarnerMedia Group)*

Bond Dealers of America

Calpine Corp

CBI Acquisitions

Cognizant Technology Solutions

Comcast Corp

Commercial Bankruptcy Alliance

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania Higher Educ Assistance Agcy)*

CSI Aviation

Drexel University

Foundation Medicine

General Dynamics

Georgetown University

Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Highmark Health

Kaman Corp

Lendlease Corp (Lendlease Americas)*

MAG Defense Services

Mount Sinai Medical Center

National Assn of Chain Drug Stores

National Assn of Convenience Stores

National Assn of Home Builders

**News Corp**

Norfolk Southern

Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline

Pembina Pipeline

**PG&E Corp**

Port Fund LP

Project Right Side

Raman, Sushma

RELX Group

Roche Holdings (Genentech Inc)*

Roivant Sciences

Rush Street **Gaming**

Seven & I Holdings (7-Eleven)*

Southeastern PA Transportation Authority

Textron Inc

Toyota Motor Corp (Toyota Motor Manufacturing)*

Veresen Inc (Jordan Cove LNG)*

Virtu Financial

Walgreens Boots Alliance (Walgreens)*

Xerox Corp

ZTE Corp

==