{"id":44652,"date":"2025-10-22T12:28:37","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T19:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=44652"},"modified":"2025-10-22T12:28:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T19:28:38","slug":"cnn-cuts-off-pelosi-primary-challengers-discussion-of-nspm-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/10\/22\/cnn-cuts-off-pelosi-primary-challengers-discussion-of-nspm-7\/","title":{"rendered":"CNN Cuts Off Pelosi Primary Challenger\u2019s Discussion of NSPM-7"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Saikat<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Saikat Chakrabarti, who is challenging US Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the 2026 election, spoke about a recent Trump administration memo aimed at stopping at stopping left-wing political activities on CNN on October 20, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo: CNN\/screenshot)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook how CNN shut down his question and moved on,\u201d said one viewer.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Julia Conley<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oct 21, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saikat Chakrabarti, the progressive organizer who is challenging US Rep. Nancy Pelosi<\/a> for the House seat she has held since 1987, was met with stone-faced stares and laughter on CNN<\/em> when he spoke during a panel discussion Monday about the Trump administration<\/a> national security memo that one journalist said<\/a> amounts to a \u201cdeclaration of war\u201d on the president\u2019s political opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chakrabarti was joined by author and historian Max Boot, journalist Bata Ungar-Sargon, commentator and former Clinton White House<\/a> aide Keith Boykin, and former spokesperson for the George W. Bush<\/a> administration Pete Seat in a panel discussion hosted by Sara Sidner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The discussion covered the weekend\u2019s No Kings rallies, racist texts attributed to a nominee of President Donald Trump<\/a>, and US Immigration<\/a> and Customs Enforcement\u2019s (ICE<\/a>) raids in cities across the country before turning to the administration\u2019s recent strikes<\/a> on boats in the Caribbean Sea, which it says have been aimed at stopping drug trafficking and which have killed dozens of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chakrabarti said the administration\u2019s policy of bombing boats in the Caribbean\u2014vessels that, Vice President JD Vance<\/a> admitted<\/a>, could very well be fishing boats\u2014to kill people the White House has claimed without evidence are \u201cnarco-terrorists,\u201d raises alarm about the president\u2019s push to unilaterally define who qualifies as a \u201cterrorist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s policy in the Caribbean, Chakrabarti suggested, represents just one way in which the president is attempting to designate groups as terrorists. In the wake of right-wing<\/a> activist Charlie Kirk\u2019s killing\u2014which he baselessly blamed on left-wing groups\u2014he signed<\/a> an executive order in September designating \u201cantifa\u201d\u2014an anti-fascist ideology embraced by autonomous groups and individuals\u2014as a \u201cdomestic terrorist organization,\u201d despite the fact that there is no such legal designation in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Days later, Trump signed<\/a> National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), which focuses on left-wing and anti-fascist organizations and mandates a \u201cnational strategy to investigate and disrupt networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence so that law enforcement can intervene in criminal conspiracies before they result in violent political acts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The memo has recently garnered outrage from Democratic lawmakers, more than 30 of whom signed a letter condemning Trump\u2019s threats against progressive groups and organizers, but it has received little attention in the corporate media<\/a>, and Chakrabarti\u2019s fellow guests on CNN<\/em> Monday displayed little recognition of what he was talking about when he raised alarm about NSPM-7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere\u2019s what concerns me\u2014Trump is saying, \u2018I can define who\u2019s a terrorist, and that means I can kill him.\u2019 At the same time, we\u2019re seeing executive orders defining whole parts of Democratic Party<\/a> as domestic terrorists,\u201d said Chakrabarti. \u201cHere we\u2019re seeing NSPM-7, which says any anti-American or anti-capitalist or anti-Christian speech, is extremist speech.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While claiming to protect the US from drug traffickers, he added, the administration has created \u201ca task force of 4,000 agents who are being taken off of drug trafficking and human trafficking, and the actual crime, and being put on prosecuting those people who are saying anti-capitalist things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo you think that\u2019s okay?\u201d he asked the other panelists. \u201cCan you put two and two together about what\u2019s going on here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Pelosi primary challenger @saikatc<\/a> raises NSPM-7 on CNN just now:

"NSPM-7, which says any anti-American or anti-capitalist or anti-Christian speech is extremist speech. We have a task force of 4,000 agents…being put on prosecuting those people who are saying anti-capitalist\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/3lj26pRIQh<\/a><\/p>— Ken Klippenstein (NSPM-7 Compliant) (@kenklippenstein) October 21, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>