Jeffrey Lord

Lord was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, on July 25, 1951. He earned a degree from Franklin and Marshall College.{{cite web | date = October 3, 2016 | title = Interview with CNN political commentator, F&M alumnus Jeffrey Lord | first = Kimberly | last = Givant | work = The College Reporter [F&M] | url = http://www.the-college-reporter.com/2016/10/03/interview-with-cnn-political-commentator-fm-alumnus-jeffrey-lord/ | access-date = March 6, 2017 | archive-date = March 7, 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170307210954/http://www.the-college-reporter.com/2016/10/03/interview-with-cnn-political-commentator-fm-alumnus-jeffrey-lord/ | url-status = dead }}

Lord first worked as a press aide in the Pennsylvania State Senate. He worked for Pennsylvania congressman Bud Shuster as legislative director and press secretary and for U.S. senator H. John Heinz III as executive assistant. Later, Lord worked as chief of staff to Drew Lewis, for part of the time that Lewis was a co-chairman of Pennsylvania for the Ronald Reagan presidential campaign. He also served in the Reagan White House as an associate political director 1987–1988. In that position, he assisted in the judicial nomination process for several nominees, including Robert Bork for the Supreme Court.{{cite web | title = Robert Bork's America| first=Jeffrey |last=Lord| date=December 20, 2012 | publisher = The American Spectator| url = https://spectator.org/34223_robert-borks-america/|access-date=March 6, 2016}} He also worked for Jack Kemp during the presidency of George H. W. Bush.

Lord has worked as a political commentator, contributing material to CNN, The Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, National Review Online, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Harrisburg Patriot-News. He has appeared as a guest on numerous television and radio programs. He also works as a political consultant for Quantum Communications, a Harrisburg-based political strategy firm.

He is the author of The Borking Rebellion, about the confirmation of D. Brooks Smith to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. It received a generally positive review in The Wall Street Journal.{{cite news | last = Hillyer | first = Quin | title = How the Judges Are Judged | work = The Wall Street Journal| date =August 30, 2005| url = https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB112535147307325999}} His more recent book, published in January 2016 (from which he gained the name, "The Trump Defender"),{{cite web|last1=Baer|first1=John|title=Live from Harrisburg: It's Jeffrey Lord, Donald Trump's defender on CNN|url=http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/presidential/20160713_Live_from_Harrisburg__It_s_Donald_Trump_s_guy_on_CNN_.html|website=Philly.com|access-date=9 December 2016|date=13 July 2016}} is What America Needs: The Case for Trump.

In July 2010, after Shirley Sherrod stated that one of her relatives had been lynched in the 1940s, Lord wrote an article in The American Spectator pointing out the man in question had actually been beaten to death by police officers. Lord questioned Sherrod's "veracity and credibility".{{cite news|last=Lord |first=Jeffrey |title=Sherrod Story False |work=The American Spectator |date=July 26, 2010 |url=http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/26/sherrod-story-false/1 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100727072757/http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/26/sherrod-story-false/1 |archive-date=July 27, 2010 }} He faced substantial criticism as a result,[http://www.frumforum.com/jeff-lord-defends-sherrod-piece/ "Jeff Lord Defends His Shirley Sherrod Piece"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811144721/http://www.frumforum.com/jeff-lord-defends-sherrod-piece/ |date=August 11, 2017 }}, FrumForum.com, July 28, 2010. Retrieved February 11, 2017.Beutler, Brian, [http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/sherrod-critic-she-used-lynching-to-gin-up-democratic-voters "Sherrod Critic: She Used 'Lynching' To Gin Up Democratic Voters"], Talking Points Memo, July 28, 2010. Retrieved February 11, 2017.Balko, Radley, [http://reason.com/blog/2010/07/26/the-american-spectators-mistak "The American Spectator's Mistaken History"]. Reason, July 26, 2010. Retrieved February 11, 2017. including criticism from other contributors to American Spectator.Klein, Philip, [https://spectator.org/23244_taking-issue-jeff-lord/ "Taking Issue With Jeff Lord"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811143414/https://spectator.org/23244_taking-issue-jeff-lord/ |date=August 11, 2017 }}, the American Spectator, July 26, 2010. Retrieved February 11, 2017.Tabin, John, [https://web.archive.org/web/20100727000700/http://spectator.org/blog/2010/07/26/sherrod-story-true "Sherrod Story True"], The American Spectator via archive.org, July 26, 2010. Retrieved February 11, 2017.

In August 2011, Lord wrote an article in The American Spectator criticizing Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul and the views of some of his supporters.{{cite news | last = Lord | first = Jeffrey | title = Ron Paul and the Neoliberal Reeducation Campaign | work = The American Spectator| date =August 23, 2011| url = https://spectator.org/37073_ron-paul-and-neoliberal-reeducation-campaign/}} The article sparked considerable debate within the conservative movement.{{cite news | last = Hunter | first = Jack | title = Ron Paul and Conservatism: An Exchange | work = The American Spectator| date =August 24, 2011| url = https://spectator.org/37063_ron-paul-and-conservatism-exchange/}}{{cite news | last = Wood | first = Thomas | title = American Spectator Dead Wrong on Ron Paul | date =August 25, 2011| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YpP80_J5N8}}

In March 2016, during a Super Tuesday election night on CNN, an argument ensued for several minutes between Lord and a CNN contributor, Van Jones, about Lord's defense of Donald Trump. The argument came about when a fellow contributor, conservative commentator S. E. Cupp, accused Trump of "crazy, dog whistle policy proposals", that she believed he had made to attract prejudiced voters,{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/03/02/trump-and-kkk-inspire-meltdown-on-cnn-starring-van-jones-jeffrey-lord/|title=Trump and KKK inspire meltdown on CNN starring Van Jones and Jeffrey Lord|newspaper=The Washington Post|first=Justin William |last=Moyer|date=March 2, 2016|access-date=March 12, 2016}} and because Trump had hesitated to disavow KKK leader David Duke in a CNN interview the previous weekend. Lord responded that the KKK many decades earlier had supported Democrats, so the KKK was therefore left wing. He accused those who raised these worries of dividing Americans by race.{{cite news|last1=Wemple|first1=Erik|title=Trumpite Jeffrey Lord continues making mockery of CNN programming|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2016/07/26/trumpite-jeffrey-lord-continues-making-mockery-of-cnn-programming/|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=July 26, 2016}} Van Jones questioned the relevance of the first point and declared the second point "absurd,” as Democrats at the time were conservative and Republicans liberal. Lord responded that "history matters" and claimed that Democrats continue to divide citizens by race today and that doing so is "morally wrong".{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/arts/television/cnn-commentators-argue-over-trump-and-the-ku-klux-klan.html|title=A Fiery Debate on the K.K.K. in 2016. Who Figured?|first=James |last=Poniewozik|date=March 2, 2016|work=The New York Times}}

In April 2017, on a CNN discussion program hosted by Don Lemon and featuring three other panelists including CNN commentator Symone Sanders, Lord maintained, as he had on an earlier CNN program, that President Donald Trump was the "Martin Luther King" of health care, explicitly comparing and equating Trump tactics to King tactics. This infuriated both Lemon and Sanders. Lemon ended the program after a few more minutes of discussion.{{cite web|url=http://www.rawstory.com/2017/04/good-night-goodnight-were-done-don-lemon-abruptly-ends-show-after-losing-it-with-jeffrey-lord/|title='Goodnight – goodnight we're done': Don Lemon abruptly ends show after losing it with Jeffrey Lord|website=rawstory.com|date=April 2017}}

CNN dismissed Lord on August 10, 2017, after he tweeted "Sieg Heil!" to Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters for America, suggesting Carusone was a fascist.{{cite web|url=https://money.cnn.com/2017/08/10/media/jeffrey-lord-cnn-ties/index.html|title=CNN severs ties with Jeffrey Lord|date=August 10, 2017 }} CNN subsequently filled Lord's role as a pro-Trump contributor with Missouri politician Ed Martin.{{cite news|last1=Raasch|first1=Chuck|title=Missouri Republican Ed Martin jumps into the Lord still-hot seat on CNN|url= https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/missouri-republican-ed-martin-jumps-into-the-lord-still-hot/article_7a3b84f5-f60b-540b-8e62-aff75fa9e427.html |access-date=11 October 2017|work=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|date=25 August 2017}}{{cite news|last1=Barr|first1=Jeremy|title=CNN Fills Jeffrey Lord Role With Ed Martin|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cnn-fills-jeffrey-lord-role-ed-martin-1044022|access-date=11 October 2017|work=Hollywood Reporter|date=28 September 2017|quote=The contributor announced his own hire on Twitter last week.}} Lord's firing was criticized by journalists, commentators, and Republican operatives Bill Maher,{{Cite web |last=Evans |first=Greg |date=2017-08-13 |title=Bill Maher Backs Canned Pundit Jeffrey Lord; Says “This Has Got To Stop” |url=https://deadline.com/2017/08/bill-maher-cnn-jeffrey-lord-fareed-zakaria-1202147817/ |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=Deadline |language=en-US}} Steve Bannon,{{Cite web |date=2017-08-11 |title=Jeffrey Lord: Bannon offered support after CNN firing |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/media/346166-jeffrey-lord-bannon-called-me-to-offer-support-after-cnn-firing-over-nazi/amp/ |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=The Hill |language=en-US}} Roger Stone,{{Cite web |last=Lima |first=Cristiano |date=2017-08-10 |title=Right-wing media figures rally to ousted CNN analyst Lord |url=https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2017/08/10/right-wing-media-figures-rally-around-lord-241511 |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=POLITICO |language=en}} Sean Hannity,{{Cite web |last=Lima |first=Cristiano |date=2017-08-10 |title=Right-wing media figures rally to ousted CNN analyst Lord |url=https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2017/08/10/right-wing-media-figures-rally-around-lord-241511 |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=POLITICO |language=en}} Joseph Wulfsohn,{{Cite web |date=2017-08-11 |title=Jeffrey Lord Was Unjustly Fired From a Network That Treated Him Like a Punching Bag |url=https://www.mediaite.com/online/jeffrey-lord-was-unjustly-fired-from-a-network-that-treated-him-like-a-punching-bag/ |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=Mediaite |language=en}} and John Micek.{{Cite web |last=jmicek@masslive.com |first=John L. Micek {{!}} |date=2017-08-14 |title=Analysis {{!}} CNN made a 'serious mistake' by firing him: Ousted Jeffrey Lord won't back down |url=https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2017/08/the_most_trusted_name_in_news.html |access-date=2024-11-30 |website=pennlive |language=en}}

• {{cite book| title = The Borking Rebellion: The Never-Before-Told Story of How a Group of Pennsylvania Women Attorneys took on the Entire U. S. Senate Judiciary Committee—And Won| publisher = Katco Literary Group | date = 2005 | isbn = 978-0-9646484-4-9}}
• {{cite book|title=What America Needs: The Case for Trump|date= 2016|publisher=Regnery Publishing| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Unw1CwAAQBAJ|isbn=978-1-62157-523-8}}
• {{cite book|title=Swamp Wars: Donald Trump and the New American Populism vs. The Old Order|date=2019|publisher=Bombardier Books|isbn=978-1-64293-018-4}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://spectator.org/bio/jeffrey-lord/ Jeffrey Lord-Bio] at The American Spectator
• {{C-SPAN|74260}}
• {{cite web |author=Joshua Green |title=When Ronald Reagan Endorsed Ron Paul |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/02/when-ronald-reagan-endorsed-ron-paul/70913/ |website=The Atlantic |date=February 7, 2011}}

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Category:Living people

Category:Franklin & Marshall College alumni

Category:American press secretaries

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Category:1951 births

Category:People from Northampton, Massachusetts