NBC Blasted For Hiding Party Label After Democrat Rep Hit With 25 Ethics Charges And Possible Prison Term

According to Western Journal, the Florida lawmaker has been charged with a raft of federal offenses, including allegedly overbilling the Federal Emergency Management Agency by $5 million in COVID relief funds and diverting the money to personal luxuries and political ambitions. Prosecutors say the funds bankrolled everything from her congressional campaign to a 3.14-carat Fancy Vivid Yellow Diamond ring, and if they secure the maximum penalties, Cherfilus-McCormick could spend up to 50 years behind bars.

Her troubles are not confined to the criminal courts, as her position in the House is now in serious jeopardy. At a rare public hearing on Friday, the House Ethics Committees special subcommittee approved summary judgment against her, an extraordinary step that functions as a formal finding of guilt on ethics charges.

March 29, 2026

The congresswoman has reportedly refused to resign, forcing her colleagues to contemplate the most severe internal sanction available. As a result, a movement is building to expel her from the House even before a jury weighs in on the criminal case.

The media coverage of this scandal has been as revealing as the charges themselves, particularly in how some outlets have handled her party label. One glaring example came from NBC News, which managed to craft a headline and subheadline about a sitting member of Congress facing 25 ethics charges without once mentioning that she is a Democrat.

Instead, NBC waited until the opening sentence to acknowledge her partisan affiliation, and even then only in the most perfunctory, stylebook-driven way. After a rare and dramatic public hearing, a special House Ethics subcommittee on Friday found Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., guilty of 25 ethics charges, capping a three-year investigation into allegations she stole millions in federal relief funds and funneled some of that to her congressional campaign, the lede read.

The network then effectively buried the Democrat label, not revisiting it until deep into the story. It resurfaced in the eighth paragraph, where NBC noted that several Democrats also called on Cherfilus-McCormick to either resign or be expelled.

Even then, the one Democrat quoted by name was hardly a party loyalist in good standing. That role fell to Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, a lawmaker who has frequently clashed with her own partys leadership and drawn its ire for doing so.

You cant crime your way into legitimate power, she said, cutting through the euphemisms that often surround political scandal. Since she was found guilty, she should resign or be removed.

NBC also acknowledged that Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries did not answer when asked Friday if Cherfilus-McCormick should remain in the House. That silence is striking, given that Democrats have known about the ethics concerns for quite some time.

Cherfilus-McCormick was first referred to the House Committee on Ethics by the Office of Congressional Ethics in December 2023, a full two years before her indictment. Party leaders have therefore had ample opportunity to take a clear public stance, yet have largely chosen to sidestep the issue while the case metastasized.

For conservatives long skeptical of the corporate press, this episode reinforces a familiar pattern: When a Republican stumbles, the party label is shouted from the rooftops; when a Democrat is engulfed in scandal, the D after the name suddenly becomes an afterthought. The old online adage still resonates for a reason: You may think you distrust the media enough, but you probably do not distrust them enough.

If Cherfilus-McCormick had an R instead of a D next to her name, one can easily imagine the kind of headline that would have greeted readers. It would read something like: House panel finds Republican Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick Republican-style guilty of 25 Republican ethics charges. Also, Republican. Can we say Republican again? Sure. Republican.