So Many Lies, So Little Time - GOP Presidential Primary Debate
Trump’s Surrender Will Foul the Airwaves this Week
Today’s writing should be one of those “I did it, so you don’t have to” stories, I’m afraid it’s already too late. The oxygen will be sucked out of the media atmosphere this week by a former president being booked and arraigned for charges stemming from an attempt to subvert the 2020 election.
Eight wannabe Republican presidential candidates hoping to get noticed in Milwaukee during Wednesday’s first debate of the primary season. They’ll will have to work extra hard to get noticed as Donald Trump’s utterances are likely to be given top billing during this week’s news cycle.
The candidates will answer questions fielded by Fox News’ Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. They have already signaled that, although Trump is not appearing, his presence will dominate the conversation thanks to candidates being asked for their opinions on Trump’s 91 alleged crimes.
It’s also worth noting Fox News' initial enthusiasm for the candidacy of Fla Gov. Ron DeSantis has been replaced with less-than-subtle support for Vivek Ramaswamy, according to the Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona:
The network had already grown increasingly tough on DeSantis over the summer, but the change has been remarkable: Over the past week, Fox News has mentioned Ramaswamy at least 200 times … Fox & Friends has seemingly set the tone for the network’s shift away from DeSantis in its quest for an electable GOP hopeful who isn’t the quadruply indicted Trump.
Those meeting the Republican National Committee’s qualifying criteria (40,000 donors & 1% in qualifying national and state polls).are:
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley
Former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson
Former vice president Mike Pence
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott
Declared candidates not appearing include:
Miami Mayor Francis X. Suarez
Former Texas congressman Will Hurd
Media personality Larry Elder
Business executive Perry Johnson
In a normal political year in a normal political world, this first debate would present an opportunity to introduce themselves to the viewing audience — or recast their existing persona. However, there is nothing normal about the 2024 presidential election.
Any Republican candidate will be bound (at least theoretically) to a set of assumptions surrounding elimination of the vestiges of the New Deal, a commitment to continuing white people’s supremacy in the political arena, and rolling back civil rights gained during the second half of the 20th century.
None of them will use those actual words, and there likely will be slight differences in their approaches, but these are the expectations the former President has raised and made into canon in the party.
One thing all the candidates will be forced to do to sell this agenda to their party’s followers is to lie. Any candidate who thinks they can win based on facts/truth will be running against assumptions baked into orthodox mythology in recent years.
This week’s favorite flavor of falsehoods involves finding a straw man to replace climate change as a factor in the Maui fires. The Daily Wire's Michael Knowles has floated a conspiracy theory about "radical environmentalists" being responsible for the fires. Other right-wing media figures have placed the blame on wokeness and DEI programs. Thus far, Antifa has escaped blame.
The “responsible” way (and what you’ll likely hear) of reminding conspiracy minded followers about Maui is to say the current president’s response was lacking. Which is, of course, not true and being spread via the very same internet ecosystem that spread caca about the president ignoring the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Radley Balko, writing in his Substack newsletter The Watch, came up with a biting list of questions he’d like to be asked at the debate. It’s worth a read.
It’s testament to the clown-show-in-a-dumpster-fire era through which we’re surviving that it’s actually now necessary to ask the leading lights of the Republican Party if, for example, suspected drug smugglers should be executed without a trial. Or if they support lining the border with saw blades and razor wire to mutilate migrants. Or if the former vice president is guilty of treason for following the Constitution. Or if they think Bill Gates drinks the blood of children.
Yet this is where we are, now. Or at least, this is where the Republican Party seems to be.
For those candidates appearing in Milwaukee, all the lies will be overshadowed by proclamations by the biggest liar of them all, the man who told 30,573 public lies during the four years of his administration.
Donald Trump has already taped an interview with former Fox personality Tucker Carlson. It will air on the same evening as the GOP debate via a social media livestream. It’s his obscene gesture aimed at Fox News/Rupert Murdoch since they no longer favor him all the time.
The most interesting part of the Tucker piece will be whether Trump can stay within the lines of restrictions being imposed by the $200,000 Georgia bail bond agreement. (Bail broke down to $80,000 for the racketeering charges and $10,000 apiece for each of the other counts.)
Via Politico:
“The Defendant shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him or her to be a codefendant or witness in this case or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice,” according to the order, which is also signed by Trump’s attorneys Drew Findling, Marissa Goldberg and Jennifer Little.
That restriction also includes a prohibition on any “direct or indirect threat of any nature against the community or to any property in the community.”
“The above shall include, but are not limited to, posts on social media or reposts of posts made by another individual on social media,” the order reads.
Trump has a pass –in my opinion– to say anything he wants in the Carlson interview, as his lawyers (who actually signed the document) will assert the taping occurred prior to issuance of the bond terms.
Regardless, you can be sure the former President will infuse his commentary with language that is either overtly racist or is coded in ways that appeal to racists.
Via the Associated Press:
The early Republican presidential front-runner has used terms such as “animal” and “rabid” to describe Black district attorneys. He has accused Black prosecutors of being “racist.” He has made unsupported claims about their personal lives. And on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump has deployed terms that rhyme with racial slurs as some of his supporters post racist screeds about the same targets.
The rhetoric is a reminder of Trump's tendency to use coded racial messaging as a signal to supporters, an approach he has deployed over several decades as he evolved from a New York City real estate tycoon to a reality television star and, eventually, the president. Even if he doesn't explicitly employ racial slurs, his language recalls America's history of portraying Black people as not fully human
National Democrats will be heeding the demands of wealthy donors (who don’t like the party’s messaging) and “fighting back” with a unified message during the debates.
Billboards are being placed near Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, where the debate is being held.
A plane will be flying overhead (at night?) with banner reading: “GOP 2024: A Race for the Extreme MAGA Base.” The DNC has organized a “War Room” of staffers ready to push back on social media about GOP claims.
The overall messaging strategy is good, namely painting the Republican candidates as Trumpian and extreme. This worked in 2022 competitive legislative contests and will work even better in this election. I’m just not sure about how much coverage it will garner with the huge ego of the former president on display.
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Finally, some words of wisdom from the former guy’s cousin Mary Trump:
We’re also entering an extraordinary era of gaslighting from the right, normalization from the media, and the prospect of massive amounts of disruptions caused by the four trials of defendant Donald Trump. All of this because a man who attempted a coup against his own country; who stole highly classified documents from the American people; who committed election fraud by paying off a woman with whom he had an extra-marital affair; who has been accused of running a crime syndicate in Georgia for the sole purpose of helping him steal the 2020 election is still being allowed to run for president in 2024.
The Republican Party will do everything in its power to implicate President Biden in crimes he did not commit and potentially impeach him over fabricated infractions. The media will do everything in their power to keep the focus on Donald while preserving their coverage of the horse-race. In other words, this will all be so much noise. To the extent that it’s possible, we need to ignore it. The trials will be protracted by unnecessary delays; Donald’s social media accounts will continue to be grotesque and unhinged. None of it will be worth paying attention to. Instead, we must marshal our resources and protect our sanity. The next fourteen months leading up to the 2024 election will be the wildest and most draining in modern American history.
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Taco Tuesday Tasty News Bits
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Wildfires are about to burn California politicians via Politico
… there’s a growing acknowledgement that it may be time to try exposing homeowners to the actual costs of living in a fire-prone area.
“Everything’s on the table, and I don’t rule out something being done,” Rubio said.
The shrinking of the state’s insurance market has been gradual but with some dramatic moments. State Farm, Allstate and Farmers announced pullbacks this spring, citing the risk of wildfire as well as rising costs related to inflation and global disasters. Industry sources now estimate there’s 20 percent less availability for insurance options than there was a year ago.
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Ark Dept of Ed Demands Schools Hand Over African-American Studies Materials Via the Meidas Touch (No word yet on when the book burning is scheduled)
The Arkansas Department of Education continues to ratchet up it's attempts to eradicate all vestiges of African-American History in schools. First, they refused to pay to take the AP Exam, then they said they were going to refuse credits for the course.
But that wasn't enough for Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who claims that the class teaches people to "hate America."
Now, the State Department of Education has sent out a letter demanding that every school hand over all books and course materials in their possession on African-American history to the state.
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Man who fatally shot woman for having a Pride flag is a far-right religious zealot and son of a cop Via Daily Kos (I’m not clear about why the “cop” part was included in the headline; the man was estranged from his father)
This killing comes in the midst of a Republican-led wave of anti-LGBTQ+ radicalism gripping Southern California. For those following these recent political attacks against LGBTQ+ existence: the rhetoric on Travis Ikeguchi's online profiles was extremely familiar.
It's clear that Ikeguchi's worldview was influenced by the far-right media landscape that has been relentlessly targeting LGBTQ+ existence. He shared Leave Our Kids Alone movement (self described "concerned parents") propaganda targeting schools for supporting LGBTQ+ rights. He ranted against vaccines and abortion rights. He joined in with anti-LGBTQ+ attacks against drag performances. He shared screenshots of being blocked by local schools he harassed for supporting LGBTQ+ people. He falsely labeled all LGBTQ+ people as groomers and child sex abusers. He demanded an end to same-sex marriage. He condemned Jewish people and Black people. He has defended Russia, Putin, and the Wagner Group. All of his posts came from the perspective of far-right Christian nationalism. He regularly invoked God, Jesus Christ, and Satan.
It's not a coincidence that this shooter favorably interacted with and often promoted content from James O'Keefe, Jordan Peterson, Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire, Andy Ngô of The Post Millennial, Rogan O'Handley of Turning Point USA, Alex Rosen, Ethan Schmidt, OANN, Fox News, The Babylon Bee, The Gateway Pundit, and other similar right-wing provocateur pages. On Gab, his posts were even more extreme and often contained incel ideologies and Nazi imagery— though he regularly criticized neo-Nazis on Gab for not being antisemitic enough or loyal enough to Jesus Christ.
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