Texas Republicans—definitely not owned
BY PRIYANKA ARIBINDI, BRIAN BEUTLER & CROOKED MEDIA
Wednesday, August 29, 2018 | —Former RNC Chair Michael Steele on Ron DeSantis’ obviously racist “monkey things up” comment | With primary season winding down, Republicans are lifting the curtain on a general election strategy. Surprise: It’s modeled on the historically racist, conspiratorial, dishonest campaign Donald Trump ran in 2016.
The epicenter of this campaign will be in Florida. On Tuesday, Andrew Gillum—the progressive, African American mayor of Tallahassee—unexpectedly defeated his establishment-backed rivals to win the Democratic gubernatorial primary.
By Wednesday morning, Gillum’s Republican opponent—a House backbencher and notorious Trump sycophant named Ron DeSantis—went full-bore racist, calling Gillum “articulate” and warning Florida voters not to “monkey things up” in Florida by voting for him. Less than a day—that’s how long it took for this guy to go there.
If you’re wondering whether DeSantis might’ve put his foot in his mouth unintentionally, watch the video. It was so clearly scripted that Sandra Smith, an anchor for Fox News—Fox News!—condemned his language.
DeSantis is one of the House Republicans leading the effort to obstruct and undermine Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. He introduced legislation that would have shut Mueller down after six months. He has fed a bad-faith right-wing campaign to discredit the investigation as a corrupt conspiracy against Trump by asking the Justice Department to criminally investigate James Comey, Hillary Clinton, and basically everybody who was present when the FBI began the Russia probe.
But DeSantis’s surrogates in the Florida GOP are gearing up to attack Gillum because of an ongoing FBI investigation of members of the city government in Tallahassee. FBI investigations are serious business to Republicans—when they’re against Democrats.
Culture war nonsense and situational ethics aren’t unique to DeSantis’ campaign. In Texas, for example, Republicans supporting Ted Cruz are smearing Beto O’Rourke for getting arrested shortly after he graduated from college. (Cruz most recently supported the Senate candidacy of credibly accused child molester Roy Moore, and supported President Trump’s decision to pardon race-baiting felon-propagandist Dinesh D’Souza.)
Trump continues to set the tone for Republican candidates everywhere by lying, scapegoating immigrants, and promoting conspiracy theories. He is currently ginning up the baseless claim that Google is suppressing Republican-friendly websites, which also seems designed to delegitimize election results should Republicans lose.
From Brian: It’s not unusual for negative campaign tactics to be hypocritical, but Republicans are banking on the assumption that the political press will cover their attacks uncritically, without accounting for the fact that the GOP has hitched its wagon to Trump, and all of his grossness and corruption. They can only get away with running the shameless campaign they want to run if we let them. | | |
President Trump announced that White House Counsel/star Russia investigation witness Don McGahn will leave his position in the fall. McGahn has reportedly been planning his escape for months (he can almost hear violins when he looks at the “exit sign”), but he and Trump apparently never discussed his official departure before the White House leaked the details to Axios and Trump tweeted to confirm the news. The Trump administration is denying American passport renewals to people along the border whose official birth records show that they were born in the United States, questioning the citizenship of hundreds and accusing them of using forged documents since birth. According to the Washington Post, “In some cases, passport applicants with official U.S. birth certificates are being jailed in immigration detention centers and entered into deportation proceedings. In others, they are stuck in Mexico, their passports suddenly revoked when they tried to reenter the United States.” These are literally American citizens. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is working on new campus sexual misconduct policies that would bolster the rights of accused students and decrease liability for schools when students are assaulted on their campuses. The proposed rules would also create a higher legal standard for determining whether or not schools addressed complaints improperly. Betsy DeVos is despicable. Paul Ryan’s Super PAC got a hold of a Democratic candidate’s unredacted federal government personnel file—including the security clearance application she filled out to become a CIA officer. Combine this extraordinary breach of privacy with the racist and Islamophobic ads Ryan’s PAC is running this cycle, and suddenly it’s clear why Ryan hid from the press when asked to condemn Trump’s behavior. He’s fine with it. The Supreme Court of West Virginia has denied failed Republican Senate candidate/“Cocaine Mitch” guy Don Blankenship's petition to appear on the midterm ballot as a candidate for the Constitution Party. If he had been allowed in the race, Blankenship, who captured nearly 20 percent of the vote in the Republican primary, could have siphoned votes from Republican nominee Patrick Morrisey, which would have provided a valuable boost to vulnerable incumbent Joe Manchin. California became the first U.S. state to pass a resolution denouncing “corrective” surgeries of intersex children, Major League Soccer star Clint Dempsey is retiring from the Seattle Sounders and the U.S. Men's National Team. Dempsey played professionally for 15 years, and is tied with Landon Donovan for most goals scored for the U.S. Men’s National Team of all time. Trump is baselessly accusing China of hacking Hillary Clinton’s emails. The FBI reiterated that it has found no evidence that servers she used while secretary of state were compromised.
Sarah Palin hasn’t been invited to John McCain’s funeral.
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Last week, our very stable genius President tweeted the racist conspiracy theory that white farmers in South Africa are being murdered at an alarming rate and stripped of their land. This is, of course, bullshit, but the truth is complicated. The Economist’s Africa bureau chief joins Tommy to sort it all out on Pod Save the World.
Listen →
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According to a new survey, a majority (55 percent) of millennials will definitely or probably vote in midterm elections this November, but 25 percent aren’t sure, and 19 percent say they probably or definitely won’t vote. Meanwhile, the survey also found that 59 percent of millennials want Democrats to control Congress and only 16 percent approve of how Congress is doing its job. Young voters can make a huge difference but only if they show up at the polls. Go to VoteSaveAmerica.com to make sure you’re registered and sign up for more information as the elections get closer → | | |
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