MAGA Malarkey: The Extremism You Missed From Republicans This Week
December 22, 2023
MAGA Republicans stooped to new lows this week with their extremism, hypocrisy, chaos, and — as President Biden would call it — malarkey. In case you missed it: Trump doubled down on his Hitler-esque rhetoric about immigrants, all while expressing admiration for dictators such as Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Viktor Orban, and Xi Jinping; Trump is campaigning on extending his disastrous MAGAnomics tax giveaways for the ultra-wealthy; Trump is boasting about his plan to rip away the Affordable Care Act, which would jeopardize health care for millions of Americans; and Nikki Haley called for a national abortion ban three times last week.
Meanwhile, Senator Tommy Tuberville was disappointed that Trump’s authoritarian rant against immigrants didn’t go far enough, and in 2024 we’ll be saying McBye to McCarthy.
Trump can’t stop praising the world’s worst dictators and echoing the likes of Hitler and Mussolini, doubling down on his claim that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Trump: “[Immigrants] are poisoning the blood of our country.”
CNN’s Jake Tapper: “If you were to open up a copy of Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf,’ you would find the Nazi leader describing the mixing of non-Germans with Germans as ‘poisoning.’ … There’s really no other way to say it. Donald Trump’s language mirrors this directly.”
Rolling Stone: “Trump Channels Hitler With ‘Poison the Blood’ Reference at Dictator-Friendly Rally.”
ABC News: “Trump spent his latest rally in New Hampshire praising multiple authoritarian leaders and quoting Russian President Vladimir Putin to try and discredit the criminal indictments against him.”
Trump: “President Xi of China, powerful kind of a guy. … He controls 1.4 billion people rather ruthlessly.”
Trump: “[Kim Jong Un] is not so fond of this administration but he’s fond of me … He doesn’t like this particular group of people and I understand exactly why.”
MSNBC’s Jen Psaki: “Trump is clearly slipping in this vile, violent language more and more. A dictatorial speech there, an authoritarian Truth Social post here. He is trying to normalize his extreme, fascist rhetoric to condition his supporters to be okay with it.”
Trump is doubling down on his promise to make permanent and extend his disastrous MAGAnomics tax giveaways for the ultra-wealthy.
Trump: “I will never let the Trump tax cuts … I will never let them be taken away.”
Trump: “You’re all people that have a lot of money. … You’re rich as hell. We’re gonna give you tax cuts.”
Vanity Fair: “Donald Trump Wants to Give His Favorite Corporations Another Giant Tax Cut in a Second Term: Report”
Bloomberg: “[Trump] intends to center his economic plans on extending and deepening the Republican tax cuts from 2017.”
Trump is campaigning on repealing the Affordable Care Act and boasting about how close he got to jeopardizing health care for millions of Americans.
Trump: “Obamacare is a catastrophe for American families and it has been for years. We almost got it done.”
Trump: “The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives. We had a couple of Republican Senators who campaigned for 6 years against it, and then raised their hands not to terminate it. It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!”
Trump: “Obamacare is a disaster. And I said, ‘We’re gonna do something about it.’”
The Messenger: “Former President Donald Trump said he is ‘seriously looking at alternatives’ to Obamacare in a new post on his social media platform Truth Social. He also called it a ‘low point for the Republican Party’ that lawmakers failed to ‘terminate’ the health insurance program established by the Affordable Care Act. According to the latest figures this year, more than 40 million Americans rely on the program for those who can’t afford private plans.”
Nikki Haley is no moderate – she doubled down on her calls for a national abortion ban three times last week in New Hampshire.
Haley: “If the people decided they wanted a six-week abortion bill, would you go along with it? Of course.”
Haley: “The question asked in Iowa was, ‘If you were governor of South Carolina, and they sent you a six week bill, would you sign it?’ And I said yes.”
Haley: “Is there a place for a federal law [banning abortion]? I think there is.”
Haley: “The issue that we have at hand right now is … is there a place for a federal law. And I think there is a place for a federal law.”
Haley: “The debate that we’re having in this country is … can there be a federal law that deals with abortion … I do think there’s a place for federal law.”
Despite Kate Cox’s abortion story making national headlines, Haley has been sidestepping questions and pretending she knows little about the devastating Texas Supreme Court ruling.
Jonathan Karl: “Do you think the Supreme Court in Texas made the wrong decision … Can you give a direct answer now?”
Haley: “I mean, the Supreme Court said that the law that the state put was the one that they had to follow, right?”
Karl: “Do you disagree with that decision by the Texas Supreme Court?”
Haley: “Well, I think it is the right thing that unelected justices no longer decide this. … I appreciate that Texas went more on the pro-life side.”
Dana Bash: “How would you make it more human to let Kate Cox deal with this, because she had to leave the state?”
Haley: “I don’t know the exact details of the Texas law.”
Apparently, Trump’s rants that echo Hitler aren’t far enough for Tommy Tuberville, who said that Trump needs to be tougher on immigration. Meanwhile, Republicans such as Ron DeSantis and J.D. Vance are downplaying Trump’s authoritarian-esque comments.
Rolling Stone: “‘I’m mad he wasn’t tougher than that,’ Tuberville said Tuesday when asked about Trump comparing immigrants to blood poisoning. ‘Because have you seen what’s happening at the border? We’re being overrun. They’re taking us over. So a little bit disappointed it wasn’t tougher.’”
Forbes: “DeSantis also downplayed the remarks in Iowa Monday and said Trump made a ‘tactical mistake’ by giving ‘the opposition an ability to try to make [Trump’s immigration policy proposals] about something else,’ and also told Fox News, ‘I don’t know what this means with the blood stuff, I know people are trying to draw historical allusions, I don’t know if that’s what he meant.’”
The Hill: “‘First of all, he didn’t say immigrants were poisoning the blood of this country. He said illegal immigrants were poisoning the blood of this country, which is objectively and obviously true to anybody who looks at the statistics about fentanyl overdoses,’ Vance said.”
Time to say your McByes to McCarthy. The failed speaker of the House will be leaving Congress at the end of the year. After almost 20 years in Congress, he will mostly be remembered for his unpopularity, his shameless attempts to push Trump’s MAGA agenda, and tweets that aged poorly.
SHOT:
CHASER: “After the former speaker announced Wednesday that he would be retiring from Congress at the end of the month, users of X, formerly known as Twitter, couldn’t help notice his post from Sept. 19, when he said, ‘I never quit.’”