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Greg Sargent @ThePlumLineGS
, 6 tweets, 4 min read Read on Twitter
Lindsey Graham is right. Republicans really *were* ambushed today.

Why did Mitchell waste her time questioning Christine Ford about inanities?

It turns on the fact that Rs didn't expect Ford to be so forceful. They had a plan. It's going awry.

My post:

washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-lin…
Here's my theory on why Rachel Mitchell handled the questioning the way she did.

Repubs went into this thinking that if they could render it a wash, the handful of undecides would have just enough cover to back Kav, on the idea that this is unresolvable:

washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-lin…
Given this, they figured Mitchell could pursue questioning that seem nonsensical to the mainstream, but speak to the base in "wingnut," as @HeerJeet puts it.

Now right wing media has fodder to tell the base that the hearing was a secret success:

washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-lin…
@HeerJeet But Republicans did not count on Christine Ford's performance having a force well *beyond* whatever framing Republicans did or did not try to impose on the day's events.

In this sense, they were "ambushed," as Lindsey Graham put it:

washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-lin…
Right-wing media can tell the base the proceedings were a secret success, even as Rs avoided going hard at at Ford in a way that would alienate the suburban women who will decide the midterms.

But Ford's performance might reach them regardless of what Rs did or did not do.

FIN
Coda:

This point from @brianbeutler helps explain what's at the core of all this:

crooked.com/article/blasey…
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