Greg Sargent Profile picture
Aug 1, 2019 6 tweets 5 min read Read on X
Trump has another rally in Ohio today. Will we get another Two Minute Hate?

Analysts say such displays are emboldening right wing extremism. Time to ask whether officials inside government want Trump to dial back the hate for safety purposes.

New piece:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
I interviewed a former National Security Council official about Trump's hate rhetoric and its impact on domestic extremism.

Awful:

“Trump is getting a wide circle of elected Republicans to acquiesce in his horrible language, and some even to excuse it."

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
Trump's own intelligence officials are warning about white supremacist activity.

But we need to ask a follow up question.

To what degree are those officials concerned that *Trump's* displays are fueling the threat?

Dems should demand an answer to that:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
Here's another disconcerting thought.

Trump's racist displays are slowly expanding the boundaries of what GOP officials will tolerate as publicly acceptable.

As @jtlevy says, Trump is changing what GOP voters expect from their elites:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
@jtlevy National security pros say Trump's rhetoric is fueling domestic extremism.

@FrankFigliuzzi1 says it "empowers hateful and potentially violent individuals."

The DHS analyst who was pushed out in 2009 tells me Trump is "mainstreaming their message":

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…
@jtlevy It's important to see Trump's attack on Rep. Cummings' district as a racist trope with a long history, one that fits comfortably into the story he's telling, which depicts urban, multicultural America as a place to be hated and feared:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/…

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More from @GregTSargent

Nov 5
Remarkable: In Virginia and New Jersey, Spanberger and Sherrill erased the GOP edge among working class. Per exit polls, each got 50% of noncollege voters, big gains over previous contests.

Anti-Trump politics appeals to working class, too!

New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/202732…
An absurd media trope in runup to the election said Dems must choose between being "anti-Trump" and running on substance.

Lesson from this elex is that anti-Trump politics *is* affordability politics, and affordability politics *is* anti-Trump politics:

newrepublic.com/article/202732…Image
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The results decisively refute need for false choice between "anti-Trump" and affordability. In exit polls, Spanberger and Sherrill both got 50% of noncollege voters, and both got *huge* majorities of nonwhite noncollege voters. Reverses Trump gains bigly:

newrepublic.com/article/202732…Image
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Read 6 tweets
Oct 27
Trump screws his voters again: He just denied disaster aid to Maryland (while giving it to red states). But I took a look. Turns out the ailing Maryland counties are in Appalachia and backed him by 40 and 54 points.

On the pod, @stevebenen and I discuss:
newrepublic.com/article/202263…
When Trump denied disaster aid to Maryland, he apparently thought he was punishing a blue state. But afflicted areas are Garrett and Allegany counties. Western MD is Appalachia. Those counties are deep in Trump country.

Details on pod w/ @stevebenen:

newrepublic.com/article/202269…Image
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@stevebenen Those Maryland counties deserved this aid. The damage clearly qualified for federal assistance. Yet Trump denied Maryland (plus VT, IL) aid with no serious explanation (while giving it to MO, AK, NE, ND). We all know why.

@stevebenen is good on this:

newrepublic.com/article/202269…Image
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Read 4 tweets
Oct 18
Trump's agents shot Marimar Martinez, a US citizen, multiple times for allegedly menacing them with her car in Chicago. Only hours later, Kristi Noem and DHS started spreading disinfo about the shooting.

Now the official line is crumbling. 1/

(link)
newrepublic.com/article/201957…
DHS said agents were "boxed in by 10 cars," and suggested she brandished a gun, which "forced" an agent to open fire. She "drove herself to hospital."

But charging doc only discusses two cars, doesn't mention gun, and ambulance took her to hospital. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/201957…Image
DHS also said her car "rammed" the agents' vehicle. But the Chicago Sun-Times reports that her lawyer says body cam footage undermines the notion that she drove her vehicle toward them and shows an agent saying "do something, bitch" before shooting. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/201957…Image
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Read 6 tweets
Oct 17
News on Trump boat bombings --> Now that SouthCom Commander Alvin Holsey resigned, likely over bombings, ranking Armed Services Dem Adam Smith tells me committee Ds will demand Holsey's sworn testimony and press Rs to join them.

Smith spoke to us on pod:
newrepublic.com/article/201905…
This fiasco has gotten worse. Some highlights from my pod talk w/ ranking Armed Services Dem Adam Smith: First, he says SouthCom Commander Alvin Holsey was likely pushed out over the boat bombings and that he's heard stuff to this effect from inside:

newrepublic.com/article/201914…Image
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This is incredible. Rep Adam Smith tells me the administration has given lawmakers *zero* in the way of the most basic information about the bombings. He says this is nothing like previous situations where basic info was supplied. In this case, nothing.

newrepublic.com/article/201914…Image
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Read 4 tweets
Oct 11
This week, MAGA figures claimed Kristi Noem "stared down" violent antifa protesters in Portland. Turns out they were talking mostly about a guy in a chicken suit.

This opens a window into MAGA propaganda and MSM's failure to cope with it. 1/

(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/201669…
Trump and Stephen Miller have relied on an army of MAGA "influencers" disseminating a fraudulent picture of Portland in chaos, to bolster the case for deploying military.

NYT has a good piece on this. But it made several missteps worth highlighting. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/201669…Image
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NYT piece calls these MAGA types "provocateurs." It describes "dueling versions of reality." Common MSM tropes.

But these aren't provocateurs. They're propagandists. Only one side is employing deliberate deceptions on vast scale for instrumental ends. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/201669…Image
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Read 7 tweets
Oct 10
Appalling: JB Pritzker tells me he hasn't been able to get a single convo with Kristi Noem or any other top Trump officials to even discuss their Chicago operations. Pritzker just wants heads up for logistical reasons. Nada.

Pritzker opens up on the pod:
newrepublic.com/article/201604…
JB Pritzker has also been emphatically placing Trump's mental decline front and center. On our pod, he adds a new element: People around Trump are using his decline to manipulate him, so they're less likely to intervene. More Dems should say this.

newrepublic.com/article/201606…Image
Stephen Miller just said the Chicago ICE raid was one of the most successful police operations ever. I asked Pritzker to respond.

"If this was Pinochet’s Chile, if this was Argentina under authoritarian rule, maybe you’d call it successful," he said. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/201606…Image
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Read 6 tweets

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