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Greg Sargent Profile picture
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20 Jan, 4 tweets, 3 min read
It's a fitting end to this disaster that Trump is boasting about his corporate tax cut while pardoning the architect of his "economic populism" to protect him from charges that he literally ripped off Trump's own supporters.

My sendoff to the Trump era:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Remember how Bannon got back into Trump's good graces:

* Defended Trump's strongarming of Ukraine

* Called for execution of Fauci

* Urged Republicans to help Trump overturn the election

Behold the remains of Trumpism:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
I think a lot about an interview Bannon gave just after Trump's win. He promised a new New Deal moment.

Now all that's left of Trumpism is Bannon calling for the election to be overturned and getting a pardon after allegedly scamming Trump supporters:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
I talked to Bannon expert @JoshuaGreen.

Trump pardoned Bannon because he'll need dead-enders to keep his movement going now that Republicans are condemning his insurrection.

"...the sort of people who make up the Breitbart comments section," Green says:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…

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More from @ThePlumLineGS

Greg Sargent Profile picture
21 Jan
Don't get snowed by fake GOP outrage about Biden's criticism of right wing extremism. It's a sucker's game, a bad-faith effort to redefine "unity" as agreeing to absolve Republicans from blame for enabling Trump and his attack on our country. My latest:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
It's bizarre. Biden called out racism, white supremacy, and domestic terrorism.

Republicans promptly decided that in condemning those things, Biden was actually talking about them.

This may seem like standard bad faith. But there's a deeper ploy here:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… Image
Why are Republicans in such a rage?

Because Biden was 100% correct. The real threat to unity in this country — to civic peace, to democratic coexistence, to mutual acknowledgment of the legitimacy of the opposition — absolutely is right wing extremism:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… ImageImage
Read 6 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
19 Jan
Good news:

Senate Dems will introduce a sweeping pro-democracy bill today as the first bill under their new majority. Includes automatic voter registration, rehabbing Voting Rights Act, and more.

It's the Dem answer to Trump's assault on our democracy:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
In an interesting move, @ProjectLincoln backs this new package.

“Senate Republicans must make a choice: Do they stand for democracy or are they the new Jim Crow caucus?” @reedgalen tells me.

This suggests possibility of new pro-democracy center right:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
One quick correction: The bill will be announced today, not introduced. It's the first honorary bill of the new Senate, S1. Dem aide says Schumer will ensure it gets a vote, though unclear when.
Read 5 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
18 Jan
Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are playing a slimy game: They're disowning the insurrection without retracting their support for the big lie that incited it. But they have a problem: New video shows unambiguously that the lie did drive the assault. My latest:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Some choice quotes from new video reported by @NewYorker and @propublica:

“I think Cruz would want us to do this."

“There’s a f---ing million of us out there. And we are listening to Trump.”

“We’re coming for you, f---ing traitor."

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
@NewYorker @propublica Cruz and Hawley validated this lie for purely cynical purposes.

As @JVLast notes, Trump's hold over his voters is not easily transferred to other vessels.

Cruz/Hawley tried to solve this by surfing authoritarian currents in the GOP Trump has unleashed:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
15 Jan
The new Post poll has some awful findings among Republicans:

51% say GOP leaders didn't go far enough in nullifying election

56% say Trump bears zero blame for the insurrection

66% say he has acted responsibly

Behold the GOP's authoritarian core:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Just look at these poll findings among Republicans. It's very hard to be optimistic about what this portends:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Our poll also complicates a comforting narrative: That the turn away from democracy is driven by economic dispossession.

Around 1/4 of people with college degrees and +$100K household incomes largely support these attacks on democracy:

(h/t @AdamSerwer)

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
14 Jan
I've obtained a new intelligence memo warning that the lie that the election was fraudulent threatens to incite more extremist violence in future.

Trump still won't disown this lie, and many Republicans still won't unambiguously condemn it.

My latest:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
The memo says:

"Amplified perceptions of fraud surrounding the outcome of the general election" will "very likely lead to an increase" in extremist "violence."

It also cites "ongoing false narratives" that "the 2020 general election was illegitimate."

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
As former DHS official @juliettekayyem tells me, the memo shows:

"His own intelligence agencies” have concluded that “the lie that the election was stolen, which Trump continues to nurture, will motivate violence in the future.”

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
8 Jan
Let's be clear: For the far-right groups that carried out Trump's insurrection, the siege of the Capitol was a huge success, a major propaganda coup. I talked to experts in right-wing extremism about what this event really meant to them. Alarming stuff:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
"By all measurable effects, this was for far right extremists one of the most successful attacks they’ve ever launched. This will be propagandized on for the next decade."

I talked to folks tracking how the insurrection is playing on the far right:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… ImageImage
Here's a sobering detail:

The multiple security failures at the Capitol are already being treated as a propaganda victory by some on the far right, who see this as a sign of corruption and vulnerability:

cc @drvolts

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… ImageImage
Read 7 tweets

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