Missed most of the Maxine Waters discourse yesterday, but it's funny that after months of Dem hand-wringing about how they handled protests last year, the 82-year old chair of the Financial Services Committee committee decided protesters needed to hear from her
Waters turns 84 this term, part of this story is the "never retire" mindset that gave Democrats popular hits like a 6-3 conservative SCOTUS and Alcee Hastings's seat being vacant indefinitely
The problem here isn't a politician giving a speech to protesters - it happens all the time, you usually don't hear about it bc they're careful not to say stuff that would look bad if violence breaks out
Waters just keeps stumbling her way into these stories, from saying she wanted to "take Trump out" in 2017 from telling protesters to "create a crowd and push back" against Trump officials in 2018. Most Dems agree with protesters yet manage to not make these gaffes.

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More from @daveweigel

17 Apr
I missed the campaign trail
Dan Rodimer watching one of his campaign videos on the big screen
Read 7 tweets
8 Apr
One irony of the State Legislative Supremacy fad is that the further voters go down the ballot, the less they pay attention. Everybody has a take on the president, most people know who their governor or mayor is. But your state representative?
In theory, the guy/gal who gets elected with 10,000 votes and maybe goes door to door in October is someone you know. But ask most people who represents them in the state senate and unless the member has been involved in some scandal or big news story you often get crickets.
I live in DC now but I noticed this where my folks live in Delaware - there was a local GOP rep who kept winning in a Dem district and once the Dems spent a little money to say "hey this person is a Republican" the incumbent lost
Read 4 tweets
7 Apr
Right, the boycotts aren't new, and liberals working to bring corporations into fights isn't new. What's new and interesting is a GOP debate about actual legislation to punish companies that take political stands.
"That's hypocritical!" is a boring way into a story but this is fascinating bc there are *decades* of conservative arguments about not punishing CEOs or companies when they take political stands. See @jonathanchait nymag.com/intelligencer/…
Like let's say Illinois Democrats were angry with Richard Uihlein over his millions of dollars of donations to GOP groups, including a group that organized Jan. 6 election conspiracy protests. 1/2
Read 4 tweets
6 Apr
NYT map is useful. 90% of the #NM01 vote comes from Bernallillo County, which shifted left in 2020 = blue is "bluer since 2016."

Story for both parties was less racial politics, more local party leaders picking the candidates who'd won swing seats.
And I forgot the map! But you see it here - some precincts where Rs gained over 2016, a lot more where Dems gained. Crucial context: In 2016, Gary Johnson was on the ballot. Most of his protest voters ended up going Dem in 2020. Image
GOP candidate's first TV ad doesn't mention that he's a Republican or that he has some Hispanic heritage. Not impossible for GOP but tough. It's just notable that a state party that challenged the 2020 electoral vote recruited a less ideological-sounding R
Read 4 tweets
19 Mar
The issue was that Biden's opponents went all-in on it and lowered the bar so that when Biden showed up and did fine in a debate (both the final one w Sanders and the Trump ones) he shattered expectations.
It was odd as a *campaign issue* bc Biden happened to be running against two fellow old guys, one (Sanders) who beat a heart attack, one (Trump) whose doctor insisted he had superpowers.
Also the fast pivot to conspiracy theories tends to help Biden by making the criticism sound crazy. Before he did "Stop the Steal," Ali Alexander had a whole campaign insisting that Biden secretly had Parkinson's based on an analysis of him walking.
Read 4 tweets
9 Mar
My theory here is that the most easily mocked Biden traits - he's an old guy who forgets stuff and repeats catch phrases - has too much overlap w Trump's attack lines and comedians don't want to indulge that
Also one of Biden's go-to remarks is about missing dead family members, the "hole in your chest," etc, which is not comedy gold
It's pretty clear that SNL writers regret building up Trump in 2015 and making so much fun of Hillary, which explains their light touch on Warren and inability to find a Biden gag
Read 4 tweets

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