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Jan 19 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
The Trump brownout post-Jan 6 obscures and shields Republicans from a lot of genuinely newsworthy craziness. E.g., I didn’t know til I got to the 17th paragraph of this piece 5 days later that Trump admitted the point of his election lies is to cheat. rollcall.com/2022/01/19/bac… Image
And it’s 17 paragraphs in because it came in second to some other newsworthy lies.
I get the bind the platforms were in (morally, legally, commercially) after Trump used their services to incite an insurrection. But there’s a lot of space short of “point the camera at Trump and broadcast him live” and I think traditional media may have missed the sweet spot.
This is unreal, and the reporters pretending to believe that there’s anything untoward about Biden observing, quite accurately that Trump and his allies are trying to subvert the 2022 elections, and may well succeed, should be ashamed.
Trump, literally five days ago: Republicans should throw out Democratic ballots and seize power based on false vote tallies.

Reporter: Biden’s claim that the midterms may not be legitimate are very Trumpy are they not 🤔!?!
Utterly context-free trash. Viewers worse informed than if they simply hadn’t watched.
This is also not great. There’s nothing to clarify. If Republicans in the states do what Trump is instructing them to do, and as they are lining up to do, election integrity will be badly compromised. If it’s a breach of norms to say that, then the norms are bad.
Incredible, uncanny.

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More from @brianbeutler

Brian Beutler Profile picture
Jan 21
New newsletter! Since we can’t know what it Means For The Election, let’s instead think through where Democrats’ inability to reform the filibuster and pass democracy reform in a post-Trump, Big Lie world leaves us, in historical context. mailchi.mp/crooked.com/bi… ImageImage
The Freedom to Vote Act wouldn’t have fixed everything—not nearly. But its failure means Dems’ procedural radicalization will have to *accelerate*. That’s why the calls for them to curb their ambitions now are misguided. A timid party can not fix this. crooked.us19.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=88… Image
And that’s exactly why episodes of timidity these past 5 years have been so excruciating. The only way to tear down the autocratic system Republicans have built for themselves is hard-nosed partisanship, but today’s Dems still cling to narcotizing myths about what the GOP is. Image
Read 5 tweets
Brian Beutler Profile picture
Jan 12
The ‘to be sure’ clauses in this piece, paired with zero prescriptions for mitigating risk, tell a story all their own.
Oh, you don’t say?
It would be trivially easy for conservative elites not named Cheney and Kinzinger to show they truly believed that these possibilities, while unlikely, are real: Just say what should be done to insure against them.
Read 4 tweets
Brian Beutler Profile picture
Jan 11
The old idea is: president gives speech ➡️ public becomes mobilized ➡️ legislators feel pressured. And that’s clearly wrong.

But in a polarized world of occasional trifectas I could see: president gives speech ➡️bill becomes legacy item ➡️same-party legislators feel pressured.
Inversely, the way you would’ve known Obama had given up on the ACA is if he’d withdrawn health care as a topic for public debate. Giving multiple speeches, doing lots of stunty round tables with the GOP, etc is how you knew he was still invested, and may be why it got the votes.
It doesn’t mean it works every time. In a narrow majority it becomes more likely that an eccentric (Sinema) or someone like Manchin (a selfish person who doesn’t fear a primary and has little affinity for the party that made him) will be a pivotal vote.
Read 4 tweets
Brian Beutler Profile picture
Dec 17, 2021
I toyed with subject lining this one “A fail of two shitties,” but decided that was too harsh. mailchi.mp/crooked.com/bi…
The gist: Build Back Better isn’t dead, but it’s very close. If it were another surmountable snag, Dems wouldn’t be seeding ridiculous stories about fake-pivoting to voting rights. ImageImage
It’s close enough to dead that rank-and-file Dems should start contemplating what they will do if it dies. Hard and uncomfortable as that will be. ImageImageImageImage
Read 4 tweets
Brian Beutler Profile picture
Dec 10, 2021
It’s what the brass wants.
Thompson could call on Biden to post the subpoenaed Trump documents online, the committee could refer Trump for criminal prosecution; Schumer and Pelosi could draft legislation under the 14th amendment to bar Jan 6 plotters from federal office.
Garland could name a special counsel; Biden could call it an emergency and insist on new legislation, even if it means eliminating the filibuster. @brianschatz could pants @chriscoons on the Senate floor.
Read 5 tweets
Brian Beutler Profile picture
Dec 1, 2021
That’s too bad imo because in addition to putting Biden’s life in jeopardy on purpose last year, the former president is trying to overthrow the constitution through both pseudolegal and violent means right now!
The floating-above-the-fray thing seems to scratch some psychological itch for leading Dems, but it doesn’t work. It’s how you wind up responding to a coup attempt with an infrastructure bill while the coup party convinces more voters that you’re the threat to democracy.
Biden wouldn’t need to take umbrage on a personal level at all. It’s just a reminder that the former president is a wholly immoral person who should have never held office, and his loyalists in Congress share culpability for all the damage he did to America.
Read 8 tweets

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