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Greg Sargent Profile picture
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Feb 10 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
A very good week for Rep Maxwell Frost:

Got border police to debunk open borders lie

Had big moment mocking GOP Twitter lunacy

Went viral blasting DeSantis drag crackdown

I talked to Frost about his approach and why Dems must wage information warfare:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
Rep Maxwell Frost got border police officials to patiently explain that we don't actually have "open borders."

Importantly, the tone here is not outrage. Better to respond with mockery and contempt.

We talked about why this approach suits the moment:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
Check out this exchange with Rep Frost on generational differences among Dems.

Younger Dems have processed major traumatic political events largely through social media.

And their conception of the GOP is not polluted by nostalgia for bipartisanship:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
The absurdity of these GOP hearings, which are unfolding in a land of make believe, creates problems for the discourse.

It's hard to talk about them without lending them validation. That's why spectacle and mockery are needed to break through the noise:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…

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Greg Sargent Profile picture
Feb 8
Quite the contrast:

Biden talks about protecting Social Security and creating the manufacturing jobs of the future.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders responds with gibberish about "woke" mobs and "CRT" without even defining either term.

From @paulwaldman1 and me:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
@paulwaldman1 Just as Sarah Huckabee Sanders spoke mainly to the right wing info bubble, House GOP hearings are following the same pattern. Marjorie Taylor Green and Nancy Mace pushed border police officials to validate all kinds of strange nonsense. They refused:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
The GOP playbook is all about hallucinatory charges and fake outrage. It's the "negative sentiment machine."

But Biden talking about the manufacturing jobs of the future vs Huckabee Sanders seething about confusing acronyms is a good contrast for Dems:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Feb 7
Awful. The House GOP is launching an "investigation" pushing the lie that FBI responses to threats against teachers widely terrorized conservative parents. In response, Dems should bring in teachers to testify about the deranged MAGA harassment they faced:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
Dems can't just be fact checkers. Instead, focus on the fact that degenerate right wing attacks are fomenting a climate of threats and violence in kids' schools.

“Republicans feel that fear should have a green light to continue," Rep Swalwell told me:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
I asked Dems if there's a way to make these hearings about *what Republicans are doing.*

Rep Swalwell says the GOP hopes to make schools safe for threats and harassment.

Rep Connolly suggests having parents testify against right wing culture-warring:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Jan 30
Important: Senate Dems say the Judiciary Committee will "take a hard look" at John Durham's "abuses" as revealed by the NYT. Dems should take this on. It'll counter House GOP BS by showing what a real investigation into "weaponizing government" looks like:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
If what Barr and Durham did doesn't count as "weaponizing government," what does?

As CREW's Noah Bookbinder puts it in this piece:

“It certainly ought to be investigated. The Senate is the place where that can happen.”

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
A big question about all this, articulated to me by @petestrzok:

“How much of the material in the Times report was Garland aware of? It’s possible he didn’t know some of it. If he didn’t, why not? And if he did, what on earth is going on?”

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Jan 27
More Florida BS: The group representing supervisors of public school libraries is asking DeSantis admin to confirm in writing that Don't Say Gay and Stop Woke laws don't apply to libraries. They haven't, prompting fears that libraries are afoul of law:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
The leading rep of supervisors of public school libraries has formally asked the DeSantis admin for clear confirmation in writing that DSG and Stop Woke laws don't apply to libraries.

“They will not tell us in writing that they don’t," she tells me:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/… ImageImage
This confusion is being caused by the DeSantis administration. Recent guidance tells school librarians that if they "would not be comfortable" reading something aloud, it probably should be removed.

That's meant to "scare" librarians, this rep tells me:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/… ImageImage
Read 4 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Jan 25
A remarkable thing is about to happen. With Biden's climate and chips bills set to pump huge sums into green and tech manufacturing, two new reports find much of this will be noncollege work in Trump country. This wrecks some of MAGA's ugliest mythologies:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
A striking finding from Brookings' Mark Muro:

"We calculate that 60% of semiconductor manufacturing jobs are accessible to folks without a degree."

This is almost like a Moonshot in its effort to revitalize good manufacturing work in left-behind areas:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
The "calamity thesis" of Trump holds that the populist surge is partly about declining worker status in stagnating areas.

I'm a bit skeptical. But if so, note that Biden's "dignity of work" talk could now mean good jobs, high wages, tight labor markets:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
Read 6 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Jan 20
MAGA just got a big reality check. Rep Nancy Mace declared that the House GOP border security bill is a waste of time, and that compromising with Dems on immigration will be essential. On this issue, House Rs can't live in the land of make believe forever:
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
House Republicans can impeach the DHS sec 500 times, tour the border every week in silly military garb, and run a gazillion ads depicting the border as a scene out of "Camp of the Saints."

But eventually they have to enter the real world on this issue:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…
Getting some pushback along the lines of "Mace will in the end vote for the bill." Yes, of course. My argument is that even so, what she's saying is true: this is a joke of a bill, it's DOA in Senate, and at some point Rs will have to get serious or get nothing.
Read 4 tweets

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