*Taps Microphone*

Attention, members of the American press corps. Could I have your attention, please? I understand you are all outraged about Ronna McDaniel and have your reasons, but you guys are outraged every time a Trump-leaning person is hired in the press and even outraged about some on the right who aren't, but who get hired.

🧵Can we talk about the problem with access journalism for a minute? Alex Ward is a Politico reporter who has a lot of access to the Biden Team. In fact, he wrote a Biden leg-humping book called "The Internationalists," the subtitle of which tells you everything.

https://twitter.com/politico/status/1770214223911530812

The subtitle of this Politico reporter's books is "The fight to restore American foreign policy after Trurmp."

He has a clear editorial bias against Trump and Politico continues to let him write as a supposedly objective reporter who ends, very predictably, defending Biden.

I am not of the left. I expect those I support to have higher standards. I believe if i don’t work to clean up my own side, the voters themselves will do it. One cannot belong to a party that claims family values and stocks it full of philanderers, adulterers, and deviants. The other side wins when our side offers a message that resonates with people, but deploys politicians carrying that message who mock the message in their own lives. The voters won’t trust those we claim can carry the message.

Just to put everyone on the same page again as I have a lot of new followers: Back in 2015, I uninvited Trump from a conference where I’d invited all the GOP presidential contenders. In early 2016, I used a phrase you might have heard of, “Never Trump,” in a piece that went viral and led to me being unable to fill in for Rush Limbaugh any more.

I understand you may think there’s no crime. But damn this should be disqualifying. Three years ago a Chinese spy trespassed into Mar-a-Lago. Two years later, Trump is leaving classified docs on a ballroom stage. Your kid is a special operator in the military, and Donald Trump might be showing off secret locations in Africa, where we have troops that no one knows about, where your kid is.

Dear friends, I think I might owe @Mike_Pence or @RonDeSantis an apology. Come with me down the "I now have a senior" rabbit hole. My daughter texted me during my radio show today, "I want to buy Mom some flowers. Where should I go?" I helpfully directed her to the local florist while also talking live on the radio.

A great many people are replying to this #SBC23 tweet are replying with examples like the Wesleyans, Pentecostals, etc. I'd reply that all the exceptions prove the rule. They have existing, long-term theology very distinct from Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, etc.

https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1666495991199981569

For an SBC church to deviate from long-held SBC norms is just the first of a long-term shift. It always happens slowly and then all at once. Today, it's abandoning the long-held practice of men only as pastors. Then it's lowering standards on pastoral qualifications.

Dear Twitterati, why are so many of you dumbasses who want to be lied to and believe the lie? Yesterday, Tucker Carlson was fired because Big Pharma demanded it and private equity. Then… …it was because on Friday he gave religious statements in a speech at the Heritage Foundation. That was it! Surely, Rupert Murdoch ditched Tucker for talking Jesus. Has to be it.
This evening it is because they wanted him sidelined for 2024.

One of the great gifts the Trump wing of the GOP has given the Democrats is the concept of the "uniparty." Essentially, they argue that there's no meaningful difference between the GOP and Democrats, so if you don't vote for Trump candidates, you get more of the same regardless. That alienates Trump candidates and voters from the rest of the GOP and makes a coalition impossible with a "my guy or I don't vote" attitude among Trump voters.

Watching the football game last night, I’m struck by how badly we’ve progressed. We’re clearly headed towards a new future for TV, but what we have is not it. I had to restart the ESPN app multiple times last night. At one point, the audio was out of sync. I switched to FuboTV and it was better, but also lagged time.

I liked Blake Masters and had him on my show, but when he underperforms the AZ GOP vote by 11%, it’s really hard to blame McConnell or ad dollars. There were greater problems. When I ran campaigns, I’d tell my candidates to know when they’re in the minority even when they think they’re right.

Just a note for my Democrat friends.

I come from the party that for years and years told its base that *this* was the most important election ever. It is the last best hope to save America. They said the same damn thing in every election. Eventually, the base believed it and got whipped into a frenzy and when the officials who told them *this* was the last chance to save the country didn't actually seem to believe it, the base burned down the party with Donald Trump.

Re-reading @EkdahlPress's tweets about media coverage of political violence. It is more and more clear that the left/press in the US really doesn't view the right as equals or really even people worth caring about. Their eugenic sympathies are showing. Evangelical churches, pro-life pregnancy centers, etc. get firebombed? No big deal.
People in MAGA hats get attacked? They deserved it.
Door knockers for the GOP assaulted? No news at all.
Rand Paul violently attacked? Funny.
Mass assassination attempt of the GOP? Yawn.

Objectively: Stacey Abrams had a good debate and fought on culturally liberal issues like abortion. Kemp did himself no damage and didn't get hurt. BUT, Abrams accused 107 sheriffs of wanting lock up black people. The issue for the suburbs is crime. This is going to hurt her. Abrams has been pulling money off TV. She's out of money. The Democrats' ground game is so screwed because Abrams was handling it and the grift machine spent all the money. Now she doesn't have the money to respond and Kemp can keep that soundbite on TV repeat next week.

So @MurphyAJC I think this column is flawed. It spends 2 paragraphs on Kemp, but to understand why Abrams is losing requires a full column on Kemp from reopening GA to the economy, etc. ajc.com/politics/opini… The reason Abrams is losing is in 2018, as you noted, Kemp was Trump's boy, and the Atlanta suburbs, which went to Rubio in the GOP primary, revolted in 2020 over Trump's behavior. Kemp had 4 years to show he was his own man. The flip happened when Trump criticized his reopening.

Take my partisan attacks out and just consider — Biden's closing address is about 30% of Americans who won't change and whose candidates his own party funded, made in a state at a time that state's big football teams were kicking off, and didn't focus much on his accomplishments. That wasn't a speech of persuasion. It was a base mobilization speech. The problem there gets to Ruy Texiera's point. The Dems have bought the myth that they can win just by turning out their base. The underlying data doesn't support that outside of already blue enclaves.

I don’t mean to pick on Stuart Stevens for this, but when I see a GOP consultant who worked for multiple pro-life presidents and presidential candidates tweet something like this, I understand how the base revolted against a GOP the base felt was playing them. What the GOP consultants never understood is that they set the party up for Trump by promising so much and giving so little. They just moved the goal posts. I know so many people who have similar stories of GOP Senators belittling pro-lifers behind their back, etc.

Twitter cut off my thread here. The app crashed. I have more to say here that I think needs to be said.

https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1545607168216399873

As I said, I find it notable the number of Christians with platforms who claim to be orthodox who’ve been silent on the transgender craze and Dobbs, but are suddenly suggesting Christians should sit out of politics altogether.

If you wanted the red flag that there were issues with Herschel Walker's campaign, just consider this -- I have the largest talk show in Atlanta and my show airs in almost every market in the state. I invited on every single GOP Senate candidate for a full hour. I gave them an entire hour to answer these previously given questions:
1. Who are you?
2. Why are you running?
3. What is your big issue?
4. Why you, not your opponents?

I'm noticing a pattern that no one seems to care about, and I think people should care about greatly, particularly Joe Biden. Let's start with this Edward-Isaac Devore piece. cnn.com/2022/07/05/pol… There are White House sources openly criticizing the President and his management. What's notable is that what is mostly being criticized is the daily operational management stuff of a White House failing to execute.

How did so many news outlets all get the same source telling them Cassidy Hutchinson's story doesn't check out and why did they run with it so quickly? Because it was an email from the Secret Service's press operation that was not for attribution except to a source. So the very media that ran with Hutchinson's wild claim is now using the rules of press engagement to claim an anonymous source shouldn't trump a witness under oath. Except they all know it is the Secret Service itself as the source. But wait… there's more.