These are good talking points for a loosely attached MAGA in your life. Even though I live in Texas, where the not from Texas community believes everyone to be a rabid MAGA, most people are not loyal to Trump the man at all. They are underexposed to different viewpoints than what saturates their media world. There is absolutely zero effective rebuttal to Republican propaganda. Hearts have been hardened against Democrats based on blatant falsehoods. Whenever something creates a crack in the propaganda bubble, it is imperative to undermine Trump with those facts.
I think the rank and file Republicans in Texas voted for Trump based on the same theory of the case that Democrats thought would be sufficient to elect Hillary. Namely, that while Trump is icky, at least he is not as bad as those horrible, no good, dangerous, possibly criminal, etc. Democrats. (Never mind that Democrats haven't been in real power in Texas since the 90's. Yet, somehow we are responsible for everything that goes wrong while Republicans are responsible for everything that goes right.)
The Epstein matter provides yet another opportunity to flip some Republicans. So the real issue is whether Democrats will try. We cannot wait for national Democrats to exploit this opportunity. They have had a decade of demurring. To this day, national Democrats keep declining to get loud and confront Republicans with the kind of rhetorical and political beatdowns they keep delivering to us.
They seem more interested in tamping down popular will in the Democratic Party. Which is just another way of saying they are undertaking to control us rather than trying to beat Republicans. This is not that different from what Trump is doing in regard to Epstein.
I agree with this. Excellent framing to undercut the arguments that MAGA will make to defend Trump. I'm traveling to a MAGA zone soon and am preparing for the expected defenses. Beyond the questions of letting child rapists off the hook, if someone brings up Bill Clinton being in the files, I am ready to ask them why they think Trump covering up for Bill Clinton makes him anything other than a complicit elite and why they support that. Time to fight fire with fire.
Most under explored aspect is Steve Bannon’s 15 hour interview recordings with Epstein. Why is no one bringing that up?? Michael Tracey’s substack has all the details. It’s crazy
It's worth reminding people that if any of them were told that Trump was frequently visited Epstein to have access to underage women in, say, 2006, none of them would have been surprised. Every indication you had at that time about who Trump was would lead you to think that it was the least surprising person implicated, of course he did that, what a scumbag. No single person today that thinks he's innocent would have thought so at that time, what changed about who he was?
"But if you look squarely at Trump’s conduct these past couple weeks, how he’s reversed himself and changed his story and tossed off bizarre, inconsistent deflective allegations, you’ll see the very Epstein coverup you believed was happening all along."
This echoes something Josh Marshall wrote a few days ago: the cover-up is like a black hole. We can't see it directly, but we confirm its presence by the behavior of everything around it.
None of this, however, answers my big question: Trump knows he's in those files. Why did he ever agree to release them? Why validate their importance to the slavering MAGA hordes? Why not minimize their importance and discredit them and shrug them off from the start? It's like having a dead body in your tv room, and then inviting everybody over to watch the big game. What are you going to say when somebody says, "What's that?"
A guy with quite a few accusations of sexual misconduct has sex with an intern in the Oval Office, goes on TV and lies about it while his wife aggressively advocates on his behalf and the party not only protects him from removal from office but keeps him as a prominent leader while elevating his wife for the following two decades. Seems apt.
Is there an example of someone circling the wagons to protect both high profile Democrats and Republicans? 'Cause that's what I see Trump doing here. Talk about a rat.
Trump's sycophants are doing a LOT of heavy lifting. Recently both Tim Poole and Charlie Kirk were discussing Tusi Kompromat's accusations of Obama treason to get the Epstein news cycle to die.
Not working out very well. When you gin up your base around a half-assed promise to expose the pedos and then you fail to do it, that can cause some hurt feelings that can't be easily washed away
These are good talking points for a loosely attached MAGA in your life. Even though I live in Texas, where the not from Texas community believes everyone to be a rabid MAGA, most people are not loyal to Trump the man at all. They are underexposed to different viewpoints than what saturates their media world. There is absolutely zero effective rebuttal to Republican propaganda. Hearts have been hardened against Democrats based on blatant falsehoods. Whenever something creates a crack in the propaganda bubble, it is imperative to undermine Trump with those facts.
I think the rank and file Republicans in Texas voted for Trump based on the same theory of the case that Democrats thought would be sufficient to elect Hillary. Namely, that while Trump is icky, at least he is not as bad as those horrible, no good, dangerous, possibly criminal, etc. Democrats. (Never mind that Democrats haven't been in real power in Texas since the 90's. Yet, somehow we are responsible for everything that goes wrong while Republicans are responsible for everything that goes right.)
The Epstein matter provides yet another opportunity to flip some Republicans. So the real issue is whether Democrats will try. We cannot wait for national Democrats to exploit this opportunity. They have had a decade of demurring. To this day, national Democrats keep declining to get loud and confront Republicans with the kind of rhetorical and political beatdowns they keep delivering to us.
They seem more interested in tamping down popular will in the Democratic Party. Which is just another way of saying they are undertaking to control us rather than trying to beat Republicans. This is not that different from what Trump is doing in regard to Epstein.
I agree with this. Excellent framing to undercut the arguments that MAGA will make to defend Trump. I'm traveling to a MAGA zone soon and am preparing for the expected defenses. Beyond the questions of letting child rapists off the hook, if someone brings up Bill Clinton being in the files, I am ready to ask them why they think Trump covering up for Bill Clinton makes him anything other than a complicit elite and why they support that. Time to fight fire with fire.
Most under explored aspect is Steve Bannon’s 15 hour interview recordings with Epstein. Why is no one bringing that up?? Michael Tracey’s substack has all the details. It’s crazy
It's worth reminding people that if any of them were told that Trump was frequently visited Epstein to have access to underage women in, say, 2006, none of them would have been surprised. Every indication you had at that time about who Trump was would lead you to think that it was the least surprising person implicated, of course he did that, what a scumbag. No single person today that thinks he's innocent would have thought so at that time, what changed about who he was?
"But if you look squarely at Trump’s conduct these past couple weeks, how he’s reversed himself and changed his story and tossed off bizarre, inconsistent deflective allegations, you’ll see the very Epstein coverup you believed was happening all along."
This echoes something Josh Marshall wrote a few days ago: the cover-up is like a black hole. We can't see it directly, but we confirm its presence by the behavior of everything around it.
None of this, however, answers my big question: Trump knows he's in those files. Why did he ever agree to release them? Why validate their importance to the slavering MAGA hordes? Why not minimize their importance and discredit them and shrug them off from the start? It's like having a dead body in your tv room, and then inviting everybody over to watch the big game. What are you going to say when somebody says, "What's that?"
I’m guessin a mix of a) not knowing what was in the files and b) never being held accountable meaningfully for anything.
Perfect.
Circling the wagons for Bill Clinton is probably a better analogy than Roy Moore.
A worse analogy, but perhaps more persuasive to the target audience.
A guy with quite a few accusations of sexual misconduct has sex with an intern in the Oval Office, goes on TV and lies about it while his wife aggressively advocates on his behalf and the party not only protects him from removal from office but keeps him as a prominent leader while elevating his wife for the following two decades. Seems apt.
This proves that Bill Clinton was a lying, cheating weasel, but not that he sexually assaulted teenagers.
Of course, I agree that we need to publish the Epstein Files and agree that it's okay if this damages the reputation of Bill Clinton.
Is there an example of someone circling the wagons to protect both high profile Democrats and Republicans? 'Cause that's what I see Trump doing here. Talk about a rat.
Trump's sycophants are doing a LOT of heavy lifting. Recently both Tim Poole and Charlie Kirk were discussing Tusi Kompromat's accusations of Obama treason to get the Epstein news cycle to die.
Not working out very well. When you gin up your base around a half-assed promise to expose the pedos and then you fail to do it, that can cause some hurt feelings that can't be easily washed away
Nice!