Making matters worse, of course, is the fact that Trump’s line is being echoed by his partisan allies. The New Republic noted yesterday, for example:

North Carolina Representative Greg Murphy continued Tuesday to weave the yarn on Fox Business, telling host Maria Bartiromo that Democrats want to kill kids when they’re “coming out of the birth canal.”

The GOP congressman specifically said on the air, “[Abortion is] going to be a big issue every time, because you have folks really on both sides, really probably more Democrat, that want abortion literally when the child is coming out of the birth canal, always to force the issue.”
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1777703033280811466

......But there’s a larger context to all of this. Republicans like Trump and Murphy seriously expect voters to believe that there are women, medical professionals, and Democratic policymakers who “want abortion literally when the child is coming out of the birth canal.” That’s insane. There are no such people.

This, in turn, helps set the stage for a debate over the future of reproductive rights in the United States, with the presumptive GOP nominee and his cohorts apparently convinced they need to peddle outrageous falsehoods, not just to smear their opponents, but also to distract from the fact that most Americans simply don’t agree with the Republican Party’s regressive position.

The problem, in other words, isn’t just that guys like Trump and Murphy are lying. The problem is made worse by the fact that they feel like they need to lie in order to prevent more election defeats.

GOP silence is intended to keep the public conversation away from good news that might interfere with Republicans’ election-year strategies.

But part of the party’s plan included attacking Democrats on the economy, which as Politico reported in February, is suddenly more difficult than GOP officials had hoped.

The U.S. economy just keeps getting better. And it’s forcing Donald Trump and his allies to contort the talking points they thought would guide them back to the White House. A remarkable run of good economic news has tripped up the Trump campaign’s initial plans to paint President Joe Biden as a disaster on the economy. Now, the GOP frontrunner is grasping for new ways to attack the administration’s increasingly robust record.

The Heritage Foundation’s Stephen Moore, who is closely aligned with the Trump campaign, told Politico, “I think that is the question of the day. You can’t blame the president when policies go wrong, and then say he’s not responsible if things are going right.”

If recent history is any guide, Republicans will simply pretend things aren’t going right, ask voters to believe their version of reality, and hope for the best, all while turning the other way as good news rolls in.

So far, that’s working: Despite the fact that Biden’s economic record far exceeds his predecessor’s, the latest NBC News poll found Trump with a 20-point advantage over the Democratic incumbent on handling the economy.

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report)—Calling it the “most shocking conspiracy” he has ever unearthed, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revealed on CNN last night that his mind is being controlled by a moron.

“I don’t know exactly how my brain is being operated remotely, by an electronic beam or microwaves or whatnot,” he told the network’s Erin Burnett. “But somehow, some way, there’s a total numbskull making me say the things I say.”

Kennedy said that he had “suspected” that his brain was being manipulated by an egregious dunce “for some time,” but when he heard himself claim that President Joe Biden was a greater threat to democracy than Donald J. Trump, “that clinched it.”

The independent presidential candidate revealed that he pinned index cards to his basement wall featuring his most ludicrous utterances about Bill Gates, Dr. Anthony Fauci, vaccines, January 6, Ukraine, and microchips, and then connected the cards with colored yarn to see if a pattern emerged.

“If I’d said one or two dumb things, I’d brush it off,” he said. “But when every time I open my mouth something irredeemably idiotic comes out, that can’t be a coincidence.”

APRIL 09, 2024
Statement from President Joe Biden on Arizona Supreme Court Decision to Uphold Abortion Ban from 1864

Millions of Arizonans will soon live under an even more extreme and dangerous abortion ban, which fails to protect women even when their health is at risk or in tragic cases of rape or incest. This cruel ban was first enacted in 1864—more than 150 years ago, before Arizona was even a state and well before women had secured the right to vote. This ruling is a result of the extreme agenda of Republican elected officials who are committed to ripping away women’s freedom.

Vice President Harris and I stand with the vast majority of Americans who support a woman’s right to choose. We will continue to fight to protect reproductive rights and call on Congress to pass a law restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade for women in every state.

###