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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGOP Aide Admits To Journalist Why They're Letting People Die
https://crooksandliars.com/2021/08/gop-aide-tells-journalist-why-republicansGOP Aide Admits To Journalist Why They're Letting People Die
Yes, it really is a strategy.
By Susie Madrak
Yesterday, Ari Melber was talking about the Republicans, calling them a "January 6th-adjacent party."
"I will read you something that Gene Robinson was writing. He argues that too many Republicans were taking covid's side literally in the pandemic, creating an environment killing Americans who shouldn't have to die. Republican DeSantis transparently positioning himself as a contender for 2024, and if Floridians die along the way, so be it.'
"Gene is a serious Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, that's pretty harsh coming from him. Do you think that's fair, or too far?" he asked journalist Julia Ioffe.
"I think it is very fair, Abbott and DeSantis positioning themselves for 2024," she said.
"You saw DeSantis' wife, she said, 'Oh, it is so great, my husband is a great dad just like Trump and he has the same hand motion as Trump. It's so obvious that he's positioning himself just like Trump."
But here's the part that every Democratis candidate should be using in ads, starting right this minute.
"And he said they just want to make Biden look bad. They want the crisis to happen on Biden's watch so that he does not get the credit for the vaccine that they felt Trump should get the credit for. That's it. I mean, my jaw hit the floor and I had to work to get it back up."
I can't say I'm surprised, exactly. After all, it's really the only explanation that fits the facts. But that our national politics have degraded to the point where Republicans actually believe mass murder is a legitimate campaign strategy?
Wounded Bear
(58,670 posts)OldBaldy1701E
(5,137 posts)Of course it's all about making Biden look bad.
Red Pest
(288 posts)"I'm shocked to find out that gambling is going on!" In this case - gambling with people's lives.
AZ8theist
(5,477 posts)brush
(53,792 posts)in '22 and still have enough to win back House and Senate majorities...just as long as it looks like Biden bungled the vaccine deployment.
What's a 100k or so magat voters, there's more where they came from, what with redistricting coming up.
2Gingersnaps
(1,000 posts)"Could you imagine if this had happened on my watch?" Of course we can imagine you bastard, it did!!
Bluethroughu
(5,172 posts)Ohio Joe
(21,760 posts)machoneman
(4,007 posts)Death on a pogo stick in red states. They do not care.
FakeNoose
(32,645 posts)What is wrong with these journalists?
Why do they let these Repukes get away with their LIES, every single time?
PatSeg
(47,512 posts)and are easily manipulated by politicians and the media. It is hard to understand how so many journalists let republicans get away with, in this case, mass murder.
Demsrule86
(68,595 posts)Republicans ... polls indicate , they are being blamed.
PatSeg
(47,512 posts)They watched Donald Trump get away with so much for so long, they naively thought they could replicate his success. Eventually people do start to wake up especially when they see people dying around them.
see their own family members dying, will that wake them up?? They believe Fox noise and perpetuating an onslaught of propaganda. Very sad.
PatSeg
(47,512 posts)but others may still be in denial. It took years of brainwashing to get to this point. It won't be undone easily.
bdamomma
(63,883 posts)it won't be undone easily. I guess that saying "propaganda works" holds true. SMH.
dianaredwing
(406 posts)They have no problem remembering Hilary's emails or Obama's tan suit or any number of other equally innocuous 'horror stories.'
PatSeg
(47,512 posts)Whatever reinforces their belief system.
certainot
(9,090 posts)democrats and progressives ignore rw radio so much it's never even mentioned. the journos, producerss, analysts etc live in cities and have no clue that rw radio has been the major propaganda operation the last 30 years
media and political analysts might as well be studying fish without water, the biggest political mistake in history.
at the same time it's a huge opportunity for liberals to go on the offensive
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)simply put, the Murder Party.
Botany
(70,521 posts)How sick are these mother fuckers? They are OK with people getting sick and or dying and the disease
spreading because they think it works out for their brutal political calculus. In a just world the republican
party should be dead.
TheRealNorth
(9,481 posts)Botany
(70,521 posts)He knows what he is doing is killing people, allowing the virus to make 10s of thousands people sick,
giving people lifetime chronic medical problems post corona, and giving the virus humans in which it can
grow and mutate so it can keep going. He knows facts like Vietnam has 90 million people and is a lot
closer to China then we are but they used masks and had something like a total of 35 deaths. (I don't
know the figures now)
PatSeg
(47,512 posts)often overrides any reasonable morality. With so many politicians, it is an addiction and like any hardcore addicts, they will do anything for their fix, even if it costs people's lives. It is a classic "selling one's soul to the devil" story and apparently these fools are rooting for the devil.
Botany
(70,521 posts)... they will not go without a fight hence the gerrymandering, court packing, media domination, and
straight up election rigging in order to keep power.
* back in the day America had some wonderful people who were Republicans but those people are
long gone. Ignorance of science and facts along with just out and out bigotry/sexism have become
the norm.
electric_blue68
(14,915 posts)Waaaay back before I could vote (especially before
lowering the voting age in '71) I volunteered campaign wise for 2 Liberal Republicans in NYC -
Charles Goodel (yes, that sports guy's dad)
Mayor John V Lindsey (re-election)
👍
Botany
(70,521 posts)Our next door neighbor in a middle class neighborhood in N.W. PA was County D.A. and his
brother Ray was governor. You will never find a better person and he was a republican too.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)He had represented the Silk Stockings district in NYC when he was in Congress, IIRC. A Yalie, undergrad and Law School.
What do you remember about him?
PatSeg
(47,512 posts)They lose sight of any other goals they may have had.
I remember reasonable, principled republicans as well. That is an endangered species, if not extinct already.
ShazzieB
(16,426 posts)As a political party, I mean. (Unlike Republican politicians, I have no desire to actually kill off human beings.)
I keep reading that the GOP is "shattered," "crumbling," "dead," etc., etc. But it's obviously still very much here, throwing wrenches in bills Democrats are trying to pass in Congress, working feverishly in state legislatures to enact voter suppression laws, sitting in red state governors' mansions issuing edicts against things like mask mandates that might actually help stop the spread of covid, and on and on. It's become nothing but a force for authoritarianism, death, and evil, a real life troll blocking the bridges to progress that Democrats are trying to erect, and I am sick of it, especially when I remmad an article like this one.
The problem isn't that the GOP is dead. The problem is that it's taking way too damned long to die, and it's trying to take our democracy with it!
Captain Zero
(6,811 posts)My.
dianaredwing
(406 posts)This is the hardest most Republicans have ever had to work. They'll tire of it soon enough and find some other way to cheat themselves into power that uses less energy.
Maraya1969
(22,484 posts)attributed it to Covid. It's hard to believe but I think it is all true.
chia
(2,244 posts)They didn't think this through. However, thinking is foreign to them.
sop
(10,205 posts)who would possibly be convinced that any of this anti-vaxxer belligerence is Joe Biden's responsibility? One would have to be a 24/7 FOX News/Newsmax/OANN zombie to fall for this GOP con job. The majority of Americans know who's responsible for this Covid resurgence.
agingdem
(7,850 posts)four years of the New York Times/Washington Post devoting yards of print space to "understanding the Trump voter"...they were, after all, just like the rest of us: hardworking patriotic Americans ...not the self-righteous "keep America white" gun-loving, xenophobic, overtly racist, Jew/Hispanic/Muslim/Black/Native American/Asian American hating assholes that they really were/are...and now we're expected to understand the "fucking libs/ civil liberties" maskless covid-spewing anti-vaccine assholes with something akin to compassion?...THEY ARE KILLING OUR CHILDREN...ENOUGH!
Arazi
(6,829 posts)The people who are dying now are those who are actively refusing to vaccinate and they're wearing the anti-Biden, "freedom" flag loud and proud.
This can't be re-framed as a Biden disaster when Republicans are actively promoting anti-masking, no social distancing, full attendance at work, school, church etc.
I absolutely believe they're willing to let people die. It's a death cult but they won't be able to spin this as Biden's fault when so many are dying to own the libs, literally.
Tommymac
(7,263 posts)They don't want to de.
They want to kill. Deep down they enjoy killing. Along with all the sexual/societal perversions and toxic racism they harbor in their dark little hearts and souls they are not good people - they only care about themselves.
It's all out in the open - the MSM in general (with a few exceptions) is not going to connect all the dots - that is up to reasonable, good people to do.
peggysue2
(10,833 posts)It's become a reality for Republicans. Only it's turned on itself and MAGA supporters. Down here in eastern TN, across 19 regional hospitals, there are only a handful of ICU beds available. The majority are filled with Covid-19 patients, 99% of whom are/were unvaccinated. The infection rate and death toll is rising. The truly tragic cases are children, those who could not receive the vaccine (under 12) or those whose parents refused to have them vaccinated.
The Republican Party has decided the infections and deaths are acceptable as long as they wound Joe Biden, strip him of his vaccination success which they believe rightly belongs to their cult leader, Donald Trump.
Doctors and nurses are being stressed. Hospitals are filled to capacity and God forbid you're unlucky enough to need heavy duty care for accident, stroke, heart, cancer and/or a multitude of ailments.
Republicans are killing the innocent along with the irresponsible.
Because . . . THEY DON'T CARE about anything but winning and worshipping at the feet of a madman.
God help us!
Duppers
(28,125 posts)They're drinking the koolaid.
peggysue2
(10,833 posts)Begging for more so that the death and damage is as massive as possible.
Beyond belief but it's happening. God knows where it will end.
bdamomma
(63,883 posts)are now part of their plan. Covid victims are getting younger.
colorado_ufo
(5,734 posts)Baitball Blogger
(46,742 posts)Last edited Fri Aug 13, 2021, 02:39 PM - Edit history (1)
Statistics don't lie. It's the Republican Governors who are interfering with the recovery. It's their states that are going through the roof with Covid cases. Everyone knows who is at fault.
But, yes, completely feel that these unChristian, ruffian tactics are being used by Republicans. It's so over-simplified, lacking in science and forethought that it absolutely sounds like them.
JHB
(37,161 posts)...everyone knows who is at fault.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)"Hey, let's kill off our own constituents in our own states via the policies of our own Republican lawmakers to make Biden and the Democrats look bad! That'll show 'em!"
I honestly don't get how this is supposed to work for them. Anyone who would blame Biden for this wouldn't vote for a Democrat anyway and anyone who isn't stupid enough to see exactly what is going on here is not going to vote for a Republican.
Besides, I think a lot of independents and people who aren't even all that political have effing had it with the right-wing idiocy and stubbornness about this virus as they continue to spread it and make things worse for everyone else, particularly healthcare workers who are at the end of their rope with this seemingly never-ending nightmare.
They aren't just evil to the core, they are also astonishingly stupid. The fact that they think this is a good strategy tells you all you need to know about them.
treestar
(82,383 posts)they can say inconsistent things and still get votes. They can be against the vaccine but the convince the voters that it is the Democrats' fault if people get Covid.
peppertree
(21,639 posts)The '22 Repug strategy, is to do everything possible to raise the death toll to 1,000,000 - and then start caterwauling non-stop about how "Biden failed us!"
And the dead?
You make an omelet, you break a few eggs.
zorbasd
(73 posts)massive disinformation media/social media(Facebook, talk radio, OANN, Newsmax, Fox, etc) they have on their side across the country. They've done it before successfully many of times, and they can succeed here as well. That is why they are so cocky, they know they can with their big lies.
Nay
(12,051 posts)total fantasies.
Corgigal
(9,291 posts)a genocide for our side, but Trump lost.
So they will cult it for their side. Bat ass crazy.
Dave in VA
(2,037 posts)to be collateral damage or resulting from friendly fire?
Just asking.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)lindysalsagal
(20,693 posts)(Assuming there is such a person and that's actually her name?)
Inkey
(181 posts)since 2006. Suburban Guerilla. She has been
around for quite some time. She has also been a
writer for Crooks and Liars for over a decade.
She has made a lot of contacts over the years.
I have found her perspective interesting .
Old Crank
(3,598 posts)Just call him a pussy grabber????
He has the same hand motion as Trump.....
Upthevibe
(8,053 posts)ZonkerHarris
(24,229 posts)I'm willing to let as many Republicans die as it takes.
KS Toronado
(17,267 posts)Cracklin Charlie
(12,904 posts)So, Biden looks bad, and they make bank.
Win/win for only them. The Republican way.
Tree Lady
(11,477 posts)After Biden said what he did about us going back to do things on July 4th its almost like they got together and said let's do everything we can to screw that up and make it not happen so people will be mad at him.
They know all of us are tired of staying home and wearing masks and they are raking the coals of that anger and frustration.
kacekwl
(7,017 posts)when they grow up. Now we know.
sarchasm
(1,012 posts)and dont get me wrong, I believe it is, shouldnt we be worried about this infrastructure bill?
aocommunalpunch
(4,241 posts)Ask that question to ANYONE who calls Republicans friends, colleagues, or respected. I certainly fucking dont. Stop legitimizing people that want to destroy you.
pandr32
(11,589 posts)There are showing us exactly what kind of presidents they would make. Frightening.
Skittles
(153,169 posts)they are a threat to AMERICA
cstanleytech
(26,299 posts)for example and before the COVID virus they were trying to setup Iran and N. Korea as the next one.
Orrex
(63,216 posts)Trump the daughterfucker could announce this. Plan explicitly on live tv, and the fuckhead cultists would still worship him.
We should stop hoping for a last straw moment with the cultists, because there will never be one.
maxsolomon
(33,345 posts)All political decisions are viewed through the lens of how it will be spun on Fox. Short-term strategy always, party before country.
It's a miracle a watered-down Infrastructure bill made it through the Senate.
IronLionZion
(45,462 posts)and will lose voters in the process. Seems like a suicide mission. As if people don't notice the regional nature of the outcomes now.
maxsolomon
(33,345 posts)LA, AR, TN, AL, MS, etc.
IronLionZion
(45,462 posts)The pandemic is worst in conservative counties in big swing states like Florida, Georgia, Texas, Missouri. DeSantis might even lose reelection for governor.
ananda
(28,867 posts)Period
Blasphemer
(3,261 posts)As pointed out upthread, the vaccine is readily available and Biden has helped put in place the infrastructure to make that happen. Additionally, Biden will not be blamed when idiotic GOP governors refuse to follow federal guidelines and advice and kill off their own constituents. Especially when blue states are faring better. Not to mention, swing voters, particularly suburban women, are not going to be moved by this asinine strategy. If anything, they are helping the Dems.
AncientOfDays
(163 posts)Now Florida is deploying "strike teams" with unproven treatments for COVID. DeSantis wants to appear the knight in shining armor -- Get real sick, blame Biden, DeSantis brings cure, worship him.
But first you have to get real sick, and the "cure" might not work.
OMGWTF
(3,960 posts)modrepub
(3,496 posts)TFG lost the Presidential election specifically because of his handling of the pandemic. Sane people know this second wave is primarily the responsibility of the people who won't get vaccinated (mostly Republican, though there is a large fraction of minority groups that typically support Democrats in this group also).
Independent voters, who generally determine state-wide and national elections, probably won't take kindly to the Republican strategy. Democratic voters aren't buying this. Republicans are killing and wounding their base in hopes of keeping them angry, uncooperative and motivated for 2022.
2022 will probably hinge on which group is more motivated to show up at the polls and if people in the suburban (which were more supportive of Democrats in 2020) and urban areas actually go to the polls (as opposed to mailing in their ballots). The last point is key since Republican efforts to "spoil" mail-in votes will probably be in place in most states for that election.
PortTack
(32,778 posts)KS Toronado
(17,267 posts)showcasing their shortcomings. My first one.....Would you rather vote for a
mass murderer or a pro life Democrat?
colorado_ufo
(5,734 posts)The economy was Trump's strength, and when the pandemic hit, that dissolved. Now they want the pandemic to run rampant again and have the economy shut down once more, so they can give Biden the blame.
Morality has left the building.
Vinca
(50,279 posts)The sane party is, by and large, vaccinating and wearing masks.
liberal N proud
(60,336 posts)GoCubsGo
(32,086 posts)See: Paul, Randy and Death Sentence, Ron. I have no doubt that there are a whole bunch of others who are profiting from the pandemic, as well.
NewHendoLib
(60,015 posts)bucolic_frolic
(43,196 posts)And if their strategy becomes perception fewer of those will vote for them. The trick is not to dent our numbers with lies and doubts sown by Republican propaganda
Warpy
(111,277 posts)They wanted another economic tailspin to prove exactly how bad the socialist Democrats are.
That's the only reason they're willing people. And now they're killing kids.
They have been doing the equivalent of yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded theater. This is not protected speech.
It is calculated, it is callous, it is cynical, and it is deadly. There must be consequences.
pecosbob
(7,541 posts)Martin Eden
(12,871 posts)... to intentionally spread disinformation with the intent of causing death, and succeeding in causing thousands of deaths?
If it ain't, it oughtta be!
TheRickles
(2,067 posts)Champp
(2,114 posts)As usual. No one will ever forget who they are and what they have done to this great nation.
DFW
(54,411 posts)Last edited Sat Aug 14, 2021, 02:45 PM - Edit history (2)
100,000 dead Republicans is an acceptable trade-off if they can block 600,000 eligible Democrats from voting.
Moebym
(989 posts)This actually did.
Despite their "own the libs" mentality, I dared not believe that they would actually deliberately try to kill their own constituents to make Biden look bad.
Xoan
(25,321 posts)unblock
(52,257 posts)if the media were at all objective, republicans they would know the media would simply have to pin the blame on republicans for obstructing and misinforming and in so many ways trying to sabotage biden and our collective anti-covid efforts.
but republicans know that they can create a disaster and then when it comes time to assign blame, the media will happily and endlessly repeat whatever republicans say at that point. if they want to blame biden, the media will report that ad nauseum. if by then there's a more politically expedient target (say biden declines to run for re-election, but a new front-runner emerges), then they're blame that person somehow.
they know the media will give wings to any and all republican smears.
if we had an objective, responsible media, republicans wouldn't dare try something like this. there's always room for sabotage, in small, secretive ways. not on anything like the nationwide, public scale that they're doing now.
Martin68
(22,822 posts)krkaufman
(13,435 posts)It sounds like Julia Ioffe reported this while on Melber's show, but did she not previously report on this aide's statement?
Lonestarblue
(10,018 posts)Theyve been putting the laws into place to overturn elections. Why do they need voters! When Democrats return to DC, they need to pass a voting rights laws ASAP.
Marius25
(3,213 posts)Republicans are intentionally botching Covid so people will blame Biden, making it easier for a 2024 run by DeSantis.
calimary
(81,323 posts)Wonder how high the death-toll-on-his-watch will be by then? We should make sure he gets ALL the credit for that.
Roc2020
(1,616 posts)the problem with their 'death by covid' tactic is if the mass of majority of people that are killed by Covid are from Red states. Which is what's happening.
YoshidaYui
(41,832 posts)Murderers need to go to prison, including Ron DeSantos - and Greg Abbott, - Genocide! To make Biden look bad? God damn them all to hell with a hot poker in the eyes.
fwvinson
(488 posts)They are KILLING their own voters. Dog, they are ignorant.
Rebl2
(13,527 posts)Biden did credit Trump for getting the ball rolling on the vaccines a long time ago. Sorry but this crisis started under tfg and no way will anyone forget that.
Ingloriusbastrd1
(4 posts)Yup!
There we have it folks! The real plandemic going on.
TFG hoped that letting the virus wash through the population would help him retain power.
bdamomma
(63,883 posts)Abbott and DeSantis are jockeying who can kill most of their constituents for their run in 2024. Arrogant POS, both of them.
BlueAJ
(15 posts)In many Republican's minds, they are at war with Democrats. During war you expect losses on your own side as the cost of victory. Republicans who die from COVID are dying "in the line of duty" from their perspective.
Beartracks
(12,816 posts)Because it's what they would do / are doing.
==========
Beartracks
(12,816 posts)DallasNE
(7,403 posts)If a few people die then that is just a little collateral damage - nothing to worry about.
usaf-vet
(6,189 posts)Evolve Dammit
(16,743 posts)Pepsidog
(6,254 posts)oasis
(49,392 posts)for anyone to figure that one out?