BUT https://t.co/Ka9NoVXYfU pic.twitter.com/HJxFNt4dkZ
— John Cook (@johnjcook) June 5, 2017
I feel like I should add “again”…
Conservative radio hosts mock a physical assault on a reporter. A GOP governor blasts a reporter on Twitter as “a sick man.” The president accuses the media of being an “enemy of the people.”
This is not run-of-the-mill Republican criticism of the press anymore. It is now a deliberate strategy to help GOP candidates win elections fueled by public hatred of reporters…
A party that traditionally has had a fraught relationship with the media has become outright hostile, led by a president who picks more fights with journalists than any GOP leader since Richard Nixon.
But interviews with Republican strategists and party leaders across the country reveal that what started as genuine anger at allegedly unfair coverage — or an effort to deflect criticism — is now an integral part of next year’s congressional campaigns.
The hope, say these officials, is to convince Trump die-hards that these mid-term races are as much a referendum on the media as they are on President Trump. That means embracing conflict with local and national journalists, taking them on to show Republicans voters that they, just like the president, are battling a biased press corps out to destroy them…
The strategy still has limits. Motivating core Republican support is an important part of the campaign, but many of them also need to persuade middle-of-the-road voters to pull the lever.
Karen Handel, the Republican running against Jon Ossoff in Georgia, for example, has avoided antagonizing the media in a very close race in a suburban district that narrowly voted for Trump in November…
That’s the point: Demonizing the press was an excellent weapon for Richard Nixon, who was desperate to hide his own crimes and those of his minions, because his ‘Southern strategy’ could agitate a whole bloc of dissatisfied Democratic racists into switching parties. But the voters who were going to be swayed by such appeals to their basest instincts have been voting Repub for forty years now — there’s no juice left in that lemon.
Also, it’s pretty clear that the Trump Crime Cartel is now as desperate as Nixon was in 1972, and they’ve only had a few months to sink that low.
WHAT DID THE PRESIDENT KNOW, AND WHY IS THE GOP TRYING TO KEEP US FROM FINDING OUT ABOUT IT?
Late Night Open Thread: Repubs Ginning Up Their War on the First AmendmentPost + Comments (79)