Republicans Just Recycling Old Bullsh*t On Sunday Shows And Hoping Something Sticks

If this week is any indication, Republicans like Mitch McConnell can see their hopes at power vanishing. So they’re tossing bad or stale old ideas at the wall as fast as they can.

Let’s get started with this week’s Sunday shows!

GOP Rep. Andy Barr on NBC’s ‘Meet The Press’

The Kentucky congressman’s appearance began like any other public relations ad interview in Chuck Todd’s faux-neutral media fantasy land.

Todd asked a vague question about messaging going into the midterm elections, while pointing out current positive political and economic news, and let Barr just vomited vague talking points. What was not expected was Todd stumbling ass-backwards into actual journalism.

TODD: Let me ask you this. What is your plan to deal with inflation? What is the Republican plan to deal with inflation other than not supporting Joe Biden policies? And I say that because what is the proactive agenda here?

Those are some very good questions! A good reporter would not stop asking until they got a concrete answer, instead of empty slogans. But, alas, this is Chuck Todd.

Barr brought up the “Democrats increased the workforce at the IRS by 87,000 people” talking point Republicans have been trying to make into a villain narrative. Todd accidentally asked a commonsense question.

TODD: I just don’t get it because a lot of Republicans have talked about dealing with waste, fraud and abuse. The current head of the IRS, who was a Trump appointee, said he didn’t have enough people to essentially — that the biggest problem we have is people don’t pay the taxes that they’re supposed to pay. If you’re upset about extra IRS agents, stop cheating on your taxes, Congressman.

Todd did quickly clarify he didn’t mean Barr specifically, but it is a great point. If Republicans honestly wanted to stop fraud, waste or abuse, then hiring more accountants would certainly do that. Todd never followed up on this, both because he’s a terrible journalist and because Barr quickly heaved a torrent of old GOP rhetoric.

But in his filibuster, Barr made a Freudian slip:

BARR: When Joe Biden and his campaign promised the American people that, “Oh, taxes were not going to go up for people earning less than $400,000,” that was a lie. This bill is going to come at the expense of the American people. Raising taxes on energy producers, job creators and people trying to save for retirement in the middle of a recession, I don’t know for the life of me why they think that’s a winning strategy.

You catch that? Terms like “job creators” and “energy producers” were Republican spin created by GOP strategists like Frank Luntz almost exactly a decade ago. When Barr says this, he signals that Republicans don’t care about waste, fraud or abuse as long as it’s for “energy producers” (oil companies) or “job creators” (massive corporations). To Republicans, it’s only waste, abuse or fraud is when tax money is being used on resources helping actual middle- class and poor Americans.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on ‘Fox News Sunday’

Despite Shannon Bream winning Fox News’s “Who wants to host our Sunday show?” contest, this week we were subjected to the bland stylings of Trace Gallagher. But don’t let the total charisma vacuum fool ya. He is a good old Fox News-trained propagandist, as we could see when he tried to argue debunked old talking points about clean energy with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.

While less rambling and more coherent, Gallagher’s talking points were fundamentally no different from Donald Trump’s musings on solar and wind energy.

Secretary Granholm deserves an award for explaining battery storage to Gallagher without adding “you fucking moron” to the end of her sentences.

GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw on CNN’s ‘State Of The Union’

The Texas congressman and wannabe action star was discussing the search and retrieval of sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago.

While not as crazy as Marjorie Taylor Greene or as cravenly partisan as Mike Turner, Crenshaw proved how little they truly can defend any of Trump’s actions:

CRENSHAW: [L]ook, again, why not just ask him? Why not just ask him?

TAPPER: But didn’t they? I thought they’d been negotiating and trying to get the information from him. And…

CRENSHAW: And he cooperated.

TAPPER: But he didn’t turn over boxes and boxes of materials, as far as the Justice Department says.

CRENSHAW: But he’s been cooperating. And he — and I think he’s on the record saying, whatever you need from us, just ask. It’s great to see you guys. I mean, it was a very friendly environment. There’s no reason…

TAPPER: But his lawyers said they didn’t have any more classified information, and the Justice Department said, yes, you do. And they went and got it.

While Crenshaw might not be as unhinged as Greene or Lauren Boebert or Jim Jordan, he sings basically the same tune, and that tune is denial:

CRENSHAW: I still haven’t seen any evidence.

Have a week.

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