It’s time to bust these lying weasels for their treasonous acts & reckless endangerment of politicians’ lives.
Boebert’s tweet about Speaker Pelosi had the same energy
This weekend Senators Rubio, Daines and Grassley all tweeted out info about where a politician was at a specific time to people who wanted to kill them. It reminded me of Lauren Boebert’s tweet about Pelosi during the January 6th insurrection.
Once again we see Republicans giving out location information of a politician to people who want to kill them.
This SHOULD be an opportunity for Democrats to nail these three senators and Rep. Boebert’s for their reckless endangerment and, in the case of Boebert, her treasonous behavior.
When this first happened I tweeted about it, then predicted the GOP lies and how they would spin it to the MSM. (I could show you the timestamp to prove that I got it right but that’s not a big deal.) But what I want to do now is go further into what the 3 GOPs said & how the media could respond and how Democratic activists could use the words & actions of these Republicans to nail them.
First I wanted to show how the MSM accepted Rubio’s comments at face value. You can see how George Stephanopoulos accepted Rubio’s excuses in the clip above. (Clip from a Crooks and Liar’s story by Aliza Worthington.)
Tonight I’m hoping that the MSNBC shows will ask their experts about this. But they will just explain what happened, not tell us what we can to do about it.
I also wanted to point out that this is a pattern of the Republicans and that the Democrats should use this pattern of behavior to hammer the Republicans with. So I tweeted this to the hosts of the Majority Report.
Sam and Emma did a great segment on the Majority Report and hit most of the main points I wanted to make about Rubio’s BS excuse that there was no security threat. Sam also noted that Democrats should use this clip to nail Rubio and the others, because you just know the Republicans would.
I don’t know if it is because I’m a regularly viewer of the show, or if it’s because I shared a taxi with Sam at Yearly Kos in 2008, but watching this felt like seeing the contents of a mind meld.
These days when I think I have an important point to make I ask. “So what? I noticed a pattern of terrible behavior by right wing nut jobs, so has everyone else with a brain. What am I gonna do about it?” That’s why I’ll point out how the GOP works the media refs and suggest what they could do instead. If some of media get it right, I suggest we amplify that. But also want to acknowledge that we all sometimes fall into learned helplessness.
One of the reasons that people on the left loved the Lincoln Project was because it took advantage of opportunities to nail the Republicans for their horrific comments and behaviors. Did those ads help move swing voters? Who knows? But it made people on the LEFT feel like someone was DOING something RIGHT NOW. They didn’t have to wait months for the Mueller report to come out or over a year for the DOJ to act.
How To Bust Lying Weasels
How the MSM helped Rubio get away with his excuse
Stephanopoulos gave Rubio the benefit of the doubt and accepted his answers. He wanted him to come back on the show again.
How the MSM could have busted Rubio
A producer could have fact checked Rubio with a timeline.
“According to Rep. Dean Phillips, the Ukrainian Ambassador expressly asked people not to share anything on social media during the meeting to protect the security of Zelensky.”
If Rubio wasn’t lying about when she asked and when he tweeted, Stephanopoulos could then nail him on his second excuse about it not being a “security threat.” That would be a good time to quote experts about how professional assassins find a location based on time and network traffic.
As people have pointed out to me, the MSM doesn’t really like to bust these politicians, and as I point out, it’s not as easy as people think. The politicians are trained to evade and change the trajectory of the narrative. Also, while it would be great TV, it would only happen once. That politician wouldn’t be coming back.
Now I like MSNBC, but even they fall into explaining how the GOP will get away with their mendacious, criminal behavior. They don’t feel it is their job to say, “The Republicans will try to weasel out of punishment, however if the Democrats take these steps they could nail them!” For example:
How the Senate experts might help the Rubio, Daines and Grassley get away with their excuse
Lawrence O’Donnell might have someone from the Senate Intelligence Committee on to talk about what a terrible thing the three GOP members did. He’ll ask what can be done. Maybe an ethics complaint will be filed! But nothing seriously will happen to any of them because that’s just not done!
How the Senate experts on MSNBC could help bust Rubio
On O’Donnell’s show they talk about Senate traditions, which often seem to me to be, “Assume the best of your colleagues, unless they break the law AND you can PROVE they had malicious intent.”
Knowing Republicans on Intelligence Committees regularly break the law, but evidence of intent is needed to bust them in congress, some Democrat could have prepared for their behavior and used it to obtain evidence of their intent. (Like they should have done when Devin Nunes ran to Trump with secret intel info.)
For example. The committee sends a note to Rubio and others to remind them of the Committee Rules In General and how exposing Zelenskyy’s location would put him in danger of assassination. When Rublio, Daines or others replied with “Thanks for the info but I’ll do what I want!” in an email, that can be used as proof of their foreknowledge of the risk and possibly their intent.
Don’t let all three Senators off the hook with the same lame excuses
I read how Daines’ staff tried to flip the narrative and attack the people pointing out what they did was bad. Notice their excuses and how they moved to change the subject. (NBC story link)
Daines’s office said the senator shared the photo on Twitter before the request to not post images was made and similarly accused those pushing back against the post of seeking attention.
“This was a well reported call with over 250 people joining, and it was not a secure or classified briefing. The photo was shared before it was requested not to and well into the call, and it had no identifying information. We should be focusing on what’s important here and that’s supporting Ukraine. The only reason why anyone wants to make this an issue is partisan clickbait,” Daines’s spokesperson said.
Two GOP senators share photos of Zelenskyy during call after lawmakers asked not to by Ukraine, March 5th NBC by Haley Talbot, Julie Tsirkin and Nicole Acevedo
How exhausted Democrats help Rubio get away without consequences
I realized that many people continue to accept the GOP’s behavior with the line, “It was stupid, but not illegal.”
Or they buy into the excuses given about why nothing will be done–like this person who replied to me on Twitter.
I get it. It’s exhausting trying to bust these people, especially when you don’t feel you have a platform or any power. But we have to keep at it. And now is the perfect time! The Russian bots are defunded and are temporarily focused elsewhere in social media!
How To Destroy Rubio For His Actions
Here’s what coordinated response to use Rubio’s actions to destroy him would look like.
Set up the media with a story
If the MSM wanted to nail Rubio they could, but they won’t (I explain why below) but nailing a right winger requires more than exposing the truth. You need to have a media strategy that moves UP to the MSM, not start there.
Prepare and think like a prosecutor
“How will the subject answer the question? What defense will they use? How can I blow a hole in their argument?”
Plan ahead
“How can we use those comments to drag them down in perceptions among voters?” Short videos? Memes?
Think like a product marketer
“How do I show buyers my product is good and their product is bad?”
Act like a cut throat finance person
“How do I destroy their revenue stream? What upsets their shareholders? How do I put them out of business?”
If Democrats really wanted to nail a Republican politician about a comment or action they would need to do their homework on that politician’s past, preemptively cut off their possible avenue of response, provide examples of previous times they said something that was wrong, AND provide evidence that showed a malicious intent.
They would build a narrative for the media, demand congressional investigations, point out the laws broken to the DOJ, get the military and intelligence community to condemn the act and explain the reality of the security threat, engage the activist base with a social media campaign and get Democratic politicians to pile on with new revelation of the malicious intent of their actions.
Or we can just let them weasel out of it.
