Patterico's Pontifications

12/17/2020

After Mitch McConnell’s “Betrayal,” What Will MAGA Outlets Do Now?

Filed under: General — Dana @ 3:36 pm



[guest post by Dana]

After Mitch McConnell publicly acknowledged and made it clear to the Republican Party that Joe Biden was the next President of the United States, the current President, with uncharacteristic restraint, implored McConnell to re-consider:

Mitch, 75,000,000 VOTES, a record for a sitting President (by a lot). Too soon to give up. Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry!”

We know, that while a handful of Republicans followed McConnell’s lead and hesitatingly acknowledged Biden’s win, a majority of courageous lawmakers opted to hide out in their bunks.

So, how did the news of McConnell’s acknowledgment that Biden is indeed the President-elect play out in MAGA world? I’m glad you asked. McConnell’s actions were not well received:

McConnell, who had been celebrated throughout the Trump years for putting conservatives on the Supreme Court and helping acquit Trump during impeachment, was suddenly the target of blistering attacks from some of the very right-wing media figures who had celebrated him when he did their bidding.

McConnell became the target of some in MAGA Media. Charlie Kirk raged on his podcast, “You typically don’t use the term ‘congratulations’ when someone just stole a bank — stole money from a bank.” The Gateway Pundit accused him of “supporting election fraud” and questioned his wife’s dealings with China. An OANN host said he would “regret revealing his own corruption in less than 30 days.” Sebastian Gorka said he had “cave[d] to the mob.” Mark Levin bashed him and said it’s “time for some fresh thinking and new blood.”

Additionally, Trump-promoting attorney Lin Wood referred to McConnell as “a traitor to American Patriots,” and warned that “his day of judgment is coming.”

And although she didn’t specifically name McConnell, Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia representative-elect and QAnon conspiracy theory supporter commented right after his announcement, saying:

Republicans who don’t continue contesting the election results are supporting “the Chinese Communist Party takeover of America.”

More reactions to McConnell from MAGA world:

Recently pardoned former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn joined the outcry, retweeting a Twitter user who called on ‘American patriots’ to let ‘McConnell know we aren’t on board with his ‘President Elect Biden’ mindset.’

Flynn told Trump: ‘millions & millions & millions of Patriots stand behind, alongside & in front of you during this crucible moment in US History where our very Republic is on the line. We won’t fail or cower like some in the Republican Party have shown.

Hard-right commentator Nicholas J. Fuentes, who has been appearing at rallies across the country to protest the election results, tweeted simply: ‘McConnell is a traitor and a RINO.’

And Michelle Malkin tweeted this:

MCCONNELL/CHAO SWAMP FLASHBACK OF THE DAY. The enemy is not without. The enemy is within. Has always been.

It’s been riveting to see the wave of anger directed at McConnell for stating the truth and congratulating Biden as the next President of the United States. Painful as it might be for the deluded Trump superfans, McConnell did what needed to be done. Frankly, it should have happened weeks earlier. At the very least, McConnell should have publicly recognized Biden as the President-elect before Vladimir Putin. What’s most surprising about the party of personal responsibility (although they aren’t encouraging Trump to assume responsibility for his election loss) and the party that hates “cancel culture,” is that they appear to be on a path to cancel McConnell for doing the right thing his betrayal. This is from Brian Stelter, a journalist I have never held in high regard. However, I think he is provably right here:

The whole episode underscored — yet again — the true nature of the MAGA Media diehards. These pro-Trump personalities claim to be against groupthink and cancel culture, but are ready to cancel anyone who steps out of line, regardless of who they are. Don’t just look at the attacks McConnell has faced. Look at the wrath folks like Attorney General William Barr and Tucker Carlson faced in recent weeks for rejecting wild election conspiracy theories. And, more broadly, look at how former GOP heroes like Jeff Sessions and John Bolton were treated by right-wing media when they had the nerve to diverge from Trump.

There is a small sliver of conservative media that remains which is genuinely interested in advancing conservative philosophy and debating on the merits. But that small sliver is nothing compared to the rest of the right-wing apparatus that has pledged undying support to Trump. Dissent from Trump and they will aim to destroy. The ironic feature of right-wing media is that at its core it often acts as an agent of the cancel culture that it professes to hate. The question now becomes: What do they do when Trump is gone?

Once Trump leaves and/or is removed from office, what do the MAGA media outlets do? I’m not talking about OANN, Newsmax, or Fox News. They’ll stay the course as long as they get the eyes and the ratings. No, I’m talking about fellow right-leaning outlets and blogs whose writing we read because we considered them reliable – until they weren’t. What do they do now given their leader will soon be out of the seat of power? Do they remain in the alternate realities they have created because there is an audience for it? Do they continue to hold in contempt members of the Republican Party, like McConnell, who do the right thing? Or do they find their way back to reasonable soundness?

I suspect MAGA outlets will continue to feed the audiences they’ve cultivated with the red meat they demand. This while keeping an eye on the revenue stream. That might be cynical of me, but four years of Trump will do that. All I can do is to assure you that this humble blogger will continue to house politicians of every political stripe in a purgatoric-like circle of hell designed especially for them. A holding place, if you will, where they will be viewed with a jaded eye until they prove themselves. One way or the other and for better or worse. In other words, every elected official from city councilmember to the President of the United States and in between remains fair game.

–Dana

50 Responses to “After Mitch McConnell’s “Betrayal,” What Will MAGA Outlets Do Now?”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (cc9481)

  2. Would you rather be McConnell in a room full of MAGA fans, or Cruz in a room full of NeverTrump?

    Keep those windows boarded up.

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  3. Babies may or may not remember that they got their diapie changed and their bottom powdered five minutes ago, but where’s mommy with that bottle that they want NOW!? Das ist unser MAGA.

    nk (1d9030)

  4. @2 Since MAGA is the only one of that group credibly liked to violent conspiracies I think Cruz get’s the better deal.

    Time123 (53ef45)

  5. @4: Let’s hope Cruz doesn’t play softball.

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  6. Andrew Marantz wrote a book on this topic (Antisocial). It makes it clear that this sort of thing is about grift and little else. The R voter rolls are where grifters go hunting for chumps, and find them in droves.

    Leviticus (f88380)

  7. You’re confusing NeverTrump with bernie bros.

    Time123 (53ef45)

  8. syc·o·phant
    /ˈsikəˌfant,ˈsikəfəntnoun
    a person who acts obsequiously toward someone important in order to gain advantage.

    Similar: toady creep crawler fawner flatterer flunkey truckler groveler doormat lickspittle kowtower obsequious person minion hanger-on leech puppet spaniel Uriah Heep bootlicker yes-man brown-nose suck-up
    Vulgar slang: [omitted]

    And one of them a confessed criminal, paid foreign agent, and traitor.

    nk (1d9030)

  9. RIP Jeremy Bulloch (75).

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  10. Todd Herman, substituting for Rush Limbaugh, said he’d be willing to go to jail to find out who stole the election, (taking it for granted it was stolen)

    The person substituting yesterday for Giuliani had an argument that 80% of the counties went for Trump but they were outvoted by 5 or 6 cities.

    Only problem with that is, the cities were carried for the Democrat by smaller margins than in 2016. Donald Trump made inroads into the black vote and more so Hispanics except in Arizona and Florida and I don’t know Nevada.

    Trump lost the election in the suburbs.

    Sammy Finkelman (ab7073)

  11. .

    This while keeping an eye on the revenue stream.

    Noble gold investments. Investing in real estate in New Jersey. They have more honest ads too.

    Sammy Finkelman (ab7073)

  12. Would you rather be McConnell in a room full of MAGA fans, or Cruz in a room full of NeverTrump?

    Easy call. NeverTrumpers would treat Cruz with disdain. MAGA-heads would treat McConnell with ferocious rage and try to get him punished as a traitor to America.

    Radegunda (b6cc34)

  13. Lin Wood referred to McConnell as “a traitor to American Patriots,”

    I really dislike the idea that being an American patriot (or even a Patriot) requires being on the political right. I dislike even more the idea that it requires being unconditionally loyal to Donald Trump.

    Radegunda (b6cc34)

  14. How Geraldo Rivera, the sensationalist showman of ’80s TV, became the voice of election reason on Fox News
    …..
    …..Rivera might be playing the most important — and unexpected — role of his life, as a contrarian truth teller who has been pleading with President Trump, whom he considers a friend, and the president’s most passionate supporters to accept that their side lost the election.
    …..
    ….[I]n his efforts to talk truth to conservatives, he has taken direct aim at some of the most prominent election denialists on the right — and done so straight to their faces, as he did Monday night during a heated segment with the millennial conservative activist Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, who suggested on air that Trump still has a chance to serve another four years.

    “It is over,” Rivera told him firmly. “I want the president, my friend, the current president, the 45th president, to understand it is over. The electoral college has voted. The longer we drag this out, the more we damage the fabric of our democracy.”

    When Kirk hyped some of the “pending legal challenges” still in play, Rivera repeated, “That is so dishonest.”

    “We have litigated this for six weeks,” Rivera added. “We have litigated this for six weeks. Twice the Supreme Court of the United States have rejected it, 9-0, including all three Trump associate justices.”
    …….
    During an appearance on the talk show “The Five” on Nov. 19, Rivera criticized Trump attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani for a nearly two-hour news conference in which he made several baseless claims of election fraud. “I love the president. I wanted him to win this election,” Rivera said, casting the election as a done deal. “What I saw with Rudy Giuliani, who I have known for decades, was bizarre, was unfocused. There was conspiracy theory, this and that.” And when host Jesse Watters described Giuliani’s comments as “a big shot of adrenaline,” Rivera shot back, “Come on, Jesse. An international ‘conspiracy’? What about Elvis?! . . . We’re giving false hope to people. This is false hope.”
    …….
    Rivera’s take on the election has drawn the ire of Trump supporters, including some of his own colleagues. “Are you kidding me? Are you kidding?” Fox host Jeanine Pirro shot back during the Nov. 20 segment. Trump campaign senior adviser Mark Serrano called him “a leftist shill.”
    ……
    This week, Rivera took a tougher tone, accusing his friend the president of “instilling . . . the false sense” in his supporters that they have been defrauded by the electoral system. He reserved his harshest words, though, for Trump’s die-hard fans.

    “You have knuckleheads now talking about secession,” he said in a video he released on Twitter on Wednesday. “I mean, come on, that’s crazy stuff. We have to move on, move on. We’re one country.”
    >>>>>>>>>>

    Rip Murdock (d2a2a8)

  15. @4: Let’s hope Cruz doesn’t play softball.
    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67) — 12/17/2020 @ 4:29 pm

    Funny how enraged leftists are swept under the rug so quickly. Occupy Wall Street goons plotting to blow up a bridge? How many remember that? Certainly not CNN…

    Hoi Polloi (139bf6)

  16. Snowflakery is alive and well in the Trump World bubble, as evidenced by Gorka, Flynn, Wood, Malkin, Greene, and many others going ballistic over something routine and innocuous as congratulating a President-Elect. It is what every decent, honorable person would do. These unhinged Trumpers equate that gesture as a betrayal of conservatism. But frankly, I shouldn’t be expecting else at this point. Conservatism as defined by them has been reduced to being a barometer of how loyal one is to Donald Trump.

    Marjorie Taylor Greene made the point on Twitter that those who don’t support stealing the presidential election from Biden are essentially Chinese communist sympathizers. She’s already on a roll, and she hasn’t even been sworn in yet. Greene clearly is the GOP counterpart to AOC and the rest of the so-called “the Squad”. They deserve each other.

    HCI (92ea66)

  17. Occupy Wall Street goons plotting to blow up a bridge?

    How many Electoral Votes did they get?

    nk (1d9030)

  18. One day, they’ll all be enemies. Even Melania.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  19. The way to deal with Trump is to ignore him, or when you take notice, mock and deride him. He lives off of fear; don’t give him that.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  20. @4: Let’s hope Cruz doesn’t play softball.
    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67) — 12/17/2020 @ 4:29 pm

    Funny how enraged leftists are swept under the rug so quickly. Occupy Wall Street goons plotting to blow up a bridge? How many remember that? Certainly not CNN…

    Hoi Polloi (139bf6) — 12/17/2020 @ 6:09 pm

    If the president were re-tweeting their crazy ideas and wrapped himself into a pretzel to avoid criticizing them and openly welcomed their support that might be different. The proud boys were the answer to a trivial pursuit question until Trump couldn’t manage to criticize them.

    Time123 (457a1d)

  21. Glorious.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  22. I really dislike the idea that being an American patriot (or even a Patriot) requires being on the political right. I dislike even more the idea that it requires being unconditionally loyal to Donald Trump.

    This. Neither the left nor the right own the term, nor consistently live it out loud. It’s akin to both sides of the aisle claiming that they are the ones that are “on the right side of history”. It means nothing, but both sides try to make the slogan their own – and even believe it – when their actions show otherwise.

    And the fact that loyalty to any individual equates to being patriotic undermines the term: a person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors. Loyalty to a politician is not the same as being patriotic – no matter who that politician is. Especially one as corrupt and dishonest as Trump.

    Dana (cc9481)

  23. Would you rather be McConnell in a room full of MAGA fans, or Cruz in a room full of NeverTrump?

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67) — 12/17/2020 @ 3:58 pm

    Yeah, those NeverTrumpers, aggressively threatening to not vote for you.

    As opposed to those nice MAGAts, sweetly asking whether, since this is the only life you get, wouldn’t you rather keep it?

    You are now traveling at Ludicrous Speed toward the star of Not-So-Sirius.

    Demosthenes (d7fc81)

  24. How Offshore Oddsmakers Made a Killing off Gullible Trump Supporters

    Late that [election] night, Fox News called Arizona for Biden, and Nevada started looking good for him, too. Overnight, new batches of mail ballots made Biden the clear favorite in Wisconsin and Michigan and suggested he was on a good pace in Pennsylvania. By the morning, Biden was a heavy favorite all over the market. And by 2:30 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, two days after the vote, Biden was -1100 and Trump was +575 at Bovada.

    Through it all, Morrow said a huge majority of the money bet at his site remained on Trump—including “3- or 4-to-1” on Trump after the election.

    (For the non-gamblers, -1100 means you had to bet $1100 to win $100 profit on Biden, and +575 means you win a profit of $575 by betting $100 on Trump)

    Dave (1bb933)

  25. This is funny:

    “Trump combines the ambitions of a despot with the strategic planning and operational competence of a hamster. He is an evil mastermind without the mastermind part.”

    Radegunda (b6cc34)

  26. Remember not my president and russian interference for trump in 2016? Turn about is fair play! With chinese interference along with the tech giants playing the part of putin. 2016 trump commits treason with russia. 2020 bidens commit treason and corruption with communist china.

    asset (27f76b)

  27. McConnell didn’t even really do the right thing with his guess that the electoral college elected Biden. He also is feeding into their baseless and fact-free untruthful narrative, just not vigorously enough for them.

    Nic (896fdf)

  28. and wrapped himself into a pretzel to avoid criticizing them

    That’s the problem: the media will never ask those questions of Obama or Biden. They’ll run interference so Biden will never have to disavow the violent left.

    Like I said, the media buried pretty quickly the stories of Occupy violence, like they do with Antifa/BLM violence today (remember when a BLMer started assassinating cops?) while letting right-wing violence – or even the threat of it – fester.

    Hoi Polloi (139bf6)

  29. “Trump combines the ambitions of a despot with the strategic planning and operational competence of a hamster.

    Snowball!

    nk (1d9030)


  30. Jason Compson
    @JCompson_III
    ·
    Wow. In the @nytimes, a doctor explains why the CDC chose to de-emphasize the elderly, even though doing so would’ve saved lives:

    “Older populations are whiter…Instead of giving add’l health benefits to those who already had them, we can start to level the playing field a bit”
    __

    Jason Compson
    @JCompson_III
    ·
    So to sum up, in this single article by @JanHoffmanNYT, three experts–Schdmit, Lipsitch, and Gould– say that more white people dying will “level the playing field”, teachers are “too white” to deserve a vaccine, but that their “Black and Brown” students make them deserving.
    _

    Raise your hand if you voted for the party that supports this.
    _

    harkin (8fadc8)

  31. “ Neither the left nor the right own the term, nor consistently live it out loud. It’s akin to both sides of the aisle claiming that they are the ones that are “on the right side of history”. It means nothing, but both sides try to make the slogan their own”
    _

    The Patriot Winery didn’t change their name because Conservatives couldn’t get past the name.
    _

    harkin (8fadc8)

  32. The rebranding of Trump as the sorest of sore losers.

    https://outline.com/pmhZj7

    As Susan Glasser points out, the ultimate irony is that Trump’s petulant temper tantrum, baseless claims of voter fraud and election theft, conspiracy theories and meritless lawsuits tossed out of court after court–the Supreme Court wouldn’t even grant hearings–force (some but more and more) Republican leaders to affirm the integrity of the election process, thereby confirming Trump’s defeat. Calling someone a loser is one of his favorite insults, and he certainly doesn’t like being perceived as one himself.

    The MAGA crowd has become a mob of lemmings following Wile E. Coyote off a cliff. The Georgia Democrats say, keep running! This madness is only helping them in the runoffs.

    Several Republicans have filed a lawsuit to limit the number of mail-in ballots in the Georgia runoffs. There is some merit to that complaint, because the election is on Jan. 5 and the new Congress must certify the electoral vote on Jan. 6. What if the vote tally cannot be completed overnight, and the two Senators from Georgia cannot be seated, regardless of party, in time to certify the electoral vote? That would be a problem, no matter who wins the runoffs.

    It places Mitch McConnell between a rock and a hard place. He, as Senate majority leader, must hold his caucus together. But he might not be Senate majority leader come January. The outcome of the runoffs may result in a 52-48 or a 51-49 or a 50-50 Senate, but that won’t be determined for days or possibly weeks after Jan. 5. So who is going to certify the electoral vote with the two Senators from Georgia in question, who have not been seated, on Jan. 6?

    McConnell did the bare minimum. He acknowledged the electoral vote, recognized the electoral defeat, and congratulated the president-elect. All in one short speech. What he did not do was call on Retrumplicans to accept the result. That was his mistake.

    Now he’s faced with an insurgent MAGA constituency obsessed with QAnon conspiracy theories, accusing him of being a traitor! None of this will end well.

    Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1)

  33. Raise your hand if you voted for the party that supports this.

    We’ve been told it was the Dominion voting machines that gave the presidency to a Dem. If the election results must be explained by an orchestrated fraud led or abetted by foreign powers — a fraud so vast as to overcome a “landslide” for Trump — it follows that individual voters cannot be blamed for any unwelcome consequences.

    Radegunda (b6cc34)

  34. #31 — Remember the Trumpers who want Dems to get control of the Senate in order to punish McConnell for insufficient personal loyalty to Donald Trump, or to punish Perdue and Loeffler for not being quite extreme enough in their allegiance. And the Trumpers who are saying that their goal is to destroy the GOP.

    Radegunda (b6cc34)

  35. Raise your hand if you voted for the party that supports this.

    Which party would that be? The Proud Boys meth party or the QAnon adrenochrome party?

    nk (1d9030)

  36. 33. Gawain’s Ghost (b25cd1) — 12/18/2020 @ 8:50 am

    …[T]he election is on Jan. 5 and the new Congress must certify the electoral vote on Jan. 6. What if the vote tally cannot be completed overnight, and the two Senators from Georgia cannot be seated, regardless of party, in time to certify the electoral vote?

    Elections never get certified that fast.

    So who is going to certify the electoral vote with the two Senators from Georgia in question, who have not been seated, on Jan. 6?

    The Senate will be 51-48 Republican, with one vacancy. David Perdue’s term will have expired, but Kelly Loeffler will still be Senator since she’d still be serving put part of Johnny Isakson’s unexpired term.

    If any Senators failing to vote results in a tie, Mike Pence can break it until noon on January 20.

    Sammy Finkelman (ab7073)

  37. What he did not do was call on Retrumplicans to accept the result. That was his mistake.

    In a sane pre-Trump world, the Senate majority leader would not have to that statement. But the MAGA supporters, following the President’s lead, are not interested in accepting any results that do not show the President as winning the election. Didn’t Trump set up his gift nicely though: If he is declared the winner, it was a fair election. If he is declared the loser, it was a rigged election. In typical Trump fashion, there would never be any possibility that he could not fairly lose the election. This is such an elementary, childish framework and yet millions upon millions of Americans see it as gospel. He is their very own self-proclaimed omniscient and omnipotent god. Not a loser.

    Dana (cc9481)

  38. In typical Trump fashion, there would never be any possibility that he could not fairly lose the election.

    He asserted that idea quite clearly before the election. A reasonable person would be disturbed to hear such talk from the president of a country where democratic elections are supposed to be decisive, rather than one where the highest official can make sure he doesn’t lose. But all of MAGA world, including the most prominent apologists, basically took the idea for their own, insisting that their hero could not conceivably be disfavored by a solid majority of voters, or at least not in swing states.

    Most of those people had previously accepted the fact that majorities of voters chose Obama over the R. candidates, and took the position that the voters had chosen poorly. So what changed to make them see a legitimate D over R win as impossible?

    Radegunda (b6cc34)

  39. There’s a big problem with misinformation and disinformation that can sound like, to an uninformed ear, like it makes sense. But the accusation doesn’t even make sense.

    The substitute host for Rush Limbaugh is talking about some Democrat (I didn’t catch who) having an ownership interest in Dominion and a person in Michigan testifying that she saw a Dominion machine connected to the Internet.

    When votes are, in any case, subdivided by precinct, assigned (at the precinct level) to a registered voter who did not vote twice, backed up by paper ballots, verified or half verified by signature matches, and in any case Dominion wasn’t involved everywhere.

    Sammy Finkelman (ab7073)

  40. Radegunda (b6cc34) — 12/18/2020 @ 10:09 am

    Most of those people had previously accepted the fact that majorities of voters chose Obama over the R. candidates, and took the position that the voters had chosen poorly. So what changed to make them see a legitimate D over R win as impossible?

    Arguments having to do with high turnout, and lies coming at them from all over.

    Sammy Finkelman (ab7073)

  41. Come on, Trump is and will always be a reality TV personality…who’s been playing a scripted and over-the-top role…because he’s never had any of the leadership skills, experience, or knowledge to do anything different. To expect that it would end any different than it started…is assuming that any growth has occurred. The surprise is that when given the opportunity to quietly wait it out or make minimal principled objections, so many GOP “leaders” simply can’t help themselves. But until conservative media breaks free of Trump’s influence, this dance will sadly continue.

    AJ_Liberty (ec7f74)

  42. Arguments having to do with high turnout, and lies coming at them from all over

    My question was mostly rhetorical, since obviously the lies coming from Trump are a big reason. But you’re right that high turnout adds fuel to the conspiracy theories, even though it seemed apparent before Nov. 3 that turnout would be high.

    Radegunda (b6cc34)

  43. The substitute host for Rush Limbaugh takes it for granted (and takes for granted Democrats know this too) that the election was stolen.

    Sammy Finkelman (3915d0)

  44. Most of those people had previously accepted the fact that majorities of voters chose Obama over the R. candidates, and took the position that the voters had chosen poorly. So what changed to make them see a legitimate D over R win as impossible?

    It’s as if the last four years, in which Trump critics demonstrated they would do anything short of an election to be rid of him, never happened.

    Welcome to the world NeverTrump made.

    beer ‘n pretzels (042d67)

  45. Colbert Biden interview

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgIbnaEzSqM

    Sammy Finkelman (3915d0)

  46. 45. There might be some general credibility to the idea that Democrats might steal an election, and not from the attacks made on Trump, or the investigations, but from American political history, but there is no credibility to the idea that this really happened this year (beyond some ballot harvesting, mostly where it doesn’t affect electoral votes)

    Sammy Finkelman (3915d0)

  47. 46. I think that YouTube video cuts off early.

    Sammy Finkelman (3915d0)

  48. OT- Inhofe tells Senate; cut a deal tonight or do it w/o me- I’m outta here.

    Try that with you boss sometime, kids.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  49. Which party would that be?

    wobble man (f80af3)


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