Republican sabotage in Minnesota

They’ve done similar things in Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina when Democratic governors were elected.

Are national reporters aware what's happening in Minnesota?

Because we have a Dem governor, the Senate is beheading state agencies one by one, knocking off commissioners once a month as an act of sabotage. Today they're removing the Commerce Commissioner. https://t.co/gzAv2Yh65M
— Will Stancil (@whstancil) September 11, 2020

Steve Kelley, Minnesota Commissioner of Commerce and champion for the transition to a clean energy future was fired by the Minnesota Senate for doing his job.@FreshEnergy’s public statement:https://t.co/inoV2OgDX9
— Michael Noble (@NobleIdeas) September 11, 2020

On a 33-31 vote, the GOP-led Minnesota Senate ousted Commerce Commissioner Steve Kelley, the second state agency head in two months to get the boot. https://t.co/UAV1ArN8Vi
— Star Tribune (@StarTribune) September 11, 2020

Republican power grab in Wisconsin

You can’t compromise with these people – you just have to beat them.

Elections matter to Republicans…unless Democrats win.

Yesterday, Republican activists on the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the GOP legislature’s lame-duck power grab. Today, they executed a power grab of their own, stripping away veto powers that Governor Evers was elected to wield. It's a deliberate diminishment of democracy.
— Ben Wikler (@benwikler) July 10, 2020

Wisconsin GOP wins power in 2010, gerrymander the legislature such that they can win a supermajority of seats without a majority of votes, pack the state courts, and raise new barriers and obstacles to voting. When Democrats win nonetheless, they strip power from the offices. https://t.co/yaIC43V7zi
— b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) July 9, 2020

69 percent of Republicans described the U.S. economy as “excellent” or “good”

What planet are they on? Sad!

Not everyone thinks the economy is doing so poorly. https://t.co/SEmkbOnMjE
— FiveThirtyEight (@FiveThirtyEight) July 6, 2020

Right wing extremists using cars as weapons

NPR article

Self-identified KKK leader accused of driving through protesters sentenced to six years in prison https://t.co/Zfh6E01v1d
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 11, 2020

Police say police driving into crowds is fine.

ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS??? https://t.co/TtIRV9iVjq
— Touré (@Toure) June 23, 2020

The Republican Party is a right wing extremist party

Something everyone in US politics should understand: the GOP is the farthest right major party in any developed democracy. To find analogues you have to look to splinter neo-fascist parties in the EU. https://t.co/LjKRL3FM4w pic.twitter.com/pwztpsYnNk
— David Roberts (@drvox) June 19, 2020

Ideological divides among partisans deepen: ABC News polling analysis https://t.co/cTAmyaSNSh
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 13, 2020

McConnell wants states to go bankrupt if they can’t pay their bills

McConnell is using the economic revenue losses states are having because of the coronavirus to attack blue states. In fact, blue states subsidize red states like McConnell’s Kentucky.

Republican Rep Greg Murphy says on CNN that states should have managed money better and built rainy day funds, so should explore bankruptcy. He doesn’t explain why that wouldn’t apply to companies.
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) April 25, 2020

It's getting dangerously close to the point where @WhiteHouse & @GOP leadership are openingly willing to spend $ to save #Republican lives, but not to save #Democrat lives. This Red State/Blue State approach to public health is immoral and dangerous. https://t.co/XEPI4z014P
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) April 25, 2020

“Because Rs hold the Senate, the federal judiciary has shifted in conservative direction.

“State bankruptcy would enable GOP based in the poorer states to use its federal ascendancy to impose its priorities upon the budgets of richer Democratic states”
https://t.co/FEajyOmbPU
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) April 26, 2020

To understand why McConnell wants Blue States to declare bankruptcy, it's important to understand not only McConnell, but also "bankruptcy." My latest in @TheAtlantic https://t.co/PU08ZWtpik
— David Frum (@davidfrum) April 26, 2020

"… State bankruptcy is not some passing fancy. Republicans have been advancing the idea for more than a decade." https://t.co/4F1jOkTdyB
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) April 25, 2020

NY has given $116 billion more to the federal government than we received since 2015.

Kentucky *took* $148 billion more from the federal government than it gave.

Just give NY our money back, Senator McConnell. pic.twitter.com/kejNSU2oK5
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 24, 2020

Actually, they squandered billions of dollars on states like Arkansas. https://t.co/KMegdND3ou
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) April 25, 2020

McConnell's outrageous scheme to block aid for hard-hit states and localities isn't just hardball politics

It's a scorched-earth policy to crush unions and cause pain in what really needs to be GOP's last hurrah

My new column: https://t.co/PeIrMfSEBq
— Will Bunch Sign Up For My Newsletter (@Will_Bunch) April 26, 2020

Governors criticize Senate Majority Leader McConnell for saying this week he would prefer states to be able to declare bankruptcy rather than provide hundreds of billions in relief as state and local government revenue dries up. https://t.co/pc6qePFkER
— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 26, 2020

Gov. Whitmer: McConnell's 'bankruptcy' suggestion is "outrageous" and "incredibly dangerous. I don't think that the vast majority of governors in this country, Republican and Democratic, would agree with him. He’s wrong and we need Congress to step up and help states." Via ABC pic.twitter.com/SIP4dGrXXi
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 26, 2020

“What Senator McConnell said was absolutely disgraceful,” Rep. King says in response to McConnell’s remarks, in which he suggested states could file for bankruptcy amid the coronavirus pandemic. https://t.co/1hr3BhWNrl
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 26, 2020

The options are not “the feds give states money, or states default on their debts and debt-like obligations.” The options are “the feds give states money, or states implement economically destructive austerity.” So bankruptcy is a red herring. https://t.co/zU2pwhEm1B
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) April 26, 2020

Kevin Hassett on ABC on McConnell: “I’m just an economist, but it feels like the Constitution doesn't really allow states to declare bankruptcy & so … they're going to have to work things out & the federal government is going to probably have to help them, too.”
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) April 26, 2020

Republicans try to limit authority of Kentucky’s Democratic governor

Republicans try to limit the power of governors when Democrats are elected. Biden is wrong. You can’t work with these people.

Kentucky Republicans have been so furious a Democrat deigned to win the governorship last year, they've been doing everything they can to strip Andy Beshear of his powers. Their latest effort: a bill to take away his ability to issue executive orders https://t.co/IIwaSYka5n
— David Nir (@DavidNir) March 7, 2020

This is happening in state after state–GOP stripping powers from Democratic elected officials. It has the effect of nullifying voter chioices. (Kentucky has a Dem governor but GOP controls both houses of the legislature and a veto can be overridden with a simple majority.) https://t.co/47Vr2HfWnf
— Perry Bacon Jr. (@perrybaconjr) February 21, 2020

Trump allies to target journalists

They can’t succeed on discussing issues and facts so they have to go to character assassination. This is disgusting.

"A loose network of conservative operatives allied with the White House is pursuing what they say will be an aggressive operation to discredit news organizations deemed hostile to President Trump by publicizing damaging information about journalists." https://t.co/UFp0l1WpdD
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 25, 2019

Allies of President Trump have reportedly constructed an operation to discredit journalists viewed as being unfavorable towards the president. https://t.co/eI7yFNXQAS
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) August 25, 2019

NEW FRONT IN THE WAR ON THE PRESS: TRUMP allies say they have archived embarrassing posts by hundreds of employees of @nytimes, @washingtonpost, @CNN & others.

The TRUMP allies plan to disseminate the posts in response to coverage they consider unfair. https://t.co/UqKvjyxd6w
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) August 25, 2019

Whataboutism is the actual Trumpworld 2020 strategy against the mainstream press, and probably the only realistic strategy given the verbal habits of president they are defending. @kenvogel & @jwpetersNYT report: https://t.co/lqHxzIQ8SI
— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) August 25, 2019

Fox News poll on Trump’s racist tweets

Here’s an except from the Reliable Sources newsletter by CNN’s Brian Stelter last night and the email I sent him:

From the newsletter:

New polling about Trump’s racist tweets

Some newsworthy results from this new Fox News poll:

— 63% of Americans say Trump’s racist tweets “crossed the line.”
— 56% say saying “go back” is a racist thing to say to people of color.
— Only 34% say Trump respects racial minorities.

What I wrote to him:

To:brian.stelter@turner.comJul 26 at 12:50 PM
I appreciate your excellent newsletter and know it is difficult to work in an environment where the president of the country lies all the time.
In your coverage of the Fox News poll on Trump’s racist tweets, I think you should have noted that the numbers you cited represent the majority but the views of Republicans were very different.
The poll showed (per the article you linked to):
53% of Republicans think the tweets were an acceptable political attack
33% of Republicans think the tweets crossed the line
21% of Republicans think the language is racist while 45% do not and 30% say it depends.
68% (which is lower since apparently more Republicans see that Trump is bigoted) think Trump respects minorities
To me, most Republicans fall in to one of two categories.
They are
1) racists or
2) willing to tolerate racism
Other polls have shown that Trump’s support among Republicans is around 90% and very few Republican elected officials pushed back against Trump’s racist remarks.

Republicans try recalls to invalidate election results

Republicans were unwilling to accept election results in Wisconsin and elsewhere so they limited the power of the governor. Now, they are trying recalls to invalidate legitimate election results. Disgraceful.

Republicans in some Western states use recall elections as a way to reclaim political power, @jandersonAP https://t.co/xRLvv0kumv
— AP West Region (@APWestRegion) July 21, 2019