Mike Rogers Seemed Pretty Desperate On The Sunday Shows

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Since his reelection, Donald Trump and the minions in his party have acted as if they had unlimited power with zero accountability forever. But much like a 10-year-old English girl named Tilly Smith in 2004, the Republican Party now sees the clear signs that a massive blue tsunami of accountability is heading its way in this midterm election.

Mike Rogers, Republican Michigan Senate nominee, is trying to stay in denial, though. He appeared this week on CNN’s State Of The Union.

From host Dana Bash’s first question, it was clear why Rogers is such a bad candidate, and that allegiance to Donald Trump is sinking them all:

BASH: [P]resident Trump waived Russian sanctions on Friday that were overwhelmingly approved by the Senate, where you want to serve. Is that a mistake?

ROGERS: Well, that's just not where I would be. I would have voted for the sanctions bill. If the president has a better idea to get diesel prices down, I'd be for it. I'm just a little skeptical that this will work in the way that the administration wants it to work.

Mike Rogers led the House Intelligence Committee. He knows all too well about Russia and Putin. But despite this, the best he could do was timidly disagree with the strategy of removing sanctions and effectively funding Russia through these purchases as it continues its illegal war against our ally, Ukraine.

Bash asked Rogers about the economy and, again, he couldn’t be direct and criticize Trump:

BASH: Let's talk more broadly about the economy, which you mentioned several times. Would you say Michiganders are better off now economically than they were two years ago before President Trump took office again?

ROGERS: Well, our long-term prospects, yes.

How long until these “prospects” help actual voters? Will our grandchildren see them, or will it be right before the heat death of the sun?

Bash then played a clip of Trump mocking Abdul El-Sayed’s name, calling him a “jihadist” and just being the all-around racist piece of shit he is. She directly asked Rogers about this Islamophobia being done on his behalf, and Rogers continued exhibiting his cowardice:

BASH: The president is effectively calling your opponent a terrorist. You're a former special agent with the FBI, former Intelligence chair in the House. Are you comfortable with that?

ROGERS: Listen, I have never called him a terrorist.

Rogers has made plenty of insinuations relating to El-Sayed’s family and religion. Rogers surrogates like Louisiana GOP Senator John “Foghorn Leghorn” Kennedy have also made overtly Islamophobic remarks in front of and on behalf of Rogers.

Rogers further proved this point by segueing into El-Sayed’s alleged ties to the “Muslim Brotherhood” and a guy named “Tommy” asking El-Sayed about it at a town hall Saturday night.

Here is the full exchange for anyone who didn’t see the masterful way El-Sayed handled a Republican operative looking for a “gotcha” moment.

While Bash was happy to oblige by playing a small clip of this for Rogers, He was not expecting what came afterward:

BASH: So he [El-Sayed] said, “Yes, sure,” challenged the voter and said the voter only asked him because he’s a Muslim.

ROGERS: No. So, Hasan Piker, who really came to the state, he had him here multiple times, five different events, took him to college campuses, and this guy is full of hate and vitriol, not only for Jewish Americans, but for Black Americans. […] He has said he was excited about his answer because he did not disavow the Muslim Brother-… he didn’t disavow it. He goes on this word salad trying to get around the fact that he can’t do it.

BASH: He said -- he did -- he did say -- he said, “Sure, yes.”

ROGERS: No, that’s not true. Dana, listen …

BASH: I don’t want to debate with you.

ROGERS: I don’t know why the press is so eager for him — to protect this guy.

BASH: Congressman, I just want to be factual.

Rogers, it seems, was under the impression that he could count on Dana Bash and a mention of Hasan Piker to get some help spreading his lies. Didn’t work.

Who can blame Rogers for thinking it would, though, when CNN framed El-Sayed’s intellectual and surgical dissection of a GOP troll like this?

Rogers probably expected Bash to act the way another Ellison media empire employee, Jan Crawford of CBS News, had reacted to the exchange, before she was forced to delete the tweet:

Does this seem like it was meant as a DM to that GOP operative? Just saying.

Crawford, the CBS News’s legal analyst recently known for her softball interview with Samuel Alito, issued an apology for her brief “mask off” moment on Sunday afternoon.

But no matter how much the media tries to spin it or the GOP tries to deny it, November’s election and (hopefully) accountability will come all the same.

And we can’t wait.

Have a week.

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