Republicans Keep Lowering Expectations On The Sunday Shows

We watch so you never have to.

The GOP’s midterm elections sales pitch

For the longest time, people have been grading Republicans on a curve. People are always saying variations of “Imagine if Dems [or insert Democratic president or presidential candidate] had done this thing Republicans just did.” Republicans are more than happy about the double-standard.

The Sunday shows this week seemed to hint that the well is running dry, so let’s dive in.

Tim Scott

We start with Republican South Carolina Senator and head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Tim Scott, on NBC’s Meet The Press.

Speaking to Kristen Welker, Scott tried his best used-car salesman pitch to convince voters to accept the GOP’s lemons. But Scott is no Kurt Russell (he’s not even as evilly clever as a Danny DeVito), so his pitch immediately fell apart when Welker asked about South Carolina nepo-candidate Darline Graham after her disastrous debate performance:

SCOTT: Well, there’s no doubt, Kristen, Darline Graham is the real deal. One of the things I took away from Friday night’s rally with President Trump, […] he talked about his amazing relationship with Lindsey Graham and how much time Lindsey Graham spent running around the world trying to make sure that Americans were safe here at home, but mostly abroad as well. […] What did I assess? Highly qualified, incredibly competent, ready for primetime.

Nothing says Darline Graham is ready and qualified more than using your answer to talk about her late brother.

Welker asked Scott about the Cook Political Report shifting a number of races in Democrats’ favor this week. Scott called Democrats “weird” (quite the projection) while, for example, calling into question the faith and character of James Talarico in Texas. But the problem with character attacks is that they only work if your candidate is not a pen-stealing serial scumbag like Ken Paxton, as Welker pointed out:

The contrast is clear, but not the way Scott intends it.

Scott then revived some old 2008 Sarah Palin “he pals around with terrorists” rhetoric to attack Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, but Welker pushed back on that too, since there is no actual evidence for such claims:

Scott continued trying to smear El-Sayed with “guilt by association”:.

“Birds of a feather”, you say?

If Republicans really want to do “birds of a feather,” they might want to worry about the birds of prey in their own flock.

Linda McMahon

On CNN’s State Of The Union, host Dana Bash interviewed current Education Secretary and former WWE CEO Linda McMahon.

While talking about price hikes on school supplies, McMahon threw a factoid out of left field:

MCMAHON: They know that we've been working very hard to make sure that children are safer in school relative to — and this — this stat will probably blow your mind. It did mine. You know, one in 10 children — statistics show one in 10 children before they finish high school will have — be sexually molested in school.

We are glad Linda McMahon is sounding the alarm on this. She has always been a champion of protecting children from such abuse. You can see this is so by googling “Linda McMahon ring boys abuse.”

McMahon also touted the “effectiveness” of using AI in classrooms.

She also pushed to train educate our future worker-drone students to prepare them for endless labor for the rich fulfilling, well-educated lives:

Dana Bash seemed skeptical in her questioning, but we implore Bash to check Linda McMahon’s extensive educational and scholarly achievements, which we have listed below:

Oops, we seem to have hit a snag.

Sean Duffy

We conclude this week with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Fox News Sunday.

The former reality show star was there to sell another former reality show star’s latest attempt to distract from the massive problems they can’t fix with useless spectacles:

How very ”fall of the Roman Empire” this whole Freedom 250 bullshit has been.

Duffy kissed Trump’s ass for his “vision” in putting on this idiotic race, and praised the work to make the track safe, which required roads to be ground down while manhole covers were bolted down and covered up. Of course, that work was shoddy garbage.

Duffy also attacked Canada for saying it will put 1:1 reciprocal tariffs on us, by saying these stupid things:

DUFFY: It's a country that doesn't have a military.

They do and even helped rescue our embassy guys during the Iran hostage crisis in the 1980s.

DUFFY: They have record high euthanasia rates.

Not sure what dying with dignity has to do with this, but it doesn’t make the US’s “die with shame in bankruptcy” medical system look better.

DUFFY: I think it's foolish on their part. […] The fact we provide their security for them, and they take advantage of us? [...] I think you're gonna see Mark Carney come to the table very very quickly, because it's gonna be devastating for his country.

Once again, a reminder we are in this tiff, in part, because Trump (and Duffy) don’t understand what “trade deficit” means.

Maybe Sean Duffy should try seeking a good higher education rather than trying to prevent his much smarter child from doing so.

Have a week.

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