Another day, another round of pearl-clutching by the Beltway press over a Democrat daring to call Republicans exactly what they are.
President Joe Biden described Trump, the GOP and their platform as "ultra MAGA" in a speech on Wednesday, and he didn't mean it as a compliment. He was emphasizing how extreme and dangerous the Republican party is, and he's NOT WRONG, PEOPLE. Don't tell that to the press, though, who insists on passing out every time a Democrat dips their toe into the fighting dirty pool. Remember the absolute freak out when Hillary Clinton called Trump fans "deplorables?" She was right, too, but the press (and Republicans) took great offense.
On Thursday, no fewer than four reporters brought it up in Jen Psaki's press briefing, the first two absolutely painting Biden's coinage of the phrase as "divisive" and bad political strategy. The first to bring it up, Jacqui Heinrich of Fox "News" brought it up in the context of Clinton's "deplorables" remark, and asked if it wasn't just a bad idea strategically, but counter to his campaign promises to try to unify the nation. Her typical BS.
Psaki reminded her of all the ways the GOP is actually extreme, all the times since he took office Biden had accomplished bipartisanship, but Psaki ended by defending his new descriptor, saying, "[H]e is not going to stand back and stand aside while people are pushing for extreme positions that are not in the interests or supported by the vast majority of the American people."
The second reporter to bring it up wanted to know if it had backfired on Biden, since the disgusting, racist, extremist Republicans were actually embracing the term and using it for fund-raising. (Grifters gotta grift.)
"On a different topic of “ultra-MAGA” -- now, you saw Representative Elise Stefanik saying, 'I'm ultra-MAGA, and I'm proud of it.' Former Trump super-PAC blasted out a t-shirt of him as an ultra-MAGA Superman. He, on his own Twitter-alternative platform, released a meme of him as the ultra-MAGA king," the reporter listed for Psaki.
Then, "I guess I'm curious what the administration makes of Republicans and the former President sort of co-opting this and elevating what President Biden clearly intended as a pejorative."
Clearly, Psaki was not in the mood to elevate this tripe with any kind of meaningful earnestness beyond the answer she'd already given. The Queen of the Press Room spelled out the ultra-MAGA platform with exactly the seriousness and respect it deserved.
"Well, I think if that means that the individuals you’ve mentioned are embracing their opposition to a woman's right to make choices about her own healthcare, if they're embracing a plan that will raise taxes on 75 million Americans, if they're embracing the importance of fighting Mickey Mouse over virtually any other issue, I guess that's their platform. Good for them. We're happy to have a debate about that," she quipped.
Of course they're happy to have a debate about that.
The ultra-MAGA crowd, on the other hand, is too classless and chickensh*t to show up for a debate, so we know it will never happen.
