Rachel Maddow shared last night that Republicans, so-called conservatives, and far-right groups are spending millions of dollars on ads defending Donald Trump and attacking vulnerable Democrats.
Many of those ads are on Facebook and other social media channels. Others are on television. But they all have one thing in common: they are spin and lies.
Let’s be clear – Donald Trump is guilty as charged. He abused the power of his office to commit bribery, and he obstructed the investigation. Even Republicans have given up trying to deny those facts, since the evidence is overwhelming.
Instead, they are resorting to manipulation, spin, and outright lying.
- “It’s Christmas – we should not sully the holiday with this.” (They impeached Bill Clinton even as he was lighting the national Christmas tree.)
- “The President was just carrying out his foreign policy.” (What he did had nothing to do with foreign policy – it was about getting re-elected, and in fact actually harmed our foreign policy and our national security.)
- “What Trump did wasn’t so bad.” (Bribery — conditioning an official act on the receipt of something in return — was such a concern to the framers of the Constitution that they listed it explicitly as a crime that should be addressed by impeachment. What Trump did was exactly what the founders of our country wanted to prevent.)
- “Democrats have wanted to impeach Trump since he was elected.” (In fact, Nancy Pelosi and other Dems in Congress had to push back against their constituents who wanted impeachment to happen much sooner. Pelosi, especially, didn’t want to attempt it. She and others came to this reluctantly, but finally realized that their oath of office compelled them to undertake it in order to “protect and defend the Constitution.”)
So, if you see one of these ads, either ignore it, or counter it as the spin that it is. Republicans know it’s a lie, but they have surrendered their honor and their spines to Trumpism, and feel that they have no choice but to go along with the lies.
You, however, don’t have to follow their lead. Trust your eyes and your ability to see the evidence and to think. Be the jury that Mitch McConnell and the Senate are not going to be.
Ignore the spin – he’s guilty.
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