Stelter: Reducin
Senate
Republican leader Mitch McConnell appears to have finally found a
backbone. After sitting by idly for years as the GOP became the party
defined by its promotion of lies and conspiracy theories, McConnell is
saying enough. On Monday evening, as Marjorie Taylor Green's incendiary
remarks continued to dominate headlines, McConnell released a blistering
statement. It was aimed not only at Greene, but at resolving the
information crisis afflicting the Republican Party and entire country.
"Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country," McConnell said in a statement.
"Somebody who's suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on
9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the
Clintons crashed JFK Jr.'s airplane is not living in reality. This has
nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust
debates on substance that can strengthen our party."
McConnell
is, of course, correct. He's right to say that deranged conspiracy
theories are a cancer on the GOP and the nation. And he's right to say
that such nonsense has nothing to do with policy. The question is: Where
was McConnell over the last four years? Make no mistake, the type of
"loony lies and conspiracy theories" that Greene traffics in is
precisely the same poison that has been coursing through the Republican
Party since Donald Trump became its leader and hacked the information
economy to amass power.
Once
upon a time, before Trump, fringe elements of the conservative movement
were relegated to ... you guessed it, the fringe. But Trump changed
that. He promoted Alex Jones. He promoted The Gateway Pundit. He
promoted "Diamond & Silk." He promoted OAN and Newsmax. On and on it
goes. Trump welcomed into the GOP with open arms the conspiratorial
voices that were once kept at bay — and through it all, McConnell stood
by silent. His speaking out is better late than never. But where was he
when it really mattered?
Greene talks to OAN
Under
pressure for her approval of conspiracy theories related to the
Parkland school shooting, Greene went to the friendliest outlet
imaginable to address her previous comments: OAN. "These are not red
flag incidents," Green finally conceded, though she did not directly
mention Parkland when making the remark. "They are not fake. It's
terrible the loss that these families go through and their friends as
well." But while Greene very tepidly backtracked from her previous
position, the larger theme of her interview was hitting back against the
supposed "blood-thirsty media..."
"Bare miniumum"
On "AC 360," Anderson Cooper spoke with a mother whose son was a teacher and died in the Parkland shooting. The mother, Linda Beigel Schulman, had earlier called for Greene to publicly renounce
the "false flag" conspiracy theory. She told Cooper that what Greene
told OAN was the "bare minimum" and questioned why she had allowed her
followers to believe the lie all these years. "If she wanted to stand up
and she really wanted to turn down the temperature, she would just make
a statement," Schulman said. "She would make a statement. She would say
that the Parkland shooting was not a 'false flag.' It was not a staged
event. And she would say that so that everybody could hear her."
Fox ignores McConnell
While
news professionals and political observers were focused intently on
McConnell's statement denouncing conspiracy theories, thet conversation
failed to happen on Fox. At 11pm ET, I searched rush transcripts for
Fox's prime time shows and could not find any instances in which his
statement was discussed. (The network, however, did publish a digital
story on his statement.) It will be interesting to see how the network's
biggest stars handle this in the coming days...
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