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GOP gaslighting gets weirder: Why Trump and Vance spread lies about race and gender
GOP gaslighting gets weirder: Why Trump and Vance spread lies about race and genderJD Vance calls a cis woman a man. Trump denies that Kamala Harris is Black. This is how they hope to win
By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published August 5, 2024 6:00AM (EDT)
(Salon) After Donald Trump denied that Vice President Kamala Harris is Black, several Republicans worried that their presidential nominee had stepped in it this time. During his appearance at the Association of Black Journalists convention, Trump tried out a new attack on Harris, whose father was Jamaican and mother was Indian: "I don't know, is she Indian or is she Black?" Raving about the horrors of miscegenation only confirms the Harris campaign's characterization of Trump as "old and quite weird," so it's no surprise that other Republicans are scurrying away from his remarks. The cowards mostly remained anonymous, telling Axios that they found his performance "embarrassing," "awful" and "not a demonstration on how to win over undecided voters."
Well, they'd better buckle up. It looks like this was no accident or gaffe from Trump, but a summation of his campaign's strategy. As Matt Gertz writes at Media Matters:
But this wasn’t just a one-off comment, however despicable; it was the launch of a new talking point. Trump doubled down on social media, his campaign projected purported evidence of Trump’s claim at an event Wednesday night, his surrogates went on TV to defend his comments, and Vance — who once described his running mate as potentially “America’s Hitler” — told reporters Trump’s remark was “hysterical” and that the former president “pointed out the fundamental chameleon-like nature of Kamala Harris.”
Even the event itself suggests deliberation. The reporter did not ask Trump to opine on the legitimacy of mixed-race people. She asked if Trump believes Harris is qualified to run for president. He was looking for a way to say this and forced it into the conversation.
....(snip)....
It's been long-documented, if not publicized enough, that Trump has an unsettling obsession with racial "purity" and eugenics. It's not something he bothers to hide, as evidenced by his claims that nonwhite immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country." But that the larger campaign is harping on this suggests they really think it's smart strategy. As political scientist Nicholas Grossman writes in the Bulwark, MAGA devotees have convinced themselves "their ideas have widespread appeal, and the only reason their ideas aren’t dominant is that right-wing viewpoints are being erased from the public discourse by the people who control it." .............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2024/08/05/gaslighting-gets-weirder-why-and-vance-spread-lies-about-race-and-gender/
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