March 10, 2017: Trump v. McConnell | 300 Terrorists | Sam B. Takedown
1. Clash of the TItans: Trump vs. McConnell
The Far Right Media doesn’t have a lot of patience for the stately pace of legislative politics or Trump critics. (Unless, of course, they're the ones giving the criticism.) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell crossed both lines yesterday. First, he said a tax cut would likely not be completed by August. Then, McConnell retorted to a question about whether Mexico would pay for the border wall with an “Uh, No.”
Many in the Red Media saw it as unacceptable subversion. Rush Limbaughresponded with this:
In two different instances today, the Senate majority leader drove a stake into the heart of two different Trump administration objectives and promises. Well, one of them is a promise that Mexico would pay for the wall. The other is an objective tax reform by August, but McConnell has shot them both down, essentially………
Look, I keep repeating this, but the people in the Washington establishment and many on the Republican side, it’s not just they want Trump to fail; they want Trump destroyed. I’ve been trying to think of ways to illustrate just how angry and discombobulated the establishment is. They’re fit to be tied. They’re in a simmering, beneath-the-surface rage that Trump has won this election, and every day is spent trying to find ways to sabotage or undermine or otherwise deny much of Trump’s agenda while attempting to destroy Trump’s reputation.
Meanwhile, on Twitter, Congress was looking very unpopular. Makada @_Makada with 66K followers wrote:
RINO Mitch McConnell now tells us tax cuts will have to wait... McConnell and Ryan are not conservatives they are globalists. Vote them OUT!
— Makada 🇺🇸 (@_Makada_) March 9, 2017
2. The 300: Rise of an Immigration Fear Story
Forgive us for missing the significance of this at the time, but on Monday morning, Attorney General Jeff Sessions participated in a press conference to support President Trump’s announcement of a revised executive order barring foreign nationals from six Muslim-majority countries, Sessions had this justification for the action: “More than 300 people who came here as refugees are under F.B.I. investigation for potential terrorism-related activities,” he told the press.
Sessions did not say what countries these refugees were from or give a timeframe for when they arrived or offer context on how significant the 300 figure is. We did not think much more about it. (Our bad.)
For the rest of the week, stories related to the 300 figure have surged among conservatives on Facebook. This Facebook post, for example, from the American Center for Law and Justice had drawn 9,000 likes and been forwarded 2k times from Tuesday to Thursday evening:
More than 300 people who came to the U.S. as refugees are currently under FBI investigation for terrorism related activities.
Sign our petition to defend President Trump's new Executive order. We must protect America from jihad.
We’ve noticed that as the days have passed, the stories have morphed and the time frame has changed and grown more incriminating.
Amy Mek @AmyMek, a self-described vegan and N.R.A. supporter with 145K followers, got more than 1,000 retweets for this:
Liberal Success!!!
— Amy Mek (@AmyMek) March 9, 2017
When the 9th circuit blocked Trump's Immigration ban, more than 300 MUSLIM TERRORISTS posing as "Refugees" came to USA! pic.twitter.com/IAO6kshBfH
3. Samantha Bee Takedown
Some stories are so stupid, we can’t believe they get traction -- but they do. The Red Media has a particular thorn in their side about the late night comedy shows because they are all liberal. Why aren’t there good conservative satirists? We don’t know. Yesterday, conservatives caught Samantha Bee in a big whoops and beat her up for it.
On Wednesday night, Bee’s comedy program, “Full Frontal,” mocked attendees at the CPAC conference saying they had “Nazi hair.” One young man featured in a longer montage had a dark reason for the look: He had stage 4 brain cancer. When the show found out, it took down the video and apologized.
Full Frontal @FullFrontalSamB sent out a tweet at 12:30 p.m. yesterday:
We deeply apologize for offending @_that_kyle in our CPAC segment. We only learned of his condition today & have removed him from the piece.
— Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) March 9, 2017
But the Red Media were not in a forgiving mood: “Samantha Bee To Kid With Brain Cancer: You Have Nazi Hair,” screamed The Daily Caller.
“Samantha Bee Posts SICK Tweet About Kid With Cancer, DELETED IN MINUTES…” announced Sarah Palin’s news site, Sarahpalin.com.
The reliably acerbic Ann Coulter @AnnCoulter, with 1.42 million followers, tweeted:
Samantha Bee ridicules conservative with brain cancer for having "Nazi hair." Nice. https://t.co/DFbIVaOQVe
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) March 9, 2017
4. Remember the I.R.S. Scandal? It’s Back.
The I.R.S. has told a Federal court that it recently identified almost 7,000 more documents that could have information about how the agency targeted the applications for tax exemptions submitted by Tea Party organizations or other conservative political groups starting in 2010, according to a court document. The story has been reported on by multiple Red Media sources. (Here’s a good recap of the original scandal that The Washington Post detailed back in 2013.)
The pressure has already been mounting on Trump to oust the I.R.S. head, John Koskinen. As Fox reported, “Just days after Trump took office, Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker, R- N.C., along with 53 other House Republicans, also wrote a letter asking the new president to remove Koskinen.”
The Judicial Watch president, Tom Fitton, echoed the sentiment in his press release about the documents:
“The corruption at the IRS is astounding. Our attorneys knew that there were more records to be searched but the Obama IRS ignored this issue for years… President Trump needs to clean house at the IRS as quickly as possible.”
In the wake of Trump’s charge that Obama wiretapped him, the documents were also seen as more evidence of the former president’s corruption.
Stefan Molyneux @StefanMolyneux got 1.5K retweets and 1.8K loves for his tweet:
In an amazing coincidence, as soon as Obama leaves office, the IRS finds 6,924 documents on Tea Party targeting. https://t.co/cpZlWUXYh6
— Stefan Molyneux (@StefanMolyneux) March 9, 2017
In an amazing coincidence, as soon as Obama leaves office, the IRS finds 6,924 documents on Tea Party targeting.
Meanwhile, Red State wrote yesterday:
It will be interesting to see what is contained in these documents. It has a potential of being the start of the collapse of the whole Obama Administration House of Cards.
What We’re Watching:
While no one knows yet what the documents contain, the I.R.S. scandal is one of the more legitimate items the Right can use to bolster its “deep state” argument.