On MSNBC, Angelo Carusone describes how the GOP is now organizing power on what used to be considered the fringes
Angelo Carusone: “What's new is that we actually have operationalized extremists that are part and parcel with the mainstream Republican Party, mainstream right-wing media”
Published
Citation From the October 30, 2022, edition of MSNBC's American Voices with Alicia Menendez
RICHARD LUI (MSNBC ANCHOR): The question that we probably ask ourselves when we hear the reporting from Ben here, Angelo, is what's new today versus two years ago versus four years ago?
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT): I think for me, the thing that I would just emphasize for people is that four years ago, five years ago, the right-wing really started to organize power on what used to be considered the fringes. Now they're no longer the fringes. Now they're increasingly at the center. And so what's new is that we actually have operationalized extremists that are part and parcel with the mainstream Republican Party, mainstream right-wing media. So the kinds of conspiracy theories that Ben was referencing before, we're actually on Fox and Friends this morning as well. And five years ago that would have been on the fever swamps and in the channels and Fox News would have been right-wing and sort of out there with misinformation, but they wouldn't have been a reflection of each other. And now they are. So that's what's different, is that we're it's much closer to the center.
LUI: And they're better at it – is what you're saying too.
CARUSONE: Way better at it. And they're much more in sync. And now you have Twitter going through these changes right now, which is actually – could be like putting gasoline on the fire or supercharging an engine of radicalization that already existed.