On SiriusXM, Media Matters' Andrew Lawrence explains how right-wing media is responsible for incentivizing weirdness in Republican politicians
Lawrence: "And it's just this Frankenstein monster that they've created. And there's no turning back for it right now from them.”
Published
On SiriusXM, Media Matters' Andrew Lawrence explains how right-wing media is responsible for incentivizing weirdness in Republican politicians
Citation From the July 30, 2024, edition of SiriusXM's The Michelangelo Signorile Show
JOE SUDBAY (HOST): Something about the Vance nomination and Democrats just finally going, "These people are weird" -- and I think Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, was one of the first people to say it -- it just kind of struck a cord because, it's like, holy shit, they really are. And what I'm thinking is, you know, at Fox News, I feel like there are some true believers, but some of them are also -- live in the real world a little bit. You know, we saw that. We saw some of that in the texting that we got through Dominion. But they kind of know Republicans are weird and they're trying to do damage control, but it's hard to do damage control with weird people who are weird and think that being weird is the right thing to do.
ANDREW LAWRENCE (GUEST): Well, 100%. And, you know, we saw with Trump, with the rise of Trump and the rise of the Republican Party, the strategy to just go after the base of the Republican Party and just pump all that stuff out there. And if that's your strategy, you're going to have to get really weird, because you're going to have to go on these weird right-wing podcasts and these weird Fox News shows. You're going to have to buy into the weird stuff like, "We're going to protect gas stoves" and, "We're going to arrest librarians." And all of this -- you have to say that stuff if you want to win a primary now in the Republican Party. And it's just this Frankenstein monster that they've created. And there's no turning back for it right now from them.
But right now, what I'm seeing online and on Twitter is -- the Republicans trying to push back on this by, like, talking about genitals and talking about gay sex. And that stuff is weird to the majority of Americans once you get outside of that conservative bubble. And that's what they're having a hard time sort of coming to grips with right now, I think.
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I've been seeing them say this type of stuff on Fox News for years. It is a sure -- it was a sure way ticket to get an interview on Tucker Carlson if you just started attacking single women, calling them cat ladies, that type of thing. And, but the difference is it stayed in the bubble at the time. Nobody outside of that Fox News, right-wing media bubble really saw it or really cared about it, and they just move on with their lives.
But now that this guy is the vice president and now that it's these talking points and these videos are making their way outside of that right-wing, conservative media bubble, the normal Americans who are being exposed to this stuff, these beliefs and these talking points for the first time, are incredibly creeped out by it. And there is just no turning back for Republican politicians at this point. They, you know, they've got to ride this horse all the way. They have to. They bought it, and they bought in, and there's just no turning back for them now.