milbank, Dana

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx vids see comer anno</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://webbrain.com/brainpage/brain/no%20lnx%20vids%20see%20comerhttps://www.alternet.org/james-comer/U.S.%20Rep.%20James%20Comer%20of%20Kentucky,%20the%20Republican%20chair%20of%20the%20powerful%20House%20Oversight%20Committee%20is%20repeatedly%20pushing%20a%20baseless%20narrative%20that%20President%20Joe%20Biden,%20who%20has%20served%20his%20nation%20for%2050%20years,%20is%20%E2%80%9Ccompromised.%E2%80%9DChairman%20Comer,%20who%20has%20promoted%20the%20false%20theory%20of%20fraud%20in%20the%202020%20election,%20blaming%20alleged%20%E2%80%9Ctroubling%20reports%20of%20irregularities%20and%20improprieties%E2%80%9D%20on%20Democrats,%20has%20been%20regularly%20criticized.%20He%20was%20deemed%20%E2%80%9Ca%20fundamentally%20unserious,%20dishonest,%20laughable%20caricature,%E2%80%9D%20by%20Democratic%20strategist%20Sam%20Cornale%20on%20Wednesday,%20and%20mocked%20by%20The%20Washington%20Post%E2%80%99s%20Dana%20Milbank%20last%20year.%E2%80%9CIn%20interviews%20with%20Fox%20News%20and%20other%20public%20pronouncements,%20Comer%20has%20alleged%20that%20the%20president%E2%80%99s%20son%20is%20responsible%20for%20just%20about%20everything,%E2%80%9D%20Milbank%20wrote%20last%20year.%20%E2%80%9CWhy%20is%20fentanyl%20flowing%20into%20the%20United%20States?%20Hunter%20Biden.%20Why%20is%20President%20Biden%20pushing%20electric%20vehicles?%20Hunter%20Biden.%20Why%20isn%E2%80%99t%20the%20president%20tougher%20on%20Russian%20oligarchs?%20Hunter%20Biden.%20Why%20isn%E2%80%99t%20the%20administration%20pinning%20the%20pandemic%20on%20a%20Wuhan%20lab%20leak%20and%20battling%20China%20over%20currency%20manipulation?%20Hunter%20Biden%20and%20Hunter%20Biden.%20Why%20did%20the%20United%20States%20rejoin%20the%20Paris%20climate%20accord?%20Hunter%20Biden.%E2%80%9DOn%20Tuesday,%20Fox%20News%E2%80%99%20Sean%20Hannity%20led%20a%20highly-criticized%20interview%20with%20Speaker%20Kevin%20McCarthy,%20Majority%20Leader%20Steve%20Scalise,%20Judiciary%20Chair%20Jim%20Jordan,%20and%20Oversight%20Chair%20James%20Comer%20that%20was%20shockingly%20filmed%20inside%20the%20U.S.%20House%20of%20Representatives.READ%20MORE:%20%E2%80%98The%20Deep%20State%E2%80%99%20Wants%20to%20%E2%80%98Wipe%20Out%20the%20American%20Cowboy%E2%80%99%20Warns%20GOP%20Congressman%20in%20Conspiracy-Laden%20Rant%20(Video)New%20York%20University%20Professor%20Ruth%20Ben-Ghiat,%20an%20expert%20on%20fascism%20and%20authoritarian%20leaders,%20responded%20by%20declaring,%20%E2%80%9CAmericans,%20I%20give%20you%E2%80%A6President%20Murdoch%20and%20the%20coronation%20of%20Fox%20News%20as%20state%20media.%E2%80%9DHannity%20and%20the%20top%20Republicans%20were%20surrounded%20by%20dozens%20of%20House%20Republicans,%20sitting%20quietly,%20as%20the%20Fox%20News%20personality%20promoted%20their%20talking%20points.In%20addition%20to%20posting%20video,%20journalist%20Matt%20Laslo%20tweeted,%20%E2%80%9CHannity%20noted%20to%20the%20lawmakers%20(who%20are%20obediently%20sitting%20and%20saying%20nothing%20which%20is%20WILD)%20that%20many%20of%20the%20lawmakers%20in%20attendance%20might%20not%20make%20it%20on%20TV%20tonight%20but%20they%20gave%20up%20an%20hour%20to%20support%20the%20Speaker.%E2%80%9DBut%20Chairman%20Comer%20made%20news%20for%20two%20remarks%20(both%20seen%20in%20the%20clip%20below):%20calling%20Ukraine%20%E2%80%93%20which%20is%20fighting%20to%20protect%20democracy%20in%20Europe%20and%20thus%20around%20the%20globe%20%E2%80%93%20an%20%E2%80%9Cadversary%E2%80%9D%20of%20the%20United%20States,%20and%20strongly%20suggesting%20President%20Joe%20Biden%20is%20%E2%80%9Ccompromised.%E2%80%9DREAD%20MORE:%20Watch:%20Democrats%20File%20Ethics%20Complaint%20Against%20George%20Santos%20After%20GOP%20Leadership%20Calls%20It%20an%20%E2%80%98Internal%E2%80%99%20Matter%E2%80%9CYou%20know%20there%E2%80%99s%20a%20pattern%20here%20with%20Communist%20China,%20with%20Ukraine,%20with%20Russia,%20with%20our%20adversaries%20across%20the%20world,%E2%80%9D%20he%20told%20Hannity.%20%E2%80%9CAnd%20you%20look%20at%20the%20bad%20decisions%20that%20Joe%20Biden%20makes%20and%20this%20White%20House%20makes%20every%20day%20that%20has%20a%20detrimental%20effect%20on%20every%20American%20%E2%80%93%20you%20wonder,%20is%20this%20President%20compromised?%E2%80%9DHannity%20himself%20has%20promoted%20the%20baseless%20claim%20that%20President%20Biden%20may%20be%20%E2%80%9Ccompromised.%E2%80%9DIn%20a%20December%20interview%20with%20Comer,%20Hannity,%20known%20to%20have%20had%20nightly%20conversations%20advising%20Donald%20Trump%20when%20he%20was%20president,%20concluded%20with%20this%20question:%20%E2%80%9CDo%20you%20believe%20it%E2%80%99s%20possible%20Joe%20Biden%20is%20compromised%20by%20Russia%20and%20China?%E2%80%9D%20Comer%20dutifully%20replied,%20%E2%80%9CI%20fear%20that%20he%20is.%E2%80%9DThat%20word,%20%E2%80%9Ccompromised,%E2%80%9D%20is%20now%20being%20used%20by%20Comer%20and%20his%20fellow%20House%20Republicans%20repeatedly%20against%20President%20Biden%20%E2%80%93%20and%20his%20family.On%20Monday,%20U.S.%20Rep.%20Andy%20Biggs%20(R-AZ),%20the%20former%20chair%20of%20the%20far-right%20House%20Freedom%20Caucus,%20a%20former%20policy%20advisor%20to%20an%20anti-LGBTQ%20hate%20group,%20and%20an%20alleged%20co-founder%20of%20the%20Stop%20the%20Steal%20movement,%20called%20President%20Biden,%20First%20Lady%20Dr.%20Jill%20Biden,%20and%20Hunter%20Biden,%20%E2%80%9Ccompromised%E2%80%9D%20%E2%80%93%20while%20making%20false%20claims%20about%20classified%20documents%20(and%20the%20Biden%20think%20tank)%20that%20were%20immediately%20handed%20over%20to%20the%20National%20Archives.On%20Wednesday,%20Chairman%20Comer%20again%20baselessly%20used%20the%20word%20%E2%80%9Ccompromised%E2%80%9D%20against%20President%20Biden.%E2%80%9CThe%20Committee%20on%20Oversight%20and%20Accountability%20is%20investigating%20President%20Biden%E2%80%99s%20involvement%20in%20his%20family%E2%80%99s%20foreign%20business%20practices%20and%20international%20influence%20peddling%20schemes,%E2%80%9D%20Chairman%20Comer%20wrote%20in%20an%20official%20letter%20published%20by%20ABC%20News,%20to%20Treasury%20Secretary%20Janet%20Yellen,%20making%20an%20unsubstantiated%20clam%20as%20if%20it%20were%20fact.%E2%80%9CThe%20Committee%20is%20investigating%20President%20Biden%E2%80%99s%20knowledge%20of%20and%20role%20in%20these%20schemes%20to%20assess%20whether%20he%20has%20compromised%20our%20national%20security%20at%20the%20expense%20of%20the%20American%20people,%E2%80%9D%20Comer%20wrote.ABC%20News%20adds%20that%20Comer%20%E2%80%9Ccalled%20the%20Biden%20probe%20a%20%E2%80%98top%20priority%20for%20House%20Republicans%20during%20the%20118th%20Congress.%27%E2%80%9DREAD%20MORE:%20GOP%20Congressman%20From%20Texas%20Calls%20for%20Defunding%20Homeland%20Security%E2%80%9CThe%20American%20people%20must%20know%20the%20extent%20of%20Joe%20Biden%E2%80%99s%20involvement%20in%20his%20family%E2%80%99s%20shady%20business%20deals%20and%20if%20these%20deals%20threaten%20national%20security%20and%20his%20decision-making%20as%20president,%E2%80%9D%20Comer%20told%20ABC.Comer%20wasn%E2%80%99t%20done%20using%20the%20%E2%80%9Ccompromised%E2%80%9D%20word%20against%20President%20Biden.%E2%80%9CIn%20a%20letter%20to%20the%20White%20House%20counsel%20today,%E2%80%9D%20Politico%20on%20Wednesday%20reported,%20%E2%80%9Cnew%20Chairman%20James%20Comer%20(R-Ky.)%20said%20the%20committee%20%E2%80%98is%20concerned%20that%20President%20Biden%20has%20compromised%20(intelligence)%20sources%20and%20methods%20with%20his%20own%20mishandling%20of%20classified%20documents.%27%E2%80%9DChairman%20Comer%20has%20even%20set%20up%20a%20microsite%20on%20the%20House%20Oversight%20Committee%E2%80%99s%20website,%20titled,%20%E2%80%9CBiden%20Family%20Investigation.%E2%80%9DOn%20it,%20he%20alleges,%20%E2%80%9CIf%20President%20Biden%20is%20compromised%20by%20deals%20with%20foreign%20adversaries%20and%20they%20are%20impacting%20his%20decision%20making,%20this%20is%20a%20threat%20to%20national%20security.%E2%80%9DDonald%20Trump%E2%80%99s%20tax%20returns%20show%20numerous%20foreign%20bank%20accounts,%20including%20in%20China,%20and%20there%20were%20reports%20of%20real%20estate%20deals%20in%20foreign%20countries%20while%20he%20was%20president,%20but%20Republicans%20ignored%20that.%E2%80%9CTwo%20years%20into%20his%20presidency,%E2%80%9D%20OpenSecrets%20reported%20in%202019,%20%E2%80%9CDonald%20Trump%20continues%20to%20make%20money%20from%20properties%20and%20licensing%20deals%20in%20nearly%20two%20dozen%20countries%20around%20the%20world,%20fanning%20the%20flames%20of%20concerns%20that%20the%20Trump%20administration%20is%20subject%20to%20unprecedented%20levels%20of%20foreign%20influence.%E2%80%9D%E2%80%9CTrump%20continued%20to%20hold%20more%20than%20$130%20million%20in%20foreign%20assets%20in%20a%20revocable%20trust%20as%20his%20second%20year%20in%20office%20came%20to%20a%20close,%20according%20to%20OpenSecrets%E2%80%99%20analysis%20of%20the%20president%E2%80%99s%20most%20recent%20annual%20personal%20financial%20disclosure%20released%20by%20the%20Office%20of%20Government%20Ethics%20last%20month,%E2%80%9D%20the%20website,%20which%20tracks%20money%20in%20politics,%20noted.%20%E2%80%9CTrump%E2%80%99s%20business%20entanglements%20continue%20to%20leave%20him%20with%20positions,%20assets,%20trademarks%20and%20other%20business%20interests%20in%20more%20than%2030%20countries.%E2%80%9DIn%20November%20of%20last%20year,%20CNN%20reported,%20%E2%80%9CThe%20governments%20of%20six%20foreign%20countries,%20including%20Saudi%20Arabia,%20Qatar%20and%20the%20United%20Arab%20Emirates,%20spent%20more%20than%20$700,000%20at%20then-President%20Donald%20Trump%E2%80%99s%20Washington,%20DC,%20hotel%20over%20the%20first%20two%20years%20of%20his%20presidency,%20according%20to%20newly%20released%20accounting%20documents.%E2%80%9DWatch%20the%20videos%20above%20or%20at%20this%20link.">https://www.alternet.org/james-comer/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">U.S. Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chair of the powerful House Oversight Committee is repeatedly pushing a baseless narrative that President Joe Biden, who has served his nation for 50 years, is “compromised.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Chairman Comer, who has promoted the false theory of fraud in the 2020 election, blaming alleged “troubling reports of irregularities and improprieties” on Democrats, has been regularly criticized. He was deemed “a fundamentally unserious, dishonest, laughable caricature,” by Democratic strategist Sam Cornale on Wednesday, and<b> mocked by The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank last year.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“In interviews with Fox News and other public pronouncements, Comer has alleged that the president’s son is responsible for just about everything,” Milbank wrote last year. “Why is fentanyl flowing into the United States? Hunter Biden. Why is President Biden pushing electric vehicles? Hunter Biden. Why isn’t the president tougher on Russian oligarchs? Hunter Biden. Why isn’t the administration pinning the pandemic on a Wuhan lab leak and battling China over currency manipulation? Hunter Biden and Hunter Biden. Why did the United States rejoin the Paris climate accord? Hunter Biden.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Tuesday, Fox News’ Sean Hannity led a highly-criticized interview with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, and Oversight Chair James Comer that was shockingly filmed inside the U.S. House of Representatives.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">READ MORE: ‘The Deep State’ Wants to ‘Wipe Out the American Cowboy’ Warns GOP Congressman in Conspiracy-Laden Rant (Video)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">New York University Professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on fascism and authoritarian leaders, responded by declaring, “Americans, I give you…President Murdoch and the coronation of Fox News as state media.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hannity and the top Republicans were surrounded by dozens of House Republicans, sitting quietly, as the Fox News personality promoted their talking points.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to posting video, journalist Matt Laslo tweeted, “Hannity noted to the lawmakers (who are obediently sitting and saying nothing which is WILD) that many of the lawmakers in attendance might not make it on TV tonight but they gave up an hour to support the Speaker.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Chairman Comer made news for two remarks (both seen in the clip below): calling Ukraine – which is fighting to protect democracy in Europe and thus around the globe – an “adversary” of the United States, and strongly suggesting President Joe Biden is “compromised.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">READ MORE: Watch: Democrats File Ethics Complaint Against George Santos After GOP Leadership Calls It an ‘Internal’ Matter</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“You know there’s a pattern here with Communist China, with Ukraine, with Russia, with our adversaries across the world,” he told Hannity. “And you look at the bad decisions that Joe Biden makes and this White House makes every day that has a detrimental effect on every American – you wonder, is this President compromised?”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hannity himself has promoted the baseless claim that President Biden may be “compromised.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a December interview with Comer, Hannity, known to have had nightly conversations advising Donald Trump when he was president, concluded with this question: “Do you believe it’s possible Joe Biden is compromised by Russia and China?” Comer dutifully replied, “I fear that he is.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That word, “compromised,” is now being used by Comer and his fellow House Republicans repeatedly against President Biden – and his family.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Monday, U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), the former chair of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, a former policy advisor to an anti-LGBTQ hate group, and an alleged co-founder of the Stop the Steal movement, called President Biden, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, and Hunter Biden, “compromised” – while making false claims about classified documents (and the Biden think tank) that were immediately handed over to the National Archives.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Wednesday, Chairman Comer again baselessly used the word “compromised” against President Biden.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating President Biden’s involvement in his family’s foreign business practices and international influence peddling schemes,” Chairman Comer wrote in an official letter published by ABC News, to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, making an unsubstantiated clam as if it were fact.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The Committee is investigating President Biden’s knowledge of and role in these schemes to assess whether he has compromised our national security at the expense of the American people,” Comer wrote.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ABC News adds that Comer “called the Biden probe a ‘top priority for House Republicans during the 118th Congress.'”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">READ MORE: GOP Congressman From Texas Calls for Defunding Homeland Security</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The American people must know the extent of Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s shady business deals and if these deals threaten national security and his decision-making as president,” Comer told ABC.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Comer wasn’t done using the “compromised” word against President Biden.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“In a letter to the White House counsel today,” Politico on Wednesday reported, “new Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said the committee ‘is concerned that President Biden has compromised (intelligence) sources and methods with his own mishandling of classified documents.'”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chairman Comer has even set up a microsite on the House Oversight Committee’s website, titled, “Biden Family Investigation.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On it, he alleges, “If President Biden is compromised by deals with foreign adversaries and they are impacting his decision making, this is a threat to national security.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump’s tax returns show numerous foreign bank accounts, including in China, and there were reports of real estate deals in foreign countries while he was president, but Republicans ignored that.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Two years into his presidency,” OpenSecrets reported in 2019, “Donald Trump continues to make money from properties and licensing deals in nearly two dozen countries around the world, fanning the flames of concerns that the Trump administration is subject to unprecedented levels of foreign influence.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Trump continued to hold more than $130 million in foreign assets in a revocable trust as his second year in office came to a close, according to OpenSecrets’ analysis of the president’s most recent annual personal financial disclosure released by the Office of Government Ethics last month,” the website, which tracks money in politics, noted. “Trump’s business entanglements continue to leave him with positions, assets, trademarks and other business interests in more than 30 countries.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In November of last year, CNN reported, “The governments of six foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, spent more than $700,000 at then-President Donald Trump’s Washington, DC, hotel over the first two years of his presidency, according to newly released accounting documents.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watch the videos above or at this link.</font></div></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>who broke am?</font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/how-radicals-and-extremists-are-poisoning-the-republican-brand-columnists/">https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/how-radicals-and-extremists-are-poisoning-the-republican-brand-columnists/</a></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Back in the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon famously complained that Republican candidates felt pressured to go arch-conservative in GOP primaries only to turn around and run as fast as they could to the center during the general election. Nixon was considered arch-conservative in his day, yet he hated conservative purity tests.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Looking back on Nixon’s comments in 2022, the ironic part is that Nixon and so many of the fellow conservatives he debated in GOP primaries during the 1960s and 1970s would be slammed as RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) by the MAGA Republicans of today.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Back in 1970 or 1975, Republicans didn’t fear they would be run out of the party if they criticized the far-right <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/01/15/john-birch-society-qanon-reagan-republicans-goldwater/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">John Birch Society</a>; William F. Buckley, in fact, was adamant about keeping the Bircher conspiracy theorists out of the pages of his National Review. But the Republican primaries of 2022 are full of MAGA candidates who insist that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming aren't aligned with the Republican party.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/meghan-mccain/" target="self" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Meghan McCain melts down after Kari Lake and other GOP extremists win in Arizona elections</a></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Extremism within the GOP is the focus of two opinion columns published by the Washington Post in early August: one by<b> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/04/dana-milbank-republican-destructionists-book-excerpt/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Dana Milbank</a> and the other by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/03/gop-is-blowing-its-chance-make-midterms-referendum-democrats/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">conservative Henry Olsen</a>. Milbank’s column is actually an excerpt from his new book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Destructionists-Twenty-Five-Crack-Up-Republican-Party-ebook/dp/B09LH2W6ZP?crid=A1LPW21HVZI4&keywords=The+Destructionists:+The+Twenty-Five+Year+Crack-Up+of+the+Republican+Party&qid=1659617075&sprefix=the+destructionists+the+twenty-five+year+crack-up+of+the+republican+party,aps,173&sr=8-4&linkCode=sl1&tag=thewaspos09-20&linkId=6b4a389dea118bdf3b02bc2c44d789d5&language=en_US&ref=as_li_ss_tl" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">“The Destructionists: The Twenty-Five Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party,”</a> </b>which has an August 9 release date on Amazon. Many Never Trump conservatives and Blue Dog Democrats believe that the GOP took a very dark turn when Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, but as Milbank sees it, the GOP was overrun with extremists long before that.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b>Milbank argues that the GOP took a much nastier turn in 1994, when the combative Newt Gingrich</b> replaced Bob Michel as GOP leader in the U.S. House of Representatives.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Bob Michel, the unfailingly genial leader of the House Republican minority for the previous 14 years, had ushered Ronald Reagan’s agenda through the House,” Milbank recalls. “But he was being forced into retirement by a rising bomb thrower who threatened to oust Michel as GOP leader if he didn’t quit…. Newt Gingrich had almost nothing in common with the man he shoved aside. Michel was a portrait of civility and decency, a World War II combat veteran who knew that his political opponents were not his enemies and that politics was the art of compromise. Gingrich, by contrast, rose to prominence by forcing the resignation of a Democratic speaker of the House on what began as mostly false allegations, by smearing another Democratic speaker with personal innuendo, and by routinely thwarting Michel’s attempts to negotiate with Democrats….</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> The rise of Gingrich and his shock troops set the nation on a course toward the ruinous politics of today.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Milbank continues, “Much has been made of the ensuing polarization in our politics, and it’s true that moderates are a vanishing breed. But the problem isn’t primarily polarization. The problem is that one of our two major political parties has ceased good-faith participation in the democratic process. </b>Of course, there are instances of violence, disinformation, racism and corruption among Democrats and the political left, but the scale isn’t at all comparable.<b> Only one party fomented a bloody insurrection and even after that voted in large numbers — 139 House Republicans, a two-thirds majority — to overturn the will of the voters in the 2020 election.”</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[READ MORE: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/how-trump-has-made-arizonas-gubernatorial-race-a-vendetta-against-doug-ducey/" target="self" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">How Trump made Arizona’s gubernatorial race a vendetta against Doug Ducey</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to Milbank, other factors that “sped” the GOP’s “turn toward nihilism” included “the ascent of conservative talk radio, followed by the triumph of Fox News, followed by the advent of social media.”</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Combined, they created a media environment that allows Republican politicians and their voters to seal themselves in an echo chamber of ‘alternative facts,’” </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Milbank explains. “Globally, south-to-north migration has ignited nationalist movements around the world and created a new era of autocrats. The disappearance of the Greatest Generation, tempered by war, brought to power a new generation of culture warriors…. It is crucial to understand that Donald Trump didn’t create this noxious environment. He isn’t some hideous, orange Venus emerging from the half-shell. Rather, he is a brilliant opportunist; he saw the direction the Republican Party was taking and the appetites it was stoking.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, Olsen, in his August 3 column, makes it clear that he would much rather see conservatives running the federal government than liberals. But he fears that the GOP’s “radicals” are undermining the party’s chances of enjoying a “potentially momentous midterm win” in 2022.....</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mofo</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/foxs-flagship-straight-news-show-promotes-bogus-covid-study-boost-republican">https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/foxs-flagship-straight-news-show-promotes-bogus-covid-study-boost-republican</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">fox’s flagship “straight news” show promotes bogus COVID study to boost Republican policies</font></div><p class="subtitle" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-wing apparatchiks want you to believe red states outperformed blue states during the pandemic — after they literally rewrote the death statistics</font></p><p class="byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.3rem; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="bylinelabel" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: 0.5rem;">WRITTEN BY</span> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/author/eric-kleefeld" hreflang="en" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">ERIC KLEEFELD</a></font></p><div class="dateline--group" style="box-sizing: border-box; align-items: center; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap;"><p class="dateline" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="datelinelabel" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: 0.5rem;">PUBLISHED</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <time datetime="2022-04-13T12:20:08-0400" style="box-sizing: border-box;">04/13/22</time></span></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">murdoch media outlets are promoting an economic report declaring that Republican-led states did better than their Democratic-led counterparts in the COVID-19 pandemic. But the supposed “study” is simply an engineered conclusion produced by a political front group, which gives extra credit to Republican policies to not implement public health guidance or restrict normal life. And on top of that, it manipulates the typically higher death rates in red states by artificially adjusting them downward, while dishonestly fabricating higher death statistics in blue states.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The report, with the grandiose title “<a href="https://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/D8File/2022/04/12/committee-to-unleash-prosperity-Which-States-Handled-the-Covid-Pandemic-Best-04-11-2022.pdf?VersionId=zNuPepgqj.9OlNT2iyzHbV4zWBGwXDnP" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">A Final Report Card on the States’ Response to COVID-19</a>,” is the brainchild of right-wing pundit Stephen Moore, along with conservative political organizer Phil Kerpen and libertarian University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan. (Both Moore and Mulligan served as political appointees in the Trump administration</b>.) The report was released through the<b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Committee to Unleash Prosperity,</b> a conservative group advocating the discredited principles of “supply-side” economics that has also promoted “<a href="https://archive.ph/Ufzs1" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">pro-growth and liberty-based responses to COVID-19</a>.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The report, which is not peer-reviewed, also includes a note on the first page thanking Dr. Jay Bhattacharya “for his review of this study and his instructive advice.” Bhattacharya is a Stanford medical professor associated with the right-wing <a href="https://www.hoover.org/profiles/jay-bhattacharya" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Hoover Institution</a>, who has also <a href="https://www.flgov.com/2021/03/18/what-they-are-saying-renowned-doctors-and-epidemiologists-praise-floridas-covid-19-approach-during-public-health-roundtable/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">informally advised</a> Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) — a potential GOP presidential candidate in 2024 — and has appeared multiple times on Fox News and <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/dishonest-doctors-who-were-fox-news-most-frequent-medical-guests-2021-0" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">undermined the COVID-19 vaccines</a> and public vaccination campaigns.<b> Bhattacharya also co-authored the “<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-death-cult-embraces-declaration-calling-herd-immunity" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Great Barrington Declaration</a>,” a reckless libertarian proposal for loosening public health measures in the midst of the pandemic to achieve global “herd immunity.</b></span><b>”</b></font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox’s <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Special Report</span> covered this rigged “study” as if it were straight news</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The study was touted on Monday’s edition of Fox’s flagship “straight” news program, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Special Report with Bret Baier</em>. A chyron on screen claimed, “Red states fare better on economic and health outcomes.” But as a close examination of the study reveals — briefly alluded to by Fox News correspondent Jonathan Serrie — this conclusion exists only after the authors made some creative adjustments “for age, obesity, and diabetes</font><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">.”</b></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Video Citation From the April 11, 2022, edition of Fox News’ Special Report with Bret Baier</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;" /><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">The </b></font><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">study was also promoted in stories on <a href="https://archive.ph/t2ktt" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Fox’s website</a>, as well as in the editorial pages of the network’s corporate cousins: the <a href="https://archive.ph/hv2Ni" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">New York Post</a> and <a href="https://archive.ph/RSxW0" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">The Wall Street Journal</a>. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">F</span></b><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">oxNews.com and the New York Post both mentioned the metric of “age-adjusted death rates,” while the Journal was a bit more forthcoming in noting that the study also made adjustments for “the prevalence of obesity and diabetes (leading co-morbidities for Covid deaths).”</span></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">The reports in these three Murdoch publications all pointed to the report’s praise of Florida as supposedly one of the best-performing states — a possible sign of Bhattacharya’s influence on both Florida’s policies and this report’s verdict.</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> B</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">y contrast, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/14/covid-death-rates-republican-states-disparity/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">run through numbers</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> from health care analyst Charles Gaba, which found that Florida is actually one of the worst-performing states in COVID-19 death statistics, even accounting for the state’s older population.</span></b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Moore also appeared on Monday morning’s edition of <a href="https://twitter.com/EricKleefeld/status/1513589398171959300" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Fox Business’ <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Varney & Co.</em></a>, during which he claimed, “<b>The big takeaway is that the lockdown strategy was pretty much a total failure. … States that remained open did not have higher death rates from the virus than states that completely shut down</b>.” Serrie later mentioned Moore’s study again, on Tuesday morning’s edition of <b><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3986947" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">America’s Newsroom</span></a>.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><b>Moore has built a career as <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/cnn-just-hired-worst-economist-world" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">possibly the worst economist</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/worst-economist-world-says-trumps-tax-cuts-will-do-impossible" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">in the media</a>, making <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/heritage-foundation/conservative-medias-favorite-economist-caught-distorting-facts-about-taxes-and" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">serially wrong</a> pronouncements and <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-favorite-economist-has-new-bogus-calculation" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">false calculations</a> in service of <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/what-media-need-know-about-trump-economic-policy-advisers-steve-moore-and-larry-kudlow" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">his political agendas</a>. </b>In March 2019, then-President Donald Trump announced his nomination of Moore to the Federal Reserve Board, only for Moore to eventually <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/02/trump-says-stephen-moore-is-withdrawing-from-consideration-for-fed-1298561" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">withdraw from consideration</a> due to <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/stephen-moore/stephen-moore-previously-attacked-gop-senators-he-now-needs-his-fed-bid" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">multiple controversies</a> over his past political comments.</font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Committee to Unleash Prosperity rewrites death numbers in red states with a fake statistic: “Metabolic-health adjustment”</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In order to arrive at the favored conclusion, the Committee to Unleash Prosperity report actually looked at more than just health outcomes. The group’s <a href="https://committeetounleashprosperity.com/final-report-card-on-state-responses-to-covid-19/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">press release</a> explains that it used three metrics for its findings  — COVID-19 deaths, economic performance, and school openings — and declared they were “equally weighted” in the analysis</span>. <b>The result is that the question of saving lives accounts for only one-third of the calculation. The study also essentially just rehashes in pseudo-scientific form Moore’s long-standing contention that saving lives in the pandemic might not be “<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/stephen-moore/fox-news-stephen-moore-questions-if-californias-steps-prevent-spread-coronavirus-are" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">worth trillions of dollars of losses</a>” and that simply allowing the virus to spread was “<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-business-panel-says-economic-shutdown-worse-virus-praises-uk-strategy" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">a better strategy</a>” than enduring the economic costs of lockdowns.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The concept of age-adjusted deaths across populations is a tricky issue. While it is a <a href="https://www.ccpr.ucla.edu/2020/06/01/patrick-heuveline-and-michael-tzen-have-published-an-article-on-medrxiv-that-proposes-three-indicators-to-compare-covid-19-mortality-with-overall-mortality-and-across-populations/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">legitimate line of inquiry</a>, Fox News has exploited it ever since <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-anchor-florida-coronavirus-deaths-were-elderly-people-who-traveled-so-when" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">the start of the pandemic</a> to create a <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-says-covid-was-overhyped-because-over-4-month-period-majority-those" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">nonchalant response</a> to COVID-19 deaths among the elderly</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Looking at this metric from a <a href="https://www.bioinformaticscro.com/blog/states-ranked-by-age-adjusted-covid-deaths/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">neutral source</a> does show some interesting effects, but the ranks of worst-performing states would still be Republican-led ones such as Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Moore and his compatriots at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity have gone even further, however,<b> by setting up a new metric in the fine print of their supposed study. They call it an adjustment for “metabolic health” in different populations — “the pre-pandemic prevalence of obesity and diabetes.</b>” But what it really amounts to is a manipulation of the statistics to declare that higher death tolls should be discounted in populations that were less healthy to begin with, and to<b> act as if public health responses can be separated from the overall health of the public.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/31/covid-deaths-diet-diseases-nutrition-america-517076" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Much of the discourse</a> around the role of obesity in COVID-19 deaths has framed it as “<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langas/article/PIIS2468-1253(21)00143-6/fulltext" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">another ongoing pandemic</a>,” and the role of diabetes has been addressed in media as a “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/03/health/diabetes-covid-deaths.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">public health train wreck</a>” and evidence of “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-diabetes-covid/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">America’s diabetes crisis</a>.” <b>But the Committee to Unleash Prosperity instead treats these deaths as somehow a mitigating factor in the public health responses of the states most affected. It’s almost as if, by the standards of Moore and his co-authors, the deaths of unhealthy people are not a problem at all.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As a result of this <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3986943" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">statistical chicanery</a>, death rates in the South and some other Republican-led states were magically revised downward, while deaths were “adjusted” drastically higher in many Democratic states — skewing the data to make blue states look like the worst offenders.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“NV, NY, NJ, and DC were the four states with the highest metabolic-adjusted mortality, even though none is in the top four without the adjustment,” the <a href="https://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/D8File/2022/04/12/committee-to-unleash-prosperity-Which-States-Handled-the-Covid-Pandemic-Best-04-11-2022.pdf?VersionId=zNuPepgqj.9OlNT2iyzHbV4zWBGwXDnP#page=13" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">report says</a> — as if that were a good thing for the authors’ credibility — because those four places all have obesity and diabetes rates that are below the national average. By contrast, in the real-world statistics they began with, the <a href="https://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/D8File/2022/04/12/committee-to-unleash-prosperity-Which-States-Handled-the-Covid-Pandemic-Best-04-11-2022.pdf?VersionId=zNuPepgqj.9OlNT2iyzHbV4zWBGwXDnP#page=12" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">worst contenders were all red states</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Fox News has waged a <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-has-pushed-covid-propaganda-two-years-cost-has-been-staggering" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">two-year propaganda campaign</a> against public health, in which it has <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-latest-vaccine-lie-covid-vaccine-makes-you-more-likely-contract-covid-0" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">lied about COVID-19 vaccines</a>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-mentioned-ivermectin-nearly-300-times-then-ignored-new-study-finding-drug-ineffective" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">promoted fake cures</a>, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-death-cult-embraces-declaration-calling-herd-immunity" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">encouraged the spread of the virus</a>, and turned people defying public health measures into <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-anti-vaccine-culture-war-heroes-numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">culture war heroes</a> even as their actions have <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-wanted-viewers-hear-anti-vax-troopers-story-until-he-died-covid" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">gotten them killed</a></b>. Fox also clearly does not believe any of what it preaches — see its own <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-tells-viewers-fight-back-against-equivalent-fox-news-own-covid-19" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">corporate vaccination and testing policies</a> — but the network nevertheless pursues this framing because it is “<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/foxs-antivax-programming-moral-abomination-least-its-great-ratings" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">great for ratings</a>.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Who knows, perhaps the network will be able to come up with a study showing that watching Fox News is good for surviving the COVID-19 pandemic, once the analysts can adjust for the comorbidities associated with watching Fox News.</font></p></div></div></div><p id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading"><span class="caps" /></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Dana Timothy Milbank</b> (born April 27, 1968) is an American author and columnist for <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The Washington Post</a>.</b></font></p><div id="toc" class="toc" role="navigation" aria-labelledby="mw-toc-heading" style="border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); padding: 7px; display: table;"><ul style="list-style: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#Personal_life" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Personal life</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#Career" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Career</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#Books" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Books</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#Political_views" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Political views</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">5</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">References</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">External links</span></font></a></li></ul></div><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Personal_life">Personal life</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Milbank was born to a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Jews" title="American Jews" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Jewish</a> family,<sup id="cite_ref-Sukkot_1-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-Sukkot-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a></sup> the son of Ann C. and Mark A. Milbank.<sup id="cite_ref-Sukkot_1-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-Sukkot-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-NYTWedding_2-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-NYTWedding-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a></sup> He is a graduate of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_University" title="Yale University" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Yale University</a>, where he was a member of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trumbull_College" title="Trumbull College" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Trumbull College</a>, the Progressive Party of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_Political_Union" title="Yale Political Union" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Yale Political Union</a> and the secret society <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skull_and_Bones" title="Skull and Bones" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><b>Skull and Bones</b></a>.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a></sup> He is a graduate of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanford_H.Calhoun_High_School" title="Sanford H. Calhoun High School" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Sanford H. Calhoun High School</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrick,New_York" title="Merrick, New York" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Merrick, New York</a>. In 1993, Milbank married Donna Lynn DePasquale in an interfaith Jewish and Roman Catholic ceremony.<sup id="cite_ref-NYTWedding_2-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-NYTWedding-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a></sup> After that marriage ended in divorce, in 2017 he married Anna Greenberg, daughter of Democratic pollster <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Greenberg" title="Stan Greenberg" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Stan Greenberg</a> and stepdaughter of Democratic Congresswoman <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_DeLauro" title="Rosa DeLauro" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Rosa DeLauro</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut" title="Connecticut" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">CT</a>).<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Career">Career</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Milbank covered the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_United_States_presidential_election" title="2000 United States presidential election" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2000</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_United_States_presidential_election" title="2004 United States presidential election" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">2004 presidential elections</a>. He also covered <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States" title="President of the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">President</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W.Bush" title="George W. Bush" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">George W. Bush</a>'s first term in office. After Bush won the 2000 election, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Rove" title="Karl Rove" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Karl Rove</a> asked <i>The Washington Post</i> not to assign Milbank to cover White House news.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a></sup> In 2001, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Press_pool" title="Press pool" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">pool report</a> penned by Milbank which covered a Bush visit to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol" title="United States Capitol" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">U.S. Capitol</a> generated controversy within conservative circles.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a></sup> According to Milbank, the nickname given to him by the president is "not printable in a family publication."<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Milbank writes "Washington Sketch" for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post" title="The Washington Post" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><i>Post</i></a>, an observational column about political theater in the White House, Congress, and elsewhere in the capital. Before coming to the Post as a political writer in 2000, he covered the Clinton White House for <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Republic" title="The New Republic" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The New Republic</a></i> and Congress for <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wall_Street_Journal" title="The Wall Street Journal" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">The Wall Street Journal</a></i>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Milbank was criticized for a July 30, 2008 article<sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a></sup> in which, in part by using snippets of quotations, he portrayed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama" title="Barack Obama" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Barack Obama</a> as being presumptuous.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a></sup> A few days later <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSNBC" title="MSNBC" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">MSNBC</a>'s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Olbermann" title="Keith Olbermann" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Keith Olbermann</a> stated that Milbank would not be allowed back onto his show, which Milbank had appeared on since 2004, until Milbank submitted "a correction or an explanation."<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a></sup> However, Milbank had apparently already left Olbermann's show for another show on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNN" title="CNN" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">CNN</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-13" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-13" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[13]</a></sup> Milbank stated that he has been dissatisfied since he was criticized by Olbermann's staff over making a positive comment about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_R.Black,Jr." class="mw-redirect" title="Charles R. Black, Jr." style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Charlie Black</a>, a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain" title="John McCain" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">John McCain</a> senior advisor, and as a result had already been negotiating with CNN.<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Milbank and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Cillizza" title="Chris Cillizza" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Chris Cillizza</a> appeared in a series of humor videos called "Mouthpiece Theater" which appeared on <i>The Washington Post'</i>s website. An outcry followed a video in which, during a discussion of the White House "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Louis_Gates_arrest_incident#.22Beer_Summit.22" class="mw-redirect" title="Henry Louis Gates arrest incident" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Beer Summit</a>", they chose new brands for a number of people, including "Mad Bitch Beer" for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton" title="Hillary Clinton" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Hillary Clinton</a>. Both men apologized for the video and the series was canceled.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a December 4, 2021 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Op-ed" title="Op-ed" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Op-ed</a>, Milbank wrote that overall US media sentiment for President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden" title="Joe Biden" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Joe Biden</a> is as bad, if not worse, than it was for then-President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump" title="Donald Trump" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Donald Trump</a>. He used data the analytics company <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FiscalNote" title="FiscalNote" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Forge.ai</a> to mine through more than 200,000 articles from 65 different news sources to create a "sentiment analysis" of pro or con coverage. The comparison was done of the first 11 months of the Trump administration versus the same timeframe of the Biden term. His analysis showed that Biden had had mainly positive coverage for the first three months of the year, but the press covered Biden more harshly than Trump in the past four months.<sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a></sup> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nate_Silver" title="Nate Silver" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Nate Silver</a>, of <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FiveThirtyEight" title="FiveThirtyEight" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">FiveThirtyEight</a></i>, questioned Milbank's conclusion.<sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Books">Books</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Milbank is the author of <i>Smash Mouth: Two Years in the Gutter with Al Gore and George W. Bush—Notes from the 2000 Campaign Trail</i>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><i>Homo Politicus: The Strange and Scary Tribes that Run Our Government</i> was published by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random_House" title="Random House" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Random House</a> in January 2008.<sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2010, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubleday(publisher)" title="Doubleday (publisher)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Doubleday</a> released <b>Milbank's polemic biography of conservative pundit <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Beck" title="Glenn Beck" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Glenn Beck</a>: </b><i><b>Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America</b>,</i><sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[19]</a></sup> which a review in Milbank's paper, <i>The Washington Post</i>, said was a "droll, take-no-prisoners account of the nation's most audacious conspiracy-spinner."<sup id="cite_ref-20" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[20]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Political_views">Political views</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; unicode-bidi: isolate; margin-right: 0px;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span></span></font></h2><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Milbank has stated that his policy on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election" title="United States presidential election" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United States presidential elections</a> is to vote for the best candidate who is not on the ballot. He voted for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain" title="John McCain" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">John McCain</a> in 2000, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Hagel" title="Chuck Hagel" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Chuck Hagel</a> in 2004, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bloomberg" title="Michael Bloomberg" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Michael Bloomberg</a> in 2008. He explained that his approach allows him to "go through the exercise of who would be a good president" while avoiding committing to one candidate or another in the race.<sup id="cite_ref-milbankqanda_21-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-milbankqanda-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[21]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Greg Marx, associate editor of the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Journalism_Review" title="Columbia Journalism Review" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Columbia Journalism Review</a></i>, describes Milbank as "extravagantly contrarian".<sup id="cite_ref-Marx_22-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-Marx-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[22]</a></sup> Marx and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_University" title="New York University" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">New York University</a> journalism professor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Rosen" title="Jay Rosen" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Jay Rosen</a> have critiqued what they view as "Milbank's insistence on characterizing political debate as consisting of two unreasonable poles, and himself as a truth-teller caught in the middle—a posture so habitual and inflexible that it has become an ideology."<sup id="cite_ref-Marx_22-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-Marx-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[22]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Milbank has criticized the growth of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Correspondents%27_Dinner" class="mw-redirect" title="White House Correspondents' Dinner" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">White House Correspondents' Dinner</a>, writing in 2011 that the event "was a minor annoyance for years, when it was a 'nerd prom' for journalists and a few minor celebrities. But, as with so much else in this town, the event has spun out of control. Now, awash in lobbyist and corporate money, it is another display of Washington's excesses."<sup id="cite_ref-23" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[23]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-24" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Milbank#cite_note-24" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[24]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span class="mw-headline" id="References"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">References</font></span></h2></div><div><span class="mw-headline"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 4 22</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Democratic lawmakers worked to finalize the confirmation of US Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a number perplexing events took place in national political theater this week. One of the most pivotal moments centered on Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison’s attack on Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) following the Republican senator's suggestion that Jackson is a Nazi sympathizer, per The Washington Post.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Harrison described Cotton as a “maggot, infested man” while collectively calling out the Republican Party and labeling it a political party “built on fraud, fear, and fascism.”</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Almost immediately after Harrison made the remarks, the Republican National Committee (RNC) fired back with a response. But <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/08/jamie-harrison-gop-republicans-fraud-fear-fascism/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">instead of criticizing the Democratic official for his charge about the party, the RNC focused more on his remarks targeting Cotton.</a> In a newly published op-ed, The Washington Post's Dana Milbank highlighted the seemingly odd argument from the party.</font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"Interestingly, a statement from the Republican National Committee taking offense at the 'maggot-infested' charge did not dispute the “fraud, fear and fascism” formulation," Milbank wrote. "As your self-appointed fact-checker, I have therefore examined the merits of the accusation</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">."</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So, Milbank decided to discuss those three keypoints as he highlighted how they factually relate to the Republican Party. In reference to fraud, Milbank highlighted the irony Republicans' claims of <b>fraud as he noted the evidence of fraud that has been uncovered actually proves it was likely committed by members of their own party.</b>
</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The 'big lie' about a rigged election, accepted by two-thirds of Republican voters, has spawned new frauds about the dangers of coronavirus vaccines (leading to sharply higher death rates in heavily Republican counties) and the promise, touted by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) of the deworming drug ivermectin to treat covid-19; an exhaustive new study finds the drug useless," he wrote.</font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He went on to offer an example of the type of<b> fearmongering</b> Republicans are responsible for invoking. "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.)," Milbank highlighted, "said people like Ketanji Brown Jackson become public defenders because '<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/06/cruz-cotton-public-defender/?itid=lk_inline_manual_15" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">their heart is with the murderers</a>.' Cotton said <a href="https://www.roberthjackson.org/nuremberg-event/justice-robert-h-jacksons-opening-statement/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Justice Robert H. Jackson</a> 'left the Supreme Court to go to Nuremberg and prosecute the case against the Nazis. This Judge Jackson might have gone there to defend them.'”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Milbank also noted recent remarks made by Ohio Senate Republican candidate J.D. Vance. In a recent <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/06/jd-vance-immigration-ukraine-great-replacement/?itid=lk_inline_manual_19" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">ad, he </a>said, “Biden’s open border is killing Ohioans, with more illegal drugs and more Democrat voters pouring into this country.”</font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Assessing Republican lawmakers' opposition to a resolution in support of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Milbank explained how their perspective aligns with fascism. "Sixty-three House Republicans — 30 percent of the caucus — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/06/house-gop-nato-support/?itid=lk_inline_manual_25" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">voted against</a> a resolution this week affirming unequivocal support for NATO as authoritarian Russia attacks democratic Ukraine," he wrote.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On another note, he added, "A Republican National Committee resolution, never rescinded, refers to the Capitol insurrection not as an authoritarian attempt to overthrow democracy and keep the defeated Trump in power but as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/07/rnc-legitimate-political-discourse-insurrection/?utm_campaign=wp_follow_dana_milbank&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_danamilbank&itid=lk_inline_manual_26" target="_blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">legitimate political discourse</a>.' And Trump expresses regret he didn’t march to the Capitol with the insurrectionists."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" style="" face="Times New Roman">He concluded, "Is the GOP 'a party built on fraud, fear, and fascism'? Certainly, not all Republicans think this way. But too many others are subverting democracy, cavorting with white nationalists, spreading racist fears and fantasizing about extrajudicial punishment for political opponents and the media. For them, the jackboot fits."</font></p></div></div></div>