Lara Trump's Big Lie hiring: Republicans stick with loser strategy that failed them in 2020 and 2022

Lara Trump's Big Lie hiring: Republicans stick with loser strategy that failed them in 2020 and 2022
Election denial doesn't impress voters, but it sure attracts massive defamation lawsuits

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED MARCH 29, 2024 6:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) As with many news items in the Donald Trump era, we must file this under "shocking, not surprising": People who are being interviewed by the newly Trump-controlled Republican National Committee (RNC) report that they're being asked if they "believe" President Joe Biden stole the 2020 election. This is after Trump installed his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as a co-chair of the RNC and she vowed to use the committee's funds to pay Trump's legal bills. (She's now denying that is the plan, even though documentation shows that the fundraising agreement between Trump and the RNC does, in fact, prioritize paying Trump's legal bills over funding the party.) Under Lara Trump's leadership, there has already been a staff purge, no doubt, as these reports show, to re-staff the RNC with people who are willing to back Trump's lies about the 2020 election.

Grim stuff, watching the already-radicalized GOP lose any remaining shreds of pro-democratic sentiment and hardening into what can only be seen as a fascist party. There is a silver lining, however. There's good reason to believe Trump's strategy of going all-in on election denial will backfire. Under Trump's leadership, Republicans made conspiracy theories about voter fraud the centerpiece of their campaigns in 2020 and 2022. In both, they lost major elections they could have won. There's little reason to think voters will be more fond of the madness going into 2024.

....(snip)....

So far, 2024 is shaping up the same way: The Big Lie candidates do well in the primaries, only to come across as embarrassing kooks on the general election campaign trail. Bernie Moreno of Ohio is running against LGBTQ rights, but was exposed for having a profile on Adult Friend Finder looking for "Men for 1-on-1 sex." (He's blamed an intern for it, which maybe someone out there believes.) Kari Lake is running for in Arizona for Senate, having lost in 2022 for governor on the grounds of out-of-control battiness. The GOP candidate for governor in North Carolina, Mark Robinson, has a humiliating past soundbite drop practically every week now, including the latest where he calls Beyoncé a "skank."

....(more)....

In theory, they could just make vague claims about the election being "stolen," and the MAGA masses will dutifully repeat the lie without a shred of evidence to back it up. In practice, however, Trump and his minions know that's not good propaganda. It's more emotionally satisfying for them to have real-life people to demonize. The temptation to falsely accuse real people of leading the imaginary conspiracy will be hard to resist. It would be better if they didn't victimize people (or voting machine companies). But as the pressures of fundraising and getting the base riled up mount, it's quite likely the Big Liars will start defaming actual people and companies again. ....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/03/29/lara-big-lie-hiring-stick-with-loser-strategy-that-failed-them-in-2020-and-2022/