Within hours of the New Year’s attack in New Orleans, Donald Trump made series of claims that were false and ugly in equal measure, simultaneously flunking tests of accuracy, decency and credibility. Indeed, the president-elect offered the public a timely reminder that when tragedy strikes, Americans just can’t count on the Republican for reliable and trustworthy information.
But the political party he leads didn’t exactly cover itself in glory, either.
On the contrary, GOP officials spent much of Thursday crafting a list of people, policies and institutions the party wanted to blame, at least in part, for the deadly violence. Over the course of the day, Republicans ended up blaming:
Immigrants: Far too many GOP voices suggested that the suspect wasn’t an American, despite the fact that Shamsud-Din Jabbar was a U.S. Army veteran born and raised in Texas.
Border policies: On Thursday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared on Fox News and tried to connect the dots between “terrorism and the wide-open border,” despite the fact that the border clearly isn’t open — a detail the Louisiana Republican really ought to know — and the suspect was a native-born American citizen. Nevertheless, Johnson wasn’t alone: I lost count of how many GOP officials referenced the “open border” in the hours after the attack, reality be damned.
DEI: In a bit of a surprise, Republican Rep. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania appeared on Fox News after the attack and turned his attention to, of all things, diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. “The priority of the last four years has been DEI, not IEDs,” the congressman said. “You talk to anyone who’s willing to speak within these agencies, that’s what their focus has been.” I have no idea why Meuser believes this, though the point was echoed by a variety of conservative media personalities.
President Joe Biden: Within hours of the attack, Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect’s eldest son, declared, “Biden’s parting gift to America — migrant terrorists.” But the suspect wasn’t a migrant, and the president wasn’t responsible for the violence. School teachers: Arguably the strangest argument of all came from Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, who posted a video to social media that began with a misguided call to “shut down the border,” before adding, “We also have to take a look at how are these terrorists coming from people that live in America? And, you know, you have schools that are teaching kids to hate their country, that this country is evil, you have the teachers’ unions pushing this on our kids, the radical left wants people to hate this country. “And look, this is a real uncomfortable truth, and I know the left is going to lose their mind, but listen: We cannot allow our schools to be terrorist training camps,” Walters concluded. “We cannot allow our schools to teach our kids to hate this country. We cannot allow our kids to teach [sic] that this is an evil country.” Those looking for wisdom and constructive ideas in the wake of the deadly violence had reason to avoid Republican commentary.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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