This is an adapted excerpt from the Nov. 19 episode of “Alex Wagner Tonight.”
If there is one hallmark of the Trump era, one strategy that has been employed to force through a radical agenda, it might be this one — first articulated by Steve Bannon, all the way back in 2018: “The Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with sh—.”
Now, Bannon was overstating the role of the media and understating the role of actual Democratic officials, but that “flood the zone” approach is something we’ve seen Trump do to great effect over the years.
It’s not that Donald Trump is some kind of brilliant tactician but, on some level, he does seem to realize that the best way to avoid scrutiny is to simply do a lot of bad things — all at once — to keep everyone’s attention divided. It’s something that we are seeing play out right now.
It’s an obviously dehumanizing attempt to bully a new member of Congress.
This week, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced a bill that would ban transgender people on Capitol Hill from using the bathroom of the gender they identify with. It’s clear that this bill was designed to stoke controversy about Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, who became the first openly transgender person ever elected to Congress in this past election.
Under Mace’s bill, McBride would be forced to use the men’s room on Capitol Hill. It’s an obvious attempt to bully and dehumanize a new (Democratic) member of Congress. It’s also a clear attempt to gain the spotlight given the fact that Mace — just three years ago — co-sponsored a bill that would have protected transgender people from just this kind of discrimination.
Now Mace is telling reporters, “If McBride wants to go to the gym she can go to Planet Fitness, where they allow biological men to be around and in a room — in a private space — with underage girls.”
“It’s not going to happen, not on my watch,” she continued.
The irony here is that if there are any alleged or accused sexual predators coming to town in January 2025, they may be two of Trump’s own Cabinet picks. Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth are both currently fighting allegations of sexual misconduct — allegations that both men deny. But Mace is worried about transgender people using her bathroom.
This is what it means to flood the zone. We are now talking about Mace and transgender panic and not, say, the unfitness of Trump’s Cabinet picks and the very real threats they pose to the agencies they’re set to lead.
For example: On Tuesday, The Bulwark unearthed a video from 2020 of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to lead Health and Human Services, suggesting Kennedy is open to the idea that the global coronavirus pandemic was actually a sinister government conspiracy.
“Many people argue that this pandemic was a plandemic,” Kennedy said at the time. “That it was planned from the outset as part of a sinister scheme. I can’t tell you the answer to that. I don’t have enough.”
Just to be clear, the global pandemic that caused the deaths of more than one million people in the United States was not planned by the U.S. government. Here’s another example: Also on Tuesday, Trump named Dr. Mehmet Oz, the failed Pennsylvania Senate candidate and former T.V. doctor, to run the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Prior to joining Trump’s orbit, Oz already had a reputation as a snake-oil salesman. In 2014, he was questioned by then-Sen. Claire McCaskill about promoting weight-loss supplements as some kind of miracle in a bottle.” Oz told McCaskill that he believed his job on the show was to be a “cheerleader for the audience.” Clearly flooding the zone is the playbook here, except now it’s being run in a way that we’ve never seen before. Years later, Oz went on to use his platform as a medical influencer to advocate reopening schools at the height of the Covid pandemic, even if it meant that potentially hundreds more people, including children, had to die. “We need our mojo back,” Oz told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in 2020. “Let’s start with things that are really critical to the nation, where we think we might be able to open without getting into a lot of trouble. I tell you schools are a very appetizing opportunity. I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet [medical journal] arguing that the opening of schools may only cost us 2-3% in terms of total mortality.” What’s the harm in killing 2-3% more people if it means getting our “mojo back”? And here’s yet another example, again from Tuesday: ABC News is reporting, according to multiple sources, that Trump is considering nominating Russell Vought, the architect of Project 2025, for a Cabinet-level position. NBC News has not independently verified that reporting but it’s important to remember that Trump spent the last six months insisting he had nothing to do with Project 2025. Clearly flooding the zone is the playbook here – except now, it’s being run in a way that we’ve never seen before. So, if this is the new normal, if this is the way it’s just going to be from now on, the question is: How do Democrats, the media and the public stay focused on what’s really happening?Allison Detzel contributed.
Alex Wagner
Alex Wagner is the host of "Alex Wagner Tonight," which airs Tuesday through Friday at 9 p.m. ET on MSNBC.
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