This GOP congressman tried to fearmonger about Biden’s agenda — but it completely backfired

Republicans can be brutally effective with their messaging, however disingenuous — from weaponizing the term "woke" (which had a very positive connotation when it originated in the African-American community) to convincing Virginia voters that critical race theory is a major threat in public schools. But sometimes, GOP messaging that's meant to inflict harm on Democrats can fall painfully flat. A case in point: Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah argued that President Joe Biden's Build Back Better agenda is a "socialist" attack on taxpayers — then listed everything there is to like about it.

The Utah Republican, on November 10, tweeted, "This is what the build back better plan includes. This is the socialist laundry list that your hard-earned taxpayer money is going towards."

But Twitter users reminded Stewart that the things he slammed as pork-barrel spending were common-sense items — including "Medicare hearing benefit," "in-home care access," "worker training and higher education" and "child care and universal pre-school."

There ended up being many replies to his tweet — which seemed overwhelmingly critical — than there were users "liking" the post.

Veteran jazz singer/saxophonist Curtis Stigers was quick to slam Stewart:

Here are some other responses to Stewart's tweet: