Here are the 5 biggest right-wing outrages of the week: Did the State of the Union have any impact?
08 February 2019
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump delivered his second State of the Union address, in which he doubled down on attacking immigration while simultaneously wrapping his speech in a flimsy call to bipartisanship.
It is unclear whether the speech had a huge impact on the public consciousness, however, because it was eclipsed by a chaotic week that saw multiple top Virginia politicians in both parties caught up in a blackface scandal, the unveiling of Democrats' opening resolution for a "Green New Deal," and billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos accusing the National Enquirer's David Pecker of blackmailing him with pictures of his genitals. In this environment, it is hard for any one politician to stick out for egregious behavior — but many made a sincere effort.
Here are five of the craziest right-wing moments this week:
"This is a party that no longer believes in core American values," said Morici on Fox Business' Varney & Co., in a segment attacking the Green New Deal. "And it also shows us what's going on with immigration. Basically what you have in Ocasio-Cortez are Latin American values. Instead of us assimilating them, they are assimilating us. And they want to bring the kind of socialism that destroyed Venezuela, and frankly Mexico, here. You know, it isn't that we're going to become Venezuela, but we could easily become Mexico, and you won't be able to go outside your door without getting shot."
Watch below:
This attack on Ocasio-Cortez, who was born in the Bronx but is of Puerto Rican descent, is not only offensive, it's stupid. Ocasio-Cortez's ideas for progressive taxation and clean energy public works are not remotely the same thing as the dictatorship in Venezuela, which is a low-tax state that runs its economy on a centrally-planned oil industry. Nonetheless, "Venezuela" seems to be fast becoming a catch-all dog whistle for any policy that Republicans don't like.
"America has lost touch with God and his simple values. Instead, socialist rhetoric, including 'Medicare for All' is being touted by liberal 2020 candidates," said Robertson. "I already have healthcare. It's given to me by God — eternal healthcare ... it's free!"
Watch below:
It is worth noting that Robertson has a net worth of $15 million. So whether or not he sincerely believes in faith healing, he will never have to risk the financial ruin of unpaid medical debt, something that 41 percent of working-age adults have.
But Katrina Pierson, the Trump campaign's former spokeswoman, saw something a lot more sinister in the white garb — and tweeted as such on Tuesday night:
It takes a special kind of ignorance and depravity to compare women celebrating their equal rights in participatory democracy to the nation's most infamous white supremacist terror group. Especially since, insofar as there was any organized presence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 2016 presidential election, they backed her boss.
"As we hear the stories and circumstances for those here, I hope we do not forget the pain and anguish and sense of loss felt by those all over the country who have been the victims of violence at the hands of illegal aliens," he said. "H.R. 8 would not have stopped many of the circumstances I raised. But a wall, a barrier on the southern border may have."
His comments angered Fred Guttenberg and Manuel Oliver, parents of the Parkland school shooting victims in attendance, who promptly started shouting at him. In response, Gaetz pointed at them and demanded to know if they could be ejected from the hearing.
Watch below:
There is absolutely no evidence that border walls reduce crime — when one was erected in El Paso, the city's crime rate did not go down. Moreover, studies show immigrant populations are less, not more, crime-prone than the native-born citizen population.
Right-wing Christian radio host Bryan Fischer was outraged about the decision, and soon took to Twitter to denounce Roberts:
Anyone with an even tangential knowledge of the Supreme Court knows that Roberts was appointed by President George W. Bush. Additionally, at the time, Barack Obama was a senator — who voted against confirming Roberts.
Oops!