We are starting a new weekly feature here at Paste politics. Because we are internet people who spend way too much time on Twitter, we have become something of experts in online stupidity. Given how popular our Twitter creation lists are, it makes sense to utilize Paste politics’ expertise in highlighting the dumbest stuff that happened this week. So without further adieu, I present to you the first ever worst political tweets of the week.
1. #Resistance Hero/GOP Consultant Loves Him Some Conspiracy Theorizing
Rick Wilson can be really funny when he has his ire targeted at the Trump administration. That said, he is still a longtime GOP consultant who embodies the #NeverTrump dynamic of despising Trump while also agreeing with most of his policies. He tweeted then deleted this disgusting tweet about Lucy Flores, a woman who has worked in politics for a long time, including for Bernie Sanders, who wrote about how Joe Biden’s handsiness made her incredibly uncomfortable.
As always, Trump is the GOP, the GOP is Trump. There is no real meaningful difference between the two other than tone.
2. More Unhinged Conspiracy Theorizing, Courtesy of The Atlantic
Edward-Isaac Dovere misquoted Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, in his piece about journalist David Sirota joining the Bernie campaign, and Shakir told Paste on the record that he asked The Atlantic and Dovere to update their story with his accurate quote, and they refused. This bad tweet is more of a bad series of tweets, as a man who has proven he lacks journalistic integrity put forth a McCarthyite conspiracy theory, but he didn’t even have the courage to come right out and say what he was clearly trying to say.
“Instead of being ensnared in the recent political intrigues (and America is trying hard to set that trap),” she wrote, “To President Putin, I say keep your eyes to the beautiful future and maybe, just maybe America will come to see Russia as I do, with eyes of love.”
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) April 4, 2019
Here’s that first post, which she also put up in Russian.
In another, she writes: “Why would a liberal democrat support Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin? Maybe it is because I believe he has saved the world from a large conflict on more than one occasion.”https://t.co/wmlyp8W2XNpic.twitter.com/TSUCUGalQK— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) April 4, 2019
3. This Inaugural List Needs Neera Tanden
Neera Tanden oversees the largest liberal think-tank in Washington D.C., and she is a dutiful lap dog for the establishment who doubles as a perfect example of how negative partisanship is more animating in America than positive partisanship. In Tanden’s world, it doesn’t matter that Biden spent decades smelling women’s hair, rubbing their shoulders and making them feel incredibly uncomfortable in his presence, because the bad orange man said a thing about it so therefore all of Biden’s transgressions go out the window in order to oppose the bad orange man.
Trump’s attack on Biden will strengthen Biden amongst Dems.
— Neera Tanden (@neeratanden) April 4, 2019
The sad thing is she may not be wrong. Remember when the Democratic Party acted on principle? Me neither, I’m a millennial. That’s a thing that hasn’t happened in my lifetime and tweets like this help to explain why.
4. Most Op-ed Columnists at Major Papers are the Laziest Thinkers in America
Shocking that some overpaid white guy cannot see how literally writing slavery into the constitution may still have an impact to this very day.
Slavery was a hideous evil. But the time for #reparations is when victims are alive—when those who themselves were abused can be offered redress. Living white Americans are not culpable for slavery; living black Americans never endured it.
My new column: https://t.co/FWJBl4PiJQ
— Jeff Jacoby (@Jeff_Jacoby) March 31, 2019
5. Siri, Please Show Me What Fragile Masculinity Looks Like
This is one of Sean Hannity’s Fox News correspondents wearing a bulletproof vest at the border in definitely not an attempt to make the area seem far more dangerous than it actually is.
Coming up on @FoxNews live from the border. pic.twitter.com/aRlNQxrO1x
— Lawrence Jones III (@LawrenceBJones3) April 4, 2019
He said that border patrol made him wear it, and given that CBP has a vested interest in making the border seem more dangerous (because then they get more federal money), I believe him. The problem is that his “news” network also has a vested interest in depicting a wholly illegitimate reality because Fox News’ product is unabashed white nationalism. Leftist veteran Twitter had a lot of fun with this one, so we’ll end with a few replies dunking on one of Hannity’s propaganda ministers.
lmao is that plate carrier empty
— Nate Bethea (@inthesedeserts) April 4, 2019
— Joe Kassabian (@jkass99) April 4, 2019
— Dylan (@dyllyp) April 4, 2019
Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.