Republicans Archives - Page 17 of 25

No surprise as mainstream media fall short in Trump impeachment coverage

Written on November 15, 2019 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Media Watch, Republican Messaging

Protesters share their opinion on Donald Trump impeachment

While many mainstream media outlets have aired the Donald Trump impeachment hearings that began in the U.S. House on Wednesday, the commentary by some of the media afterward was cringeworthy. Special mention goes to NBC News and Reuters, who faulted the hearings for not being scintillating enough. According to NBC News:

Analysis: The first two witnesses called Wednesday testified to President Trump's scheme, but lacked the pizzazz necessary to capture public attention. https://t.co/1UfkaeZ3I4

— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 14, 2019

Reuters followed up with “Consequential, but dull: Trump impeachment hearings begin without a bang.” Sadly, this is the kind of circus coverage that we have come to expect from our news media.

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Tags: 2020 Elections, Bill Clinton, Democrats, Donald Trump, impeachment, NBC News, Republicans, Reuters, Richard Nixon, Starr Report, U.S. House

After election defeats, will Republicans finally abandon Trump?

Written on November 6, 2019 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Republican Messaging

Virginia Beach voting sticker

Yesterday, Republicans suffered stunning election losses in Kentucky and Virginia. In Kentucky, Democratic state Attorney General Andy Beshear defeated incumbent Republican Governor Matt Bevin to become the new Governor-elect (Bevin thus far has refused to concede the election). Bevin’s defeat is a major embarrassment for Donald Trump, who, on Monday night, held a rally in Kentucky’s second-largest city, Lexington, and pleaded with the audience to prevent a Democratic win in the state, saying, “You can’t let that happen to me!”

In Virginia, Democrats won the majority in the State House of Delegates and the State Senate, to go along with their Democratic Governor. This marks the first time in 26 years that Virginia has had a unified Democratic state government, which may well be a continuation of the “Blue Wave” that swept Democrats into the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2018 midterm elections. One of the issues for Virginia voters yesterday was gun violence, after 12 people were killed in a mass shooting in Virginia Beach last May. Republican lawmakers in Virginia, as well as nationally, have dragged their feet on or even blocked taking common-sense steps proposed by Democrats to reduce gun violence. The voters may have signaled that they have had enough.

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Tags: 2018 Elections, 2020 Elections, Blue Wave, Congress, David Jolly, Democrats, Donald Trump, gun control, guns, Kentucky, Lindsey Graham, mass shooting, Mitt Romney, Republicans, Susan Collins, U.S. House, U.S. Senate, Virginia, Virginia Beach

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg testifies before House of Representatives

Written on October 24, 2019 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Media Watch, Republican Messaging

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee yesterday. The title of the hearing was: An Examination of Facebook and its Impact on the Financial Services and Housing Sectors. As we recently indicated, Messaging Matters has pulled the plug and stopped using Facebook, due to a combination of Facebook’s data mining business model, its history of user data breaches, and its pro-Republican bent. The rest of America is not likely to take much comfort after what was heard yesterday.

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Tags: 2016 Elections, 2020 Elections, Callibra, Congress, cryptocurrency, Democrats, Donald Trump, Facebook, House Financial Services Committee, Libra, Mark Zuckerberg, Maxine Waters, Paypal, Republicans, Russia, U.S. House

Unplugging from Republican-leaning Facebook

Written on October 14, 2019 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Media Watch, Republican Messaging

Turning off Facebook

In the very first Messaging Matters post, nearly nine years ago, we wrote: “Republicans have placed a ‘matrix’ over this country” with the help of “news media [that] are largely controlled by giant corporations,” as well as an organized Republican “messaging machine.” Based on recent revelations, it turns out that Facebook is part of this Republican machine too. As a result, we’re unplugging from the Facebook matrix.

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Tags: 2016 Elections, 2020 Elections, Democrats, Donald Trump, Elizabeth Warren, Facebook, Hillary Clinton, impeachment, Instagram, Joe Biden, Mark Zuckerberg, Republicans, Rudy Giuliani, Russia, Twitter, Ukraine

Is the tide finally turning on gun violence?

Written on September 20, 2019 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging

Vigil for shooting victims (Dayton, OH)

Colt Firearms recently announced that it will suspend production and civilian sales of its AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle. Due to their design enabling shooters to kill so many people in so little time, the AR-15 (the most popular rifle in America) and similar assault weapons, such as the AK-47, are the top choices in a large number of America’s deadliest mass shootings, and the vast majority of mass shooting deaths, including:

Aurora, CO; Sandy Hook Elementary School (CT); Poway, California synagogue; New Zealand mosques; El Paso, TX; Dayton, OH (9 people killed in 30 seconds); Las Vegas, NV concert; Sutherland Springs, TX church; Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (Parkland, FL); Santa Monica, CA; San Bernardino, CA; Albuquerque, NM; Geneva County, AL; Chattanooga, TN; Carson City, NV; and more.

In addition to Colt’s discontinuation of the AR-15, moreover, several other actions might be considered early signals that the tide of public opinion, and legislative action, may be starting to turn against gun violence. These actions include:

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Tags: AR-15, assault weapons, Beto O'Rourke, Congress, Democrats, El Paso, gun control, gun safety, gun violence, guns, mass shootings, National Rifle Association, NRA, Republicans, U.S. House, U.S. Senate

When it comes to gaffes, Donald Trump lowers the bar to the ground

Written on August 20, 2019 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Media Watch, Republican Messaging

Cartoon of Donald Trump clashing with Megyn Kelly at August 2015 debate

Republicans, as expected, are attacking the leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Given that Joe Biden has been the Democratic front-runner essentially since the day he announced his candidacy, and indeed, beats Donald Trump in head-to-head match-up polls, Biden naturally is a target for many of these Republican assaults. The current line of GOP attack against Biden is that he makes “gaffes,” i.e. honest statements that politicians don’t always make, or misstatements using a wrong word, phrase or information. However, there are two big problems with this Republican attack on Biden: first, Biden has had the reputation of making gaffes for many years, and to a lot of voters, it adds to his likeability and authenticity. Second, and even more problematic for Republicans, Donald Trump has so lowered the bar with his own horrible history of misstatements, shocking statements, and outright lies, that he has negated any “gaffe” issue for Biden.

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Tags: 2020 Election, Affordable Care Act, Barack Obama, border wall, Charlottesville, Democrats, Donald Trump, gaffes, Heather Heyer, immigration, Joe Biden, Mexico, Nazi, Republicans

Responding to right wing talking points on guns

Written on August 6, 2019 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Republican Messaging

Right wing New York Post now calls for Assault Weapons Ban

In the wake of last weekend’s back-to-back deadly mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, the arguments are flying from pro-gun right wingers who don’t want to take any action to reduce gun violence, and many Democrats (joined by others) who say that America needs common-sense gun laws. The right wing talking points have been around for years, and typically emanate from the top, meaning the National Rifle Association (NRA), which is now reduced to a pro-terrorist gun manufacturers’ trade group, as well as Republican Party professional phrase makers. So now, let’s go through some of these Republican pro-gun violence talking points, and come up with good, short responses to them. In some cases, responses have been given in recent days, and are cited here:

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Tags: ACA, Affordable Care Act, assault rifle, assault weapons, Dayton, Democrats, Donald Trump, El Paso, gun control, gun safety, gun violence, guns, mental health, NRA, Republicans, right wing

Democratic labeling finally gets under a Republican’s skin

Written on July 31, 2019 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging

Mitch McConnell, whose feelings are now hurt

It’s fair to say that Republicans are much better at going on offense against Democrats than vice-versa. Therefore, it’s quite refreshing to see Democrats turning the tables on Republicans for once. This time, it’s Republican U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who has fallen prey to Democratic tarring and feathering efforts. By most accounts, these efforts are working, and McConnell’s feelings are hurt.

The Democratic efforts to frame McConnell as unpatriotic, and even a tool of a foreign power, stem from McConnell’s refusal to act on bills introduced in the Senate to protect the U.S. election system from further Russian interference. Recall that Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections is undisputed by the U.S. intelligence community, as well as by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle with access to the relevant information. Just a few days ago, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, specifically tasked with investigating such Russian wrongdoing, confirmed again that Russia interfered in our 2016 elections and “they’re doing it as we sit here.” As a result, lawmakers have introduced bills to protect our elections and voting system against the type of cyber warfare and hacking that Russia committed against America. But McConnell keeps blocking the bills.

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Tags: 2016 Elections, Amy McGrath, Chuck Schumer, Congress, Dana Milbank, Democrats, Joe Scarborough, Mitch McConnell, MSNBC, Republicans, Russia, Senate, Twitter, Washington Post

Watch what Trump and the Republicans do, not just what they say

Written on July 17, 2019 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Media Watch

Everyone is in a tizzy this week because Donald Trump wrote racist tweets. The story is all over every type of media, from TV news to Twitter to Facebook to news media websites, and more. However, this has to be one of the biggest non-news events of the year. Trump already has a well-known history of public racism dating back at least to the 1970s with housing discrimination, continuing through the 1980s and beyond with the Central Park Five case, and which was on full display in Trump’s 2015 presidential campaign announcement speech, where he came out of the gate attacking immigrants from Mexico and Central America.

If you’re still wondering why Trump deliberately creates distractions with shiny objects regarding immigration and race, here are a few things that Trump has been distracting us from while the whole country obsesses over his racist tweets:

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Tags: abortion, ACLU, Alex Acosta, asylum, Central Park Five, culture war, Democrats, Donald Trump, Facebook, immigration, Jeffrey Epstein, Mexico, Mitch McConnell, news, Planned Parenthood, racism, Republicans, Statue of Liberty, Twitter

On radio, the right wing is swamping progressives

Written on July 10, 2019 by Messaging Matters in Democratic Messaging, Media Watch, Republican Messaging

Rush Limbaugh, part of the right wing’s talk radio dominance

Many people are aware of the generalization that there are many more right wing or conservative radio outlets than there are progressives or liberals on the radio. But what’s truly alarming is just how politically unbalanced the radio airwaves are.

For example, 10 out of the top 20 most popular radio shows by weekly listeners are conservative programs (listed below by popularity rank):

1. Rush Limbaugh
2. Sean Hannity
7. Mark Levin
8. Glenn Beck
9. Coast to Coast AM (George Noory, George Knapp)
10. Mike Gallagher
12. Hugh Hewitt
14. The Savage Nation (Michael Savage)
15. The Dana Show (Dana Loesch)
19. The Joe Pags Show (Joe Pagliarulo)

In contrast, only one of the top 20 radio programs, the Thom Hartmann Show, is a liberal political program. Others, such as NPR’s Fresh Air and All Things Considered, are more general interest, personal interest or news programs. Specialty programs such as Marketplace (financial) and Delilah (music) also round out the list, making the dominance of conservative talk shows even more striking.

Tag Archive: Republicans