Why Republicans Cant Seem To Lay a Glove on Biden

Published: April 6, 2021, 4 a.m.

That new documentary on QAnon ended with something of a bang, with one likely suspect seeming to half-confess that he was \u2018Q,\u2019 the oracle of the violent conspiracy movement. But there may not be even a single \u2018Q,\u2019 explains Will Sommer, one of the people featured throughout the documentary and the co-host of The Daily Beast\u2019s new hit podcast, FEVER DREAMS.  


\u201cThere was kind of like this group surrounding the original Q,\u201d Sommer, who\u2019s writing a book on QAnon, tells Molly Jong-Fast on the latest episode of The New Abnormal. \u201cThere's not even one solid Q in the beginning. I mean, Q does not use the name. All these posts that are attributed initially to Q do not use the Q name. So you get into this fight over the canon, of who is Q who's not Q.\u201d


Speaking of delusional movements, the Republican party is at a bit of a loss these days. They can\u2019t seem to figure out how to get in the way of Joe Biden\u2019s agenda\u2014or even to throw an effective counterpunch against the guy.   


\u201cThe Republicans don't how to push back. The most effective pushback of Biden's whole infrastructure relief plan has been from [Obama\u2019s former national economic council chief] Larry Summers,\u201d James Carville, the veteran Democratic strategist, tells Jong-Fast. \u201cIntellectually, they just they've lost their footing.\u201d


Carville adds, \u201cI think the most significant 24 hours in American politics was from 8:00 PM eastern on the 5th of January to 8:00 PM eastern on the sixth. And that time you had the two Georgia wins  and you had the insurrection and those events taken in tandem have been very, very underappreciated by contemporary commentators. They were just a different party on the night of January the 6th. Everything changed in a 24-hour period. And, you know, they\u2019re still off balance.\u201d 


\u201cAnd while they are balancing, I think the Biden people have just stayed focused and running as much through as they possibly can. But [the Republicans] don't have a coherent pushback. It's all CBS: cancel culture, the border, and senility. That's all they do,\u201d Carville adds.


\u201cThey just completely reinvented a coalition and their messaging overnight has gone from an Episcopalian, Presbyterian, white party [to] rural and non-college... They don't want to talk about free trade or anything like that,\u201d he continues. \u201cAnd Biden is not just a polarizing figure. I mean, you can't gin it up. I mean, Obama, for obvious reasons he could get them all ginned up. They try to get a charge out of Biden, but it just doesn't work that well\u2026 They'll get it back. But right now they're having a hard time.\u201d


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