Is Michael Steele really that committed to the Democrats? As his comments on Ali Velshi’s MSNBC show on Saturday demonstrated, the answer is, Very all-in! Steele was the Republican National Committee’s former Chairman. He later became a Never Trumper and MSNBC analyst. Finally, he joined the disgraced Lincoln Project.
The subject was the efforts by Democrats to meddle in Republican primaries by promoting MAGA/Trump-supporters, whom the Dems assume would be easier to defeat in the general election with the latest example being Michigan’s third congressional district with Democrats pumping money in to promote John Gibbs, an ardent Trump supporter over incumbent Congressman Peter Meijer, who had voted to impeach the President in 2021.
It’s a mark of just how far Steele has gone that whereas co-panelist Jennifer Rubin — she a certified detester of the GOP — wasn’t completely on board. Although she was uneasy, she seems to have changed her mind and said that Republicans who voted against Trump but believe Biden to be the legitimate President can still be defeated if Kevin McCarthy is elected Speaker.
It was great. [Meijer]I voted for impeachment. This is great. But until the people stop foreswearing the party, until they say “I’m never going to put someone like Kevin McCarthy who is completely loyal Donald Trump in a place of authority,” I believe that’s fair. I also don’t believe Republicans should be voting to vote for “good Republicans” if these “good Republicans’ are going turn around and empower MAGA forces.
Steele, however, defended this practice, describing the meddling as a tool “to try to get to a position where you have the best competitive advantage going into a general election…of You will be able to place the top players before you that you’re going to go up against.”
Steele described meddling as an effort to gain control. “The best players” As Dems’ opponents, Of course, he meant what he claimed to mean: the ostensibly most terrible, most unelectable, players.
Steele not only supported the Democrats’ intervention during the Republican primary but also described their efforts less truthfully. Steele twice claimed that the Democrats had run “positive” ads for Gibbs.
In fact, as you’ll see here, the very theme of the Democrat ad was to denounce Gibbs as “too conservative,” Trump too tightly. The Democrats might run the exact same advertisement in general elections as Gibbs’ attack. To describe the ad as “positive” was a bit of false advertising by Steele himself.
In the following MSNBC hour, during Tiffany Cross’s show, Democrat pollster and operative Fernand Amandi also denounced the Democrat meddling, saying it could backfire, leading to the election of “fascists” — his term for Republicans.
Ironically, a major Democrat talking point has been that “democracy is on the ballot,” Republicans have been portrayed as a threat for America in this article.
Yet neither Rubin nor Amandi, while criticizing the Dem primary meddling — not to mention Steele, who outright supported it — ever considered the ethics of the practice. Their only argument against meddling was because it had a clear political effect and could lead to the election to conservative Republicans.
They never broached the issue that meddling in another party’s primaries is an attempt to fraudulently manipulate American voters. Talk about “democracy on the ballot!”
Steele defending the Democrat practice of meddling in Republican primaries in an effort to elect what they perceive to be the weaker general-election candidate, was sponsored in part by Dell, Intel, Dr. Scholl’s , and GoDaddy. You can find their contact information here.
Here’s the relevant transcript (click “expand”):
MSNBC’s Velshi
08/06/22
9:56 am EDTALI VELSHI : Jennifer, I have a question for you. Peter Meijer, in MichiganHe was a Republican who voted in support of Donald Trump. He’s a Republican! He’s not a liberal Republican, he’s a Republican. He did what was right by Trump. Democrats spent huge amounts of money to get his opponent elected. They thought it would be much easier for him to lose in general elections than Peter Meijer.. That worked. Peter Meijer won the primary, and his opponent prevailed.
How do you feel about that? That’s some strategic voting that could work for Democrats, or could it go really wrong, could get another election denier elected to Congress.
JENNIFER RUBIN: Yeah, I think it’s This is a dangerous tactic. It is something I absolutely would not condone.If they were performing that job in a governorship, secretary of state or attorney general position, it would be for the same reasons as before.
It is not possible to put people opposed to voting in control of elections. You also cannot allow them to win. Trump, which I feel we have done on this one, will eventually be defeated in general elections.
Again, the number of congressional seats is irrelevant. you have to be really, really careful that you’re not adding to that body of crazy in the House of Representatives.
(….)
9:57 a.m.
RUBIN – It was lovely that [Meijer]I voted to impeachment. It’s great. But until these people abandon the party — until they decide, “I’m never going to place a person such as Kevin McCarthy, which is totally loyal to Donald Trump in a position of authority — I believe that’s fair play. I also don’t believe Republicans should vote for “good Republicans”, if those “good Republicans,” are going to empower MAGA forces.
VELSHI You think it’s fair game, if, if, if Democrats think they can get somebody in who they can defeat, maybe they should try it?
MICHAELSTEELE: Ja. I mean, look, I’m a former county, state, and national chairman. That’s what I do. We have strategies. We use them, as you all know. This is something both Democrats as well as Republicans have used in the past. And I’ll put it to you this way. People can sit back, and they won’t have any problem watching negative ads against an opponent in general elections. However now we’re concerned about a party putting out PositiveAds about the opposition in a primary
So, you know, it’s — you know, I hear what people are saying. Every strategy that you use in politics is subject to risk. That’s the only risk. This was a successful idea that I know of. It was a success in Prince George’s County, Maryland. It sometimes works out so that you get what you want.
This is just the beginning. one more effort that parties have in there available to them, to try to get to a position where you have the compet — best competitive advantage going into a general election. So,It’s funny to me that so many people pick on the Dems because they are running.Advertising that is positiveThese MAGA Republicans. Yeah, they’re gonna turn around in November and say, don’t vote for that crazy: of course they are! But that’s just part of the — the nature of trying to put the best players in front of you that you’re going to go up against.
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