cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11773185
GOP Sen. John Kennedy Freaks Out When Reminded He Used To Be A Democrat
“I’ve never been a Marxist!” the Louisiana senator shouted angrily after his attempt to smear one of Biden’s judicial nominees backfired.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) on Thursday tried to smear one of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees by repeatedly calling her a Marxist, an accusation rooted in nothing other than this nominee being a Democrat.
But his effort backfired spectacularly when the Louisiana Republican was reminded that he, too, used to be a Democrat.
“Are you still a Marxist?” Kennedy asked Melissa DuBose, Biden’s nominee for a U.S. district court in Rhode Island. It was his very first question in DuBose’s nomination hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and he gave zero context.
“I am not nor have I ever been a Marxist,” replied DuBose, who is now a state district judge.
They went back and forth. Kennedy suggested she was lying under oath about being a secret Marxist, citing an interview she did in 2000 when she was working at a coffee shop and said she was “in my Marxist phase.”
…
And then Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) reminded Kennedy that even if it were true that DuBose had been in a “Marxist phase,” people sometimes take new positions on issues over time. Even him.
“This was many, many, many, many, many years ago,” Whitehouse said of DuBose’s interview. “Perhaps during the time when my colleague Sen. Kennedy was a Democrat, showing that people can change their views, even if it were true that you were in a Marxist phase.”
Whitehouse smiled. Laughs were audible in the room. Kennedy was furious.
“I’ve never been a Marxist!” he shouted. “I’ve never been a Marxist! And I’ve never admitted I was a Marxist and then not turned a document over to this committee!”
The most depressing thing about this is the normalisation of the ridiculous idea that democrats and Marxists are even tangibly related… 🤦♀️
We’re talking about people who legitimately believe providing tax payer funded school lunch to kids is communism.
Right, precisely because of this kind of bullshit normalisation of the idea, not because it has any basis in reality…
Indeed, I suspect most people who identify as Marxist would not identify as Democrat.
I’d suspect most would (rightfully) be very offended by being labeled as such
Indeed
tangibly related
Did you mean to say “tangentially related”?
Tangintiblly
Tangerine Billy!? I bested him in poker once, and he shot me in the arm. If you see him, tell him I’m coming for him.
Either works
If you say so. One is a common phrase with a precise meaning appropriate to the context of the sentence. The other makes no sense at all. Political philosophies are specifically intangible. It’s a mishearing of a common phrase or an autocorrect error at best. It most definitely does not “work”.
The real tragedy is that because anyone bringing even the slight political criticism or discourse of the American Republic is criticized with meaningless hyperboles, thus destroying any chance of having a real discussion about political sciences.
And I’ve seen it in real life…
What a sad, pathetic, impotent old man
Maybe he can call a crackhead for help?
He’s a Russian now 🇷🇺
This dumb fuck visited the Kremlin to kiss pooty’s booty on the 4th of July
What’s wrong with being a Marxist? Apart from holding the delusion of human nature and the species being capable of such feats.
Yeah humans never work cooperatively together, what’s millions of years of mutual aid and social interest amongst ourselves, our ancestors, and other species on this planet.
We work great together, to rape the natural world. How many species did we hunt to extinction before we even figured out written language?
And now we’re number one, we’ve got nothing left to scratch the itch except ourselves. We’re very good at being our number one cause of death outside of natural causes. And for quite some time now, at least as far back as the history books go.
Ask McCarthy
The beards, not everyone can grow the kind of beard needed to be a Marxist. They get left out of the party.
Mostly everything.
God, I’d give my left nut for a chance to make a Republican senator that fucking mad.
I opened the URL and still don’t get the context. All I know is this happened in Capitol.
Senate confirmation hearings. GOP was questioning one of biden’s nominees (DuBose)
GOP asshole accused her of being Marxist, she said she wasn’t, and a Dem senator reminded Asshole that people can change views- he used to be a dem.
To which, Asshole says “I’ve never been a Marxist”; as if democrats are Marxist
I’m just so tired of the disingenuous reporting that comes from politics, no matter what side. Is it too much to ask for some honesty and facts without 14 levels of BS spin attached?
No, the insinuation from his outburst wasn’t that Democrats are Marxist. His outburst was because he saw it as false equivalence. The nominee gave an interview in 2000 where she said she was Marxist. The dem senator tried to say the nominee and the GOP senator were the same because people can change their minds. That’s when the GOP guy yelled. Not because he was trying to link Democrats and Marxism, but in a “hey! That’s not two comparable situations! I never said I was Marxist!” kind of way. The implication being that while he used to be a Democrat, that’s not the same as being Marxist. You know, the exact fucking opposite of the narrative that’s trying to be spun?
Like, it’s stupid that I even have to spell this out. I feel gross for defending any GOP shitbag, but God damn I am tired of reporting like this. I feel like anyone looking into this with even an ounce of context would understand what he was trying to to say, so I don’t get why so many people are eating up the fake narrative. Are people so fucking stupid these days that they willfully believe misinformation over facts?
It’s not even like the truth makes the GOP guy look good, it just turns it into a nothing story. So people are out here like “I choose to believe the misinformation because the alternative would be boring”. Can we please be just a little fucking better?
You can start with a bit of honesty yourself.
The “Marxist phase” comment wasn’t that she was ever really Marxist, rather that she was- at the time- studying them as a polisci major.
It was said with all the seriousness one discussed of a “teenage rebel phase”.
