It was the “scandal” that bad faith actors longed for, and it came in the middle of an interview about child-rearing in a women's magazine.
On a week that saw the bleak milestone of 300,000 American deaths came the kind of “controversy” that Republicans can usually only dream of. Sure, one in every four American children is hungry this Christmas, but did you hear what Joe Biden’s deputy campaign manager said? Jen O’Malley Dillon told Glamour magazine, “In the primary, people would mock him, like, ‘You think you can work with Republicans?’ I’m not saying they’re not a bunch of fuckers. Mitch McConnell is terrible.”
The people who didn’t find “grab them by the pussy” or “shithole countries” offensive were suddenly climbing the walls at O'Malley Dillon’s salty language and the notion that McConnell is terrible. It’s the Obama’s tan suit of late 2020.
Of course Mitch McConnell is terrible, and he relishes it. Even Mitch’s supporters think he's terrible. This is a man who gave himself the nickname “the Grim Reaper.” Yes, Mitch told a small group in Kentucky that, “They won’t even be voted on. So think of me as the Grim Reaper: the guy who is going to make sure that socialism doesn't land on the president's desk."
After the June 2019 Democratic debate, he was almost giddy: “I understand my sin is that I’ve been stopping left-wing agenda items coming out of the House,” or, as normal people think of it, legislation. McConnell proudly turned the Senate into a legislative graveyard and delighted in it. But how dare anyone say that guy whose brand is “I’m terrible” is actually terrible!
The bad faith backlash was almost immediate. Famously cowardly Republican Senator Marco Rubio suddenly became super brave and very offended. Marco tweeted, “Biden talks about unity and healing, but you want to know what they really think? Read how the person he wants as the next WH deputy chief of staff called Republicans in Congress a bunch of f***ers.” Marco seems to only be offended when course language comes from Democrats.
Megyn Kelly tweeted “Unite you f*ckers!” And the biggest fucker of them all, serial liar Kayleigh McEnany, tweeted, “Biden Campaign Manager called us ‘F***ers’!!!” Axios immediately ran the headline, “Scoop: top Biden aide's "f--ker" quote under fire” which offered up the slim “Some advisers close to President-elect Joe Biden are frustrated over a Glamour magazine interview.”
But here’s the thing. O’Malley Dillon wasn’t offering up a slur or even an opinion. No, O’Malley Dillon was merely stating a fact. Republicans are a bunch of fuckers. For the last four years, they’ve engaged in the kind of fuckery that would make Nixon blush. This isn’t a controversial opinion. “Fuckers” is the brand. They are a bunch of fuckers.
They jailed children, let people in blue states die, let even more people (per capita) in their own red states die, stole a Supreme Court seat during an election, rushed to perform last-minute federal executions, abandoned the Kurds to die in Syria. And oh yeah, tried to undo 243 years of democratic transfer of power by arguing that millions of votes shouldn’t count. They are fuckers, that’s the brand.
The only “mistake” O’Malley Dillon made was apologizing, even though she didn’t really apologize, but she apologized enough for Politico to use the headline “Top Biden aide walks back expletive description of Republicans.” Did she really walk it back? I mean I guess. She said she “used some words that I probably could have chosen better.”
But here’s what we know about bad faith actors: They act in bad faith. Don’t negotiate with terrorists. The last four years were a sea of Republican scandals. Turns out electing a completely corrupt television businessman to run your government results in enormous amounts of corruption. Republicans (or as I like to call them, fuckers) are angry that these scandals got so much “coverage.” They blame the “left wing” media instead of themselves for elevating such corrupt leaders. Well, now these same politicians are out for blood (or scandals), and they’ll take those scandals wherever they can get them.
Sure, the president’s completely unqualified son-in-law is running the government (while also still holding a financial interest in his family’s real-estate company); but have you seen Hunter Biden’s laptop? And how dare DOCTOR Biden call herself doctor! Democrats need to stop being nice to fuckers.
Apologies just extend the news cycle, and they never stop bad faith actors from acting in bad faith. One of the smart (but also very shitty) things Republicans do is they always stick to the message, so instead of apologizing, they continue fighting. Trump never apologizes because he never considers himself wrong. That’s because he's a narcissistic sociopath. But here’s the thing. It actually works for him.
Now, I’m not saying Democrats need to be as shitty as Republicans. For one thing, it’s not possible. But they need to stick to the message. One in four American children doesn’t have enough to eat, 300,000 Americans are dead from a virus that could have been a lot less bad if we didn’t have a president who thought he was smarter than all those fake-science sciencey types or, as we in the mainstream media call them, public health experts.
When people repeatedly tell you who they are, believe them. And these people are fuckers. And Mitch McConnell is terrible.