This is an adapted excerpt from the November 19 episode of “Alex Wagner Tonight.”
If there is one hallmark of the Trump era, one strategy that has been used to push a radical agenda, it might be this – first articulated by Steve Bannon all the way back in 2018: “The Democrats don’t matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with that is to flood the zone with sh….”
Now Bannon overestimated the role of the media and underestimated the role of actual Democratic officials, but we have seen Trump do that “flood the zone” approach with great success over the years.
It’s not that Donald Trump is a brilliant tactician, but on some level he seems to realize that the best way to avoid criticism is to simply do a lot of bad things – all at once – to divide everyone’s attention. keep. It’s something we see happening now.
This week, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced a bill that would ban transgender people on Capitol Hill from using the bathroom of the gender with which they identify. It’s clear that this bill was intended to stoke controversy over Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, who became the first openly transgender person ever elected to Congress in the last election.
Under Mace’s bill, McBride would be forced to use the men’s room on Capitol Hill. It is a clear attempt to bully and dehumanize a new (Democratic) congressman. It’s also a clear attempt to grab attention, considering that Mace — just three years ago — co-sponsored a bill that would have protected transgender people from exactly this kind of discrimination.
Now Mace tells reporters, “If McBride wants to go to the gym, she can go to Planet Fitness, where they allow biological males to be around and in a room – in a private space – with underage girls.”
“It’s not going to happen, not on my watch,” she continued.
The irony here is that if suspected or accused sexual predators come to town in January 2025, they could be two of Trump’s own Cabinet picks. Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth are both currently battling allegations of sexual misconduct – allegations that both men deny. But Mace is concerned about transgender people using her bathroom.
This is what it means to flood the zone. We are now talking about Mace and transgender panic and not, for example, the unsuitability of Trump’s cabinet choices and the very real threats they pose to the agencies they will lead.
For example: On Tuesday, The Bulwark unearthed a 2020 video of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to head Health and Human Services, suggesting Kennedy is open to the idea that the global coronavirus pandemic is actually a sinister conspiracy of the government was.
“A lot of people are claiming that this pandemic was a plandemic,” Kennedy said at the time. “That it was planned from the start as part of a sinister plan. I can’t tell you the answer to that. I don’t have enough.”
To be clear, the global pandemic that caused the deaths of more than a million people in the United States was not planned by the U.S. government.
Here’s another example: Also on Tuesday, Trump appointed Dr. Mehmet Oz, the failed Pennsylvania Senate candidate and former TV doctor, to lead the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Before joining Trump, Oz already had a reputation as a snake oil salesman.
In 2014, he was questioned by then-Sen. Claire McCaskill on promoting weight loss supplements as some kind of miracle in a bottle.” Oz told McCaskill that he believed his job on the show was to be a “cheerleader for the audience.”
Years later, Oz used his platform as a medical influencer to advocate for the reopening of schools at the height of the Covid pandemic, even if it meant potentially killing hundreds more people, including children.
“We need our mojo back,” Oz told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in 2020. “Let’s start with things that are really crucial for the country, that we think we can open without having many problems. I’m telling you, schools are a very tasty opportunity. I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet [medical journal] arguing that opening schools may only cost us 2-3% in terms of overall mortality.”
What’s the harm in killing 2-3% more people if it means we get our “mojo” back?
And here’s another example, again from Tuesday: ABC News reports, according to multiple sources, that Trump is considering nominating Russell Vought, the architect of Project 2025, to a Cabinet-level position. NBC News has not independently verified that reporting, but it is important to remember that Trump has spent the past six months insisting he had nothing to do with Project 2025.
Clearly, flooding the zone is the playbook here – except now it’s being done in one way we’ve never seen it before. So if this is the new normal, if this is the way it is it’s just going to be normal from now on, the question is: how do Democrats, the media and the public stay focused on what’s really happening?Allison Detzel contributed.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
