One of the useful things about Bernie Sanders is that he's an unapologetic, dyed-in-the-wool Socialist who will occasionally just blurt the truth out, even if it conflicts with whatever story his tribe is attempting to sell to the American people. One example of this was Sanders admitting that the IRS-expanding, so-called "Inflation Reduction Act" wasn't actually about reducing inflation. In reality, it was a 'green' spending bill with an inflation-related title slapped onto it, based on what polling and focus groups identified as voters' top concern. In a Senate floor speech, he said, "I want to take a moment to take a few words about the so-called Inflation Reduction Act that we are debating this evening. And I say 'so-called,' by the way, because according to the [Congressional Budget Office] and other economic organizations that have studied this bill, it will in fact have a minimal impact on inflation."
Democrats were not interested in that sort of messaging, and the media mostly buried Bernie's unhelpful quote. But he was right, and after all that spending had been safely approved, President Joe Biden started telling environmental groups that he wishes he'd sold the 'Inflation Reduction Act' as what it really was: A Green New Deal-type bill. And here he was again, just a few days ago, repeating the point while excising the name of the legislation:
Joe Biden just STRAIGHT UP ADMITTED that the Inflation Reduction Act was a TOTAL SCAM that had NOTHING to do with reducing inflation!
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 5, 2024
Does Kamala Harris agree with this?
"We should've named it what it was!" pic.twitter.com/2WL7N1exN2
Bernie was correct and was willing to articulate out loud what his team's true motives were. Bernie is now once again correct about something else quite important:
Welker: "Do you think Kamala is abandoning her progressive ideals?"
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 8, 2024
Bernie: "No... I think she is trying to be pragmatic and do what she thinks is right in order to win the election."
Oops, you weren't supposed to say that part out loud!pic.twitter.com/IKKbmGW5YA
Harris is the hardcore leftist she introduced to the country when she first ran for president, when she had an opportunity to define her vision of governance from the ground up. She has not abandoned those ideals -- like co-sponsoring the Green New Deal, and Bernie's government takeover of healthcare -- Bernie assures us. She's just pretending to be "pragmatic" and say what she must "in order to win the election." All these walk-backs -- nearly none of which she has personally described, and none of which she has explained -- are fraudulent:
Kamala Harris has changed positions on a WHOLE lot of things pic.twitter.com/m4MfzWkI0T
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) September 6, 2024
She has not "changed positions" on any of these things. She is having other people tell us she no longer believes things that she has articulated on national television. Like this:
New: When Harris ran in 2020, she said plastic straws should be banned.
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) September 6, 2024
Today, her campaign told Axios that's no longer her position.
"She doesn't support banning plastic straws," a campaign official told Axios.https://t.co/JShkIVWXwo
Heres’s the 2019 clip: pic.twitter.com/AGL2YkymQN
It's so ridiculous that they just aren't even commenting on basic questions such as, "would President Kamala Harris veto bills sponsored by Senator Kamala Harris?"
New: the Harris campaign wrote in an email that she “does not support an electric vehicle mandate.”
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) September 4, 2024
I asked if that meant she would veto or sign the bill she co-sponsored in 2019 w/ such a mandate for manufacturers.
The campaign declined to commenthttps://t.co/ogOwDdDD99
Notice one of the "changes" is flipping to "support" a border wall, which she has passionately opposed until she decided she had to say something else "in order to win the election." Her true thoughts:
NEW: Harris called Trump’s border wall “a monument standing in opposition to not just everything I value, but to the fundamental values upon which this country was built” in 2019.
— Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE) September 4, 2024
Now, she’s using Trump’s wall in an ad to say she’s tough on the border.https://t.co/TKwfcrCysQ
A total phony. Again, no explanations. Her team is playing prevent defense in a tied game. I mean, just look at this:
why would we talk about our record as the incumbents when there's an election to be won? https://t.co/G2KwSd6M6w
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 8, 2024
They don't feel like they don't need to explain anything, or deal with the last three-plus years of failures because there's an upcoming election they want to win. They're saying it openly. We'll see if it works. I'll leave you with this observation:
The only reason Harris even might get away with staking out a far-left policy profile shared by maybe 7% of the population, and then sending her advisors out to say she's changed her mind, is that Trump is her opponent. If she was running against someone less polarizing, it would… https://t.co/ZWzvInz5CG
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) September 8, 2024
"It would be a crushing handicap," McArdle concludes. It may prove to be one anyway, regardless of her opponent's vulnerabilities.
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