118
Former Republican staffer admits GOP would intentionally spread lies
(www.newsweek.com)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023
118 points (100.0% liked)
Politics
10187 readers
224 users here now
In-depth political discussion from around the world; if it's a political happening, you can post it here.
Guidelines for submissions:
- Where possible, post the original source of information.
- If there is a paywall, you can use alternative sources or provide an archive.today, 12ft.io, etc. link in the body.
- Do not editorialize titles. Preserve the original title when possible; edits for clarity are fine.
- Do not post ragebait or shock stories. These will be removed.
- Do not post tabloid or blogspam stories. These will be removed.
- Social media should be a source of last resort.
These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
🤖 I'm a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Click here to see the summary
Justin Higgins was formerly a policy adviser for House Republican Tim Huelskamp, a Kansas legislator who at the time was one of the outspoken members of the Tea Party movement that gained national notoriety between 2009 and 2015.After Huelskamp lost his primary and congressional seat in 2016, Higgins became a senior research analyst for the Republican National Committee (RNC) and created content associated with Donald Trump's presidential bid that year.
Higgins told progressive podcaster Aaron Rupar on Thursday that the conservative movement is predicated on selling lies to the American public for their own potential political gain.
Higgins reiterated similar statements in a phone conversation with Newsweek, recalling how other RNC staffers would openly admit to lying on social media websites like Reddit—and the now defunct subreddit dedicated to Trump—so outlets like Fox News or Breitbart would pick them and in turn cause the falsities or embellished reports to gain traction.
Higgins said the movement became so strong so fast that former House Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan couldn't push back on ideas "on steroids."
"These people went from the fringe to the mainstream," he added, saying a revamped conservative media landscape that now includes Newsmax, The Daily Wire and others "have given House Freedom Caucus candidates a new life."