This is from my pre-blogging days, but I was becoming more politically conscious at the time, which was 2009. Steve Benen provides it:
In early 2009, congressional Republicans were eager to condemn the Democratic Recovery Act, which rescued the U.S. economy from the Great Recession. To that end, some on the right came up with a weird claim: the stimulus package included $1 billion to build a magnetic-levitation train from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
There was no such provision, but Republicans became so invested in the falsehood that they started to believe it. A California-based journalist sat down with then-Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) in March 2009, and she pointed to the non-existent element of the Democratic plan as proof of its flaws. When the journalist reminded the congresswoman of reality, Bono Mack directed her staff to retrieve the bill. “It’s right there,” the GOP lawmaker said at the time. “Show him.”
A few minutes later, an aide emerged with a copy of the bill and quietly conceded, “It’s not in the bill.”
The congresswoman wasn’t intentionally trying to deceive anyone; she’d simply made the assumption that her party’s talking points were accurate and reliable. They were not.
Yes, there really is schadenfreude pie. So rich it rots your teeth out, roots first.
What a delicious story. Benen connects it to a similar incident that occurred over the weekend between the President and Chris Wallace of Fox News regarding Trump’s claims that Biden will defund the police if elected, which I saw. While I generally think we’d all be better off if Fox News sank into the swamp that it’s “opinion” aka propaganda shows have created, I think I’d jump into that fetid swamp to rescue Wallace. He’s had several incidents of not accepting bullshit from anyone, including the President. And he interviews fairly darn well on The Late Show.
