Braying Jennies

“One of the issues that Tim Scott has is that he seems to think, ‘Because I made it, everyone can make it.’ Ignoring, again, the fact that he is the exception and not the rule. And until he is the rule, then he can stop talking about systemic racism.” —"The View" co-host Sunny Hostin

“[Scott is] talking about victimhood and personal responsibility as if people aren’t taking responsibility for their own actions. It seems to me that the Republican Party has a real racism problem.” —Sunny Hostin

“[Scott is] like Clarence Thomas — black Republican who believes in pulling yourself by your bootstraps, rather than, to me, understanding the systemic racism that African-Americans face in this country and other minorities. He doesn’t get it. Neither does Clarence. And that’s why they’re Republicans.” —"The View" co-host Joy Behar

“[Scott] has Clarence Thomas syndrome.” —"The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg

Race Bait

“You cannot put a dollar sign on what has been done to Black people. Our sin bill in this nation has been so high, and because of the long years of doing nothing, the interest has grown. … All we’re saying is let’s just chill out and pay your debt — your sin bill of enslavement. Of discrimination. Of intimidation. Of terrorizing Black people. … Those who say, ‘Oh, no, It’s too much. You don’t deserve.’ They are not showing that they have a heart. They are hard-hearted.” —California Reparations Task Force vice chair Amos Brown

Fratricidal Infighting

“This is one of the most out-of-touch campaign launches in modern history.” —MAGA Pac’s Karoline Leavitt on Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign announcement with Elon Musk on Twitter (Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung called it “Amateur hour at the gator farm.” Apparently, Twitter was great before Trump turned his account into his 2020 reelection campaign’s greatest liability. Time for Republican candidates to unite!)

The BIG Lie

“This is beyond the norm, and if you describe this as a negotiation, a both-sides issue, you’re misleading the public. Because Republicans, see, have this button here that they push, and it’s ‘Crash the economy.’ So they can say, ‘Hey, you don’t provide billions for a border wall, we’re going to push this button and crash the economy. You don’t agree to these devastating cuts that are going to cause over 100,000 jobs to be lost, we’re going to push this button here and crash the economy.’ … This is a hostage-taking, well beyond the norm, and this is how you should report it.” —House Democrat Vice Chair Ted Lieu (CA)

For the Record

“The truth is that the Treasury has more than ample revenue coming in each month to avoid defaulting on the debt, and Mr. Biden doesn’t need to distort the meaning of the 14th Amendment to do it. … What the 14th Amendment doesn’t allow is the claim by many progressives that the President can issue new debt without the consent of Congress. Merely because Congress has approved new spending doesn’t mean the President can issue new debt on his own authority to finance it.” —The Wall Street Journal

Upright

“Think of that child born today that got a $94,000 bill. How can you sit there and say, ‘Well, I’m going to spend more of their money’? Let’s stop that. Let’s make this economy stronger. Let’s take care of the debt that we acquired, because we have a responsibility to pay it.” —House Speaker Kevin McCarthy

Political Futures

“Two Republican countermeasures for 2024 require no imagination. The party has to target its spending better. And as much as the GOP would like to see stricter election laws, it must play the game by the rules now in place. That means pouring resources into getting out the early vote and mail-in vote for Republican candidates, rather than conceding those categories to the Democrats. … Yet the most important thing is that Republicans be as smart and enterprising about mobilizing less likely voters as Democrats were last year. … They have to find unlikely voters in unlikely places. The road to the White House runs through factory towns and flyover country.” —Daniel McCarthy

“For many conservatives, Trump’s 2016 victory reinforced the idea that ‘electability’ is a ploy used by the media and squishy Republicans to discredit candidates who are willing to fight for them.” —Ramesh Ponnuru

Observations

“The bussing of migrants from border states to big cities has been an enormous political success for Republicans seeking to focus attention on President Joe Biden’s policies that have failed to stop — indeed, affirmatively encouraged — a massive surge of illegal immigration. It has made the border an issue in places far removed from the border. It has forced Democratic mayors to admit, implicitly and explicitly, that migrants are a burden on public services and taxpayers. It has stoked tensions between Democrats at the state and municipal levels on the one hand and the White House on the other over resources and border policy. That’s not bad for the price of some bus tickets.” —Rich Lowry

“Sanctuary cities begging for a respite from illegal immigration is a little like a nuclear-free zone in the 1980s petitioning to become the site for Minuteman missiles. If no plan survives first contact with the enemy, evidently no sanctuary city can survive any exposure to the real-world consequences of Joe Biden’s border crisis.” —Rich Lowry

And Last…

“I find it offensive as a woman when a man decides that just because they have decided to live their life and identify differently, that now they can enter into a space that belongs to women that they have fought so hard for and just completely obliterate the success and opportunities that they should have.” —former ESPN reporter Charly Arnolt