Well, last night, Trump-backed GOP House candidate John Gibbs defeated incumbent Peter Meijer in their district primary. Congratulations to all the people who voted for Gibbs, of course. But some congratulations are also due to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, who poured more than $400,000 of donors’ money into boosting Gibbs, who apparently isn’t too big a threat to democracy to use to get rid of a more mainstream conservative Republican.
Democrats are meddling in yet another GOP primary, with a new $425k DCCC ad buy boosting the far-right challenger to Rep. Peter Meijer, one of the 10 House Rs who voted to impeach Trump https://t.co/vDz0DYOBbw
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) July 26, 2022
Gibbs’ 2020 election result denialism is just one of many issues that could cause a lot of problems for Republicans down the line. Meijer’s pro-impeachment vote may have been baggage, depending on where you stand on impeachment, but his record has been pretty solidly in line with mainstream Republicanism and conservatism.
Very disappointing. I have deep admiration for @RepMeijer, who will leave office with dignity. Dems chose to pour big $ into this race on behalf of Gibbs — weaponizing Meijer’s ‘country over party’ (by their standards) vote against him. And enough R voters went along. https://t.co/HxFXYwp7hI
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) August 3, 2022
As Guy Benson is careful to point out, the blame for Meijer’s defeat can’t be exclusively placed at the DCCC’s feet. Plenty of voters were happy to cast their votes for Gibbs regardless of how the DCCC tried to influence them. But there’s no doubt whatsoever that the DCCC is trying to defeat more mainstream candidates in the hopes of being able to villify the more far-Right candidates when the time comes.
Anyway, if you’ll recall, Resistance GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger recently harshly criticized the DCCC for their meddling in GOP primary races, and despite our many disagreements with Kinzinger, he was right on the money with this stuff:
.@AdamKinzinger on Dem grps backing GOP election deniers in hopes of easier general election races:
"I think it's disgusting.. don't come to me after having spent money supporting an election denier in a primary, and then come to me and say 'where are all the good Republicans?'" pic.twitter.com/SseetxLrO8
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) July 26, 2022
This morning, in the wake of Gibbs’ victory over Meijer, he’s once again blasting the Democrats for playing with fire:
“Democrats own that."
Rep. Adam Kinzinger on the GOP primary defeat of Rep. Peter Meijer, a Republican who voted to impeach President Trump.
“The DCCC needs to be ashamed of themselves," he says. pic.twitter.com/7Pul80RvJM
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) August 3, 2022
Once again, Kinzinger is right.
I can’t believe I’m saying this but he’s absolutely right, Democrats shouldn’t be begging for “muh democracy defenders” when they’re propping up more conservative republicans.
Don’t compromise, don’t fold, because they don’t care https://t.co/wcl3rjPfZm
— Jason Miyares Fan 🇺🇸 (@Bluephish13H) August 3, 2022
Here’s the thing, though: it’s hard to sympathize too much with Kinzinger here, because the people he’s calling out now are the same people he’s worked so hard to ingratiate himself with. He knew from the start what Democrats were capable of. He saw how hard they — and their media minions — worked to make Donald Trump the GOP presidential candidate in 2015 and 2016. And still, he hitched his wagon to them because they fawned over him and expanded his platform.
Hope you're enjoying your new democrat buddies, @AdamKinzinger https://t.co/69fd7Noyk7
— Anthony Abides (@AnthonyAbides) August 3, 2022
The frog cried out, “why did you sting me?!”
The scorpion replied, “because it’s my nature.” https://t.co/EZoN2EIAPv
— Emily Zanotti (@emzanotti) August 3, 2022
You lie down with dogs, don’t be surprised when you wake up with fleas.
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