As impeachment proceedings begin today in Congress, the MAGA movement is already over it.
The pro-Trump, far-right figures in social media and “news” organizations have already moved on to air grievances against Joe Biden’s agenda, his $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, China, GameStop, and Marjorie Taylor Greene and cancel culture, almost as if impeachment doesn’t exist.
“The biggest thing in MAGA media right now isn’t Trump, it’s a self-created war against the amorphous triplet boogeyman named ‘Cancel Culture,’ ‘Big Tech,’ and ‘The Media,’” said Amanda Carpenter, a former spokesperson for Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign and currently a political columnist for The Bulwark, an anti-Trump conservative website. “They are the stand-in until they find the right Democrat to isolate and villainize.”
The pro-Trump movement isn’t wasting time on what they perceive as a “silly partisan exercise.” Breitbart’s tabloid-ish feature on Monday was about Rand Paul’s call for Chuck Schumer’s impeachment.
Rank and file MAGAs are pivoting away from what they see as a sideshow, and voter fraud claims have turned to Biden’s hypocrisies as the grievances-in-chief.
Militia and conspiracy theorists are beginning to focus on opposition to Biden. The Proud Boys are busy protecting their brothers being charged in the insurrection of January 6, and the Boogaloo Bois are over on the private channel Telegram preaching what white supremacists do now: “Fight in every way. Civil disobedience is key…Don’t wear a mask and mock those that do as slaves. Give nonwhites a death glare and be prepared to drop them if they attack you.”
Radio host Joe Walsh, a former Tea Party congressman and Trump critic, suggests that this relatively quiet period is simply a lull caused by Trump’s recent low profile, and that if Trump were to engage in full after the impeachment trial ended, MAGA would immediately revert back to its normal state of reverence.
“He’s going to be acquitted,” he told POLITICO. “And so he’ll be in a position again to thump his chest a few weeks down the road: ‘They went after me again and it failed.’ And I know politically I think he’s been advised to keep his mouth shut. But I have no doubt if or when he comes back, his movement is still there.”
Complete story at Politico.