Opinion: All Those Republicans Were at the DNC for a Reason

Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Amazon and Stitcher .

Though it was ostensibly a Democratic event, a number of Republicans graced the stage of the Democratic National Convention this week in Chicago, leaving some onlookers scratching their heads.

Five Republicans spoke at the convention: former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan ; Mesa, Arizona mayor John Giles ; former Rep. Adam Kinzinger ; former Trump White House national security official Olivia Troye ; and Trump’s former press secretary, Stephanie Grisham .

“In all honesty, I thought that it was really effective,” said The New Abnormal co-host Danielle Moodie , who has been in Chicago for the convention.

Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Amazon and Stitcher .

“I felt like it was almost a permission slip that these Republicans were trying to provide to folks in their party, that they talk to their family members, their friends, who were just like, ‘Oh, I can’t bring myself because that means that somehow I am betraying, you know, my Republican stances.’ I think that this kind of parade, one Republican after the other, gave folks honestly the permission to say they have choices, they have opportunity, they have the possibility of doing and seeing more that Donald Trump is not the light at the end of the tunnel, he’s more so the oncoming f–––ing train that we need to be avoiding.”

Plus! Steve Benen , a producer for The Rachel Maddow Show and author of the new book, The Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past , joins the show to explain the four “pernicious pillars” that campaigns use to rewrite recent history; indifference to reality, indifference to shame, a partner in crime, and lastly, repetition.

“It is important to understand the context because in order to better understand how and why Republicans go about doing this, we have to understand the mechanics,” Benen says.

Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Amazon and Stitcher .

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