The GOP is crashing and burning. Democrats must use their own words against them.

House Republicans are admitting their failures, while Trump is bragging about killing Roe, and promising to "root out" the "vermin."

Republicans in the House are already turning on new House Speaker Mike Johnson, the great Christian nationalist savior who was going to right the ship with the help of God, as his wife was on her knees for two weeks, apparently praying for divine intervention.

Except, Johnson’s God is no match for mega-MAGA, who are furious at him for handing Democrats another win—keeping the government open with no spending cuts—and they’re admitting that the GOP, and even Trump as president, had accomplished “Nothing!” as MAGA Congressman Chip Roy of Texas railed this week.

Donald Trump, meanwhile, is voicing the plans of Project 2025, declaring he will “root out” his "left-wing" opponents who are “vermin”—using the language of Mussolini and Hitler—and explaining his plan for “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” which includes sweeping raids, giant camps, and mass deportations for immigrants who are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

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And as Republicans saw Democrats romp on Election Day, with the issue of abortion rights dominating and causing the GOP major losses, Trump is running ads in Iowa, taking full credit for the Dobbs decision due to his Supreme Court nominees. As he has said, “I’m the one who got rid of Roe v. Wade.”

All of these statements are campaign ads themselves. Democrats only have to use the GOP's words—over and over again—to show exactly how the party is both in chaos and desperately lurching to the most unspeakable extremes.

Let’s begin with the Republicans in the House. “MAGA Mike” Johnson was supposed to be doing the bidding of mega-MAGA after Kevin McCarthy was removed for making a deal with Democrats to keep the government open. Johnson was among the 90 Republicans who voted against that bill, which had no spending cuts and kept in place the budget that a Democratic-controlled House passed a year before.

But now he did the same thing McCarthy did, turning to Democrats as the nation faced a government shut down—and this time more Republicans voted against it, 93 in total.

The extremists were so enraged they voted against a rule allowing an appropriations bill to come to the floor, stomping their feet and forcing Congress to go home early.

Protesting Speaker Mike Johnson’s move a day earlier to rely on Democrats to push through the stopgap spending legislation, members of the House Freedom Caucus joined with Democrats to prevent legislation funding the Commerce and Justice Departments and science agencies from coming to the floor. The mutiny prompted leaders to adjourn the House abruptly and send lawmakers home for Thanksgiving.

At the same time, the Freedom Caucus’ Chip Roy had a meltdown, admitting the truth that the GOP, since taking control of the House, has accomplished absolutely nothing. Zero. Ziltch. Nada.

He was yelling, and waving his hands wildly:

One thing. I want my Republican colleagues to give me one thing. One. That I can go campaign on and say we did, One! Anybody sitting in the complex, if you want to come down to the floor and come explain to me one material, meaningful, significant thing the Republican majority has done…

I am sick and tired of it. I didn’t come here for second place. I didn’t come here for more excuses. I didn’t come here for the speaker of the House to assume the position, and in 17 days, pass a continuing resolution on the floor of this House through suspension of the rules…

Then he even slammed Trump:

With all due respect to former President Trump, they sure as hell didn’t get border security done when we had the White House and the House and the Senate. Nothing!

Of course, the GOP—and Roy—could have accomplished a few things this year and gone home and told their constituents about their wins. Sure, none of their insane and hateful bills would see the light of day, as the Senate, controlled by Democrats, wouldn’t take them up and the President wouldn’t sign them.

But a budget must be passed, and Democrats, as the minority party, would negotiate and make acceptable and appropriate concessions and compromises, commensurate with the GOP having a very slim majority in the House and not having control of the Senate or White House.

But MAGA—Roy included—with their tiny majority in one chamber, want everything, and are willing to hold the entire government hostage if they don’t get it.

So it was a choice between getting something done, however less ambitious than they might like, or getting nothing done. And they chose nothing. That’s their choice. It’s only a win for the Democrats.

The same is true of the GOP on abortion. GOP Christian nationalist Rep. Bob Good of Virginia actually said this week that the losses in Virginia, where Democrats kept the state Senate and took the House of Delegates, thwarting GOP Governor Glenn Youngkin’s plan for a 15-week abortion plan, were due to the fact that the GOP wasn’t pushing a total abortion ban.

That’s right. His belief is that the GOP had to go more extreme, and push complete abortion bans because, a) “What’s the point of winning elections if you’re not going to fight for life?" and b) there was “low red turnout” because the abortion ban wasn’t more radical—which isn’t true by the math.

They just simply can’t get beyond their own extremism.

And the same is going on with Trump, which, of course, has been the case for years. But now, desperate and fearful of going to prison, he’s saying more deranged and unhinged things than ever. His campaign is now worried that Project 2025 and the attention brought to it are going to hurt him if the media and Democrats continue to seize on it in a big way.

Trump’s top campaign officials issued a statement reported on by The New York Times, trying to distance him from Project 2025, claiming it was outside groups—like the Heritage Foundation—that created it and not Trump. But as the Times points out, much of what’s in Project 2025 has been stated by Trump, such as the plan for mass deportations and the weaponization of the government against his enemies.

But even the campaign officials can’t get their heads out of the Trumpist authoritarian cult. After Trump likened his political opponents to “vermin” that he had to “root out,” the campaign issued a statement calling the comparisons to Hitler “ridiculous” and then vowing the “sad, miserable existence” of those making that claim would be “crushed” when Trump becomes president.

Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung:

Those who try to make that ridiculous assertion are clearly snowflakes grasping for anything because they are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome.and their sad, miserable existence will be crushed when President Trump returns to the White House.

There are millions of Americans who, right now, just before the holidays of 2023 and a year before the 2024 election, don’t know about any of this. They’re not paying attention, as is the usual case at this point in an election, and they don’t know the Republicans have admitted that they’ve accomplished nothing or even that Trump called his opponents “vermin” and is promising mass camps for people he’s going to deport.

It’s up to Democrats—and all of us—to make sure people know about it. And the ads write themselves with all these quotes from Republicans and Trump. Democrats also have to push it through the media, which is not their friend. The Biden campaign is already doing that on the issue of abortion and Trump.

After The New York Times this week ran a ludicrous article claiming Trump seems less vulnerable on abortion than other Republicans—using the Times’ own problematic polling in battleground states—the campaign hit back hard, pointing out that Trump has bragged about overturning Roe over and over again and is even running ads taking credit for overturning Roe right now in Iowa.

"There is no ‘vagueness’ or ‘middle ground of sorts’ about Donald Trump’s position on abortion,” the campaign said in a statement, quoting the Times’ own wording. “Take his word for it: he was ‘proud’ to overturn Roe v. Wade; he’s advocated for'some form of punishment’ for women who seek reproductive care; and he has promised to ‘lead the charge’ in getting a national abortion ban passed.”

The Biden campaign also jabbed at the Times, calling on the press corps to “meet the moment and responsibly inform the electorate of what their lives might look like if the leading GOP candidate for president is allowed back in the White House.”

We need to see more of that every day, through the media and in ads—again, as the GOP is writing those ads themselves. The GOP’s own words are showing that they’re crashing and burning—and they know it—and are going even more extreme, desperate to change the subject and exploit bigotry. We have to make sure everyone hears their words.