Dem
51
GOP
49
When we first typed that headline, we mistyped "What" as "Qhat." Freudian slip? Keep reading, and then decide.
Now that Lara Trump is helping run the show at the Republican National Committee, she's eager to hire like-minded people. And her first high-profile pick? It's Scott Presler, who believes in pretty much every right-wing conspiracy theory under the sun. Pizzagate, QAnon, the notion that the U.S. is about to adopt sharia law, "stop the steal"—you name it, he's on board.
Assuming he accepts the gig, Presler would be focusing on the RNC's ballot-harvesting operations. Note that he and Trump both think that ballot-harvesting is an important growth area for the Republican Party while ALSO believing that ballot-harvesting introduces corruption into the system that allows Democrats to commit fraud. You don't get to work for the RNC these days if you don't have a black belt in handling cognitive dissonance. Of course, the real decider here isn't Lara Trump, it's her father-in-law. And her father-in-law is delighted with the hire.
There are a few other things to know about Presler that, for virtually any other organization, would be disqualifying (or nearly so) for a job candidate. For example, he's worked on a number of political campaigns in the past, and the candidates all ended up losing. Beyond that, while working in the offices of the Republican Party of Virginia back in 2016, he took explicit photos of himself engaged in certain activities that rats are also known to engage in, and then he posted them... on Craigslist. If that's not a candidate at risk of a sexual harassment lawsuit, we don't know who is.
Remember also that the RNC was just purged last week, ostensibly because there were too many employees making too much money. Clearly, the real point was to replace the legit political operatives with fanatical Trump loyalists. And so, that's the kind of person that will make up the RNC for the foreseeable future: folks interested in performative nonsense, who don't really know what they are doing and don't really want to put in the work, but are willing to do whatever Trump demands. This is generally good news for the Democratic Party, as it means that a lot of downballot Republicans are going to be wanting for assistance they badly need. (Z)