'MAGA murder regime': Dem strategist breaks down Leavitt defense of ICE horror

A Democratic Party strategist has suggested the MAGA machine has gone into overdrive thanks to a Karoline Leavitt statement.

The White House Press Secretary defended Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials' actions in Minneapolis and did so, according to Anat Shenker-Osorio, to save face ahead of the midterms. Speaking to Greg Sargent of The New Republic, Shenker-Osorio suggested the hardline from Donald Trump's administration is more to protect their core MAGA voters than anything else.

She said, "Obviously, what’s going on here—and it’s pretty plain for almost all of America to see, other than the calcified core of the MAGA base who will never, ever be moved—is that this is a regime of the bullies, by the bribes, for the billionaires.

"They are hell-bent on destroying us. As I like to call them, they’re a MAGA murder regime, and they’ve proved it in every conceivable way. Here it is to the naked eye, and it’s horrifying.

"What Leavitt is doing is what MAGA has always done and what all authoritarians require, which is to foment a counter-revolution against a revolution that never was. It is to say to people, 'We are going to protect you from those people.'

"And those people need to be dehumanized and portrayed as not merely “less than,” but an actual threat to us—in order to hide the fact that, actually, the minority in America that’s harming you is the billionaires.

"Unless and until they can keep ginning up—keeping their base engaged and enraged around this idea that they are the strongmen who are getting rid of 'bad people' and making you safe and all the rest of it—then you will ignore the fact that, basically, they’re screwing almost all of us over in every possible way."

Though many can see the damage ICE has done in areas like Minneapolis, the Trump admin will do anything it can to maintain its base, she said.

She added, "So, first and foremost, what they need to do is reassure their base because, in the dark corners of the internet where their base resides, they’re seeing people—not just in Minnesota, but outside of it—celebrate this as a temporary reprieve. You know, none of us are silly enough to think this means ICE is done doing damage in lots of places, but this is a win.

"And then the second thing is that there’s not enough of their base in order to maintain this. And so they need to also continue to create plausible deniability for what they are doing and why they are doing it.

"And that argument, as you know, has always been that they are in Minnesota and beyond it in order to protect us and get rid of the 'bad people.' Because sure enough, Americans are catching on that they are the bad people."