Mehdi Hasan Dunks on Biden’s ‘Cutesy’ Use of ‘Ultra MAGA’: Trump Loves It and the Republican Party ‘Started Selling Merch’
MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan dunked on President Joe Biden over his recent use of the phrase “Ultra MAGA” to criticize former President Donald Trump and his most ardent supporters, pointing out how Trump had embraced the term and the Republican Party was now “selling merch.”
Biden started using the phrase earlier this month to criticize Republican positions on issues like abortion. Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki had originally attributed the term to Biden himself, saying the president wanted to give “a little extra pop” in his criticisms.
However, reporting by The Washington Post revealed that “Ultra MAGA” was actually hatched during a six-month research project run by Democratic consultants deploying focus groups and pollsters to test various messages ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
Biden’s use of “Ultra MAGA” was “bizarre,” said Hasan during Sunday’s episode of The Mehdi Hasan Show. “When it comes to calling out Republicans, you’ve got these kind of, I don’t know, cutesy names being used by Democrats.”
The term had come from “Democratic polling groups,” Hasan acknowledged, who had spent “months” working on it, but “immediately the Republican Party just borrowed and started selling merch.”
Hasan is correct; a T-shirt that says “ULTRA MAGA AND PROUD!” is currently available for sale on the GOP’s official website for $30.00.
Screenshot via GOP.com.
“Donald Trump likes the idea of being Ultra MAGA,” Hasan continued, “so I’m not even sure if that kind of phraseology works.”
“I don’t understand why you just can’t call them what they are,” he concluded. “Which is authoritarian. And some would argue, including myself, fascist in many ways. Why hide behind all these words?”
Watch the video above, via MSNBC.
