Republicans Are Spreading a Bogus "Rainbow Fentanyl" Panic Ahead of the MidtermsThe GOP is ramping

[applegrove]

Republicans Are Spreading a Bogus “Rainbow Fentanyl” Panic Ahead of the Midterms The GOP is ramping up its rhetoric about Biden, the border, kids, and overdoses.

https://newrepublic.com/article/167725/republicans-midterms-fentanyl-border

"SNIP.....

“The greatest source of lawlessness in America isn’t Republicans,” Senator Marco Rubio wrote in a Fox News editorial published on Monday, “it’s the southern border, where the president’s failed policies are allowing drug dealers to feed the worst overdose crisis in our country’s history.” Rubio was not merely trying to draw fire away from Republicans after Biden’s speech condemning the party’s fascist turn. The Florida senator was blaming Biden’s alleged inaction for the deaths of children and young people. Citing the Drug Enforcement Administration, Rubio claimed kids were being targeted by cartels with multicolored pills. “The most obvious instance of this trend is the pills of ‘rainbow fentanyl.’”

Kids and those who care for them are in peril from mere proximity to fentanyl pills, claimed House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in a Fox News appearance on Sunday, referencing an incident in which a 13-year-old was arrested for allegedly possessing fentanyl pills at school, discovered by a school employee who McCarthy said “OD’d, not because he took the pills, simply because it touched him.” But that’s not possible with such minimal exposure, as experts have repeatedly pointed out. Nevertheless, McCarthy went on. “Every single city in America is now a border city based upon the Democratic policies of bringing millions of people across this border from 160 different countries,” he warned. “But it’s not just people. It’s terrorists. And now it’s drugs.”

These wild stories are a variation on an already widespread right-wing preoccupation. As The Washington Post observed in April, “The idea that Biden is allowing drugs to cross the border, and that he is to blame for overdose deaths, is firmly in the GOP mainstream.” Fentanyl and the border are nearly synonymous in Republican rhetoric. But as midterm politicking kicked into full swing with the end of summer, Republicans have settled on fearmongering about drugs and the border as one of their central campaign messages.

......SNIP"

Applegrove: Democrats and Biden need to itemize a list of attempts they made to get the GOP involved in immigration reform in the last 20 months. No doubt the GOP kept it unfixed so they could use it as a Wedge.

[blm]

1. Fentanyl deaths went up under Trump

but he wasn’t blamed for it.

[Jade Fox]

2. It's funny that the first thing he mentions is Republican lawlessness, in case we forgot....

It reminds me of Hannity's list of all the charges against Trump.

[cilla4progress]

3. Fascinating.. just spent the weekend with right wingers and

they were EXACTLY harping on this!!

I'm going to do my research so I'm sure to have the facts.

[Nevilledog]

23. They're running bots with the messaging

Link to tweet

[cilla4progress]

24. Check this dumbass out!

Link to tweet

?t=DUZrS5IzsxjBFaIN2S6Qug&s=19

[Nevilledog]

25. Make heroin great again!

[Thomas Hurt]

4. Amazing isn't how the Pig came into office with this hardline racist policy regarding...

immigration and after four years he had accomplished nothing positive or even close to effective in stopping immigrants...but it is all Biden's fault.

[lambchopp59]

14. Butt...butt...butt he built duh wall!!!

Den dat dam Biden bought em all ladders, see?
Sometimes, Tom, I'm tempted to put wack conspiracy shit like this on a RW site just to see if it spreads.
Maxwell Smart used the gag line "Would you believe" hilariously back when. Nowadays these dupes would not only believe it, they'd canonize it!

[onecaliberal]

5. Leading cause of death for children is gun violence.

[Celerity]

18. yes

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmc2201761

[keithbvadu2]

6. Republican verifies that republicans are the main abusers of fentanyl.

Republican verifies that republicans are the main abusers of fentanyl.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216683046

https://www.newsweek.com/maga-voter-deaths-fentanyl-via-border-does-look-intentional-jd-vance-1702428

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/11/jd-vances-claim-that-biden-is-targeting-maga-voters-with-fentanyl/

J.D. Vance’s claim that Biden is targeting ‘MAGA voters’ with fentanyl

“If you wanted to kill a bunch of MAGA voters in the middle of the heartland, how better than to target them and their kids with this deadly fentanyl? … It does look intentional. It’s like Joe Biden wants to punish the people who didn’t vote for him and opening up the floodgates to the border is one way to do it.”

[SWBTATTReg]

15. This is the drug of choice in rural areas. We lived in a pretty rural area, and we were a little

nervous of some of the neighbors who dealt in these drugs.

The highway patrol/police asked us if they could use our properties to monitor one such neighbor across the road from us (of course we said yes) but you can imagine in some rural neighborhoods, the fear that 'ratting out' someone could have terrible consequences.

That's why I do espouse gun ownership (responsible gun ownership), as some things could happen (negatively) when a crazy neighbor or neighbors would attack (and they have, some of our next-door neighbors) and it would take the authorities quite some time to arrive. At least one thing going for us is that my Dad and Mom (who lived there 100% of the time) were on good terms w/ the state park authorities who had said that if anything happened, anything at all, to contact them.

Still, to worry, especially when you hear so much about the hospitality of the Country (and 99% were good people).

[OAITW r.2.0]

7. Fentanyl is the drug of choice for the young Trump supporters.

Mixes well with ignorance.

[3Hotdogs]

8. Some Dillwad Senate candidate was on Sirius, Potus channel this morning.

Ranting about the fentanyl coming to his state from Mexico. "Dems need to close the borders."

Every time the moderator challenged him about why didn't the Repukes solve the immigration problem when they were in charge, he went back to fentanyl.

[CharleyDog]

9. another tactic that would clarify "border" panic they are spreading is MORE visuals

of actual people, women, children, families that are fleeing violence and seeking asylum.

It was great to have all that news coverage of the Texas/Florida refugees showing them as normal people,
tired, hungry, carrying babies, and just wanting to be safe.

That image does not jive with "drug dealers and rapists" who most likely don't cross the border, they arrive in an airplane or
a fancy boat.

[SlimJimmy]

10. Say what you want, but this is an epedemic and needs to be addressed.

Too many young people are dying as a result of these types of synthetic opioids. This is neither a Democratic or Republican problem, it is a national problem.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/16/health/overdose-deaths-record-high-fentanyl/index.html

Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids have had a rapid and dramatic rise; overdose deaths involving these drugs have nearly doubled over the past two years, from about 35,000 deaths in the 12-month period ending October 2019 to more than 69,000 in October 2021.

[applegrove]

11. And the GOP would not address it. Biden tried and tried.

[SlimJimmy]

12. Look at the stats.

The President and his team have not been successful. This is a full blown epidemic, what is going to be done?

[Mad_Machine76]

13. Joni Ernst

recently said that Biden border patrol seized enough Fentanyl to destroy several cities. So it sounds like he’s doing pretty well.

[SlimJimmy]

19. 69000 deaths is way too many.

From 19000 to 69000 deaths in two years is not acceptable. This admin must do even more.

[ismnotwasm]

16. Fentanyl comes from China

I’m certain some of it is trafficked from south of the border of course. But, China.

[SlimJimmy]

20. Yes, the main ingredients come from China.

But it is processed here in various forms and trafficked almost exclusively from the southern border.

[themaguffin]

17. The new caravan

[NullTuples]

21. Rainbow Fentanyl - it even has an LGBTQ-are-evil undertone to it.

[applegrove]

22. That too.