Greg Sargent, Washington Post: “Here’s a midterm message for you: Judging by the GOP’s continuing slide into extremist and destructive behavior in the face of a surging covid-19, electing more Republicans to positions of responsibility right now would likely mean more economic malaise, sickness, misery and death. This is what Democrats come very close to saying in a new memo about the 2022 elections that their House campaign arm is now distributing. The memo is an important marker: It suggests Democrats are finally leaning into prosecuting the case against Republicans for actively impairing the nation’s response to the covid-19 resurgence.”

“This cannot come soon enough. A confluence of new factors is making it obvious that Democrats need to take on this argument much more forcefully, not just for the good of the party, but for the good of the country. The memo from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee directly ties GOP extremism on covid to the health of the country – and, importantly, to our prospects for economic recovery and a return to normalcy. ‘House Republicans have lied about its impact’ and ‘dangerously rejected medical guidance to wear masks and social distance,’ the memo says, adding that ‘extremist Republicans’ have ‘even encouraged Americans to consume horse and cattle dewormer.’ House Republicans and GOP candidates have spread disinformation about the virus, have staged epic fake-outrage fests about mask mandates, have demagogued about vaccines in ridiculous, hallucinogenic and obscenely wretched ways, and have pushed the rankest of absurdities to undermine confidence in federal health officials. Critically, the memo notes that if our covid response falters, that will also stand in the way of ‘getting Americans back to work.’ And it’s true that the backsliding on covid is showing serious signs of harming the economic recovery.”