A word about David Hogg, Reince Priebus and how to combat Republican smears. But first, here’s a video. It’s short. Watch it. 

As you may know, Priebus is the former chairman of the Republican National Committee. ABC News’ Jonathan Karl’s question to him is about the apparent conflict of interest Hogg has. Hogg is the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, but he’s also involved in a progressive outfit that’s pledged to raise $20 million to primary out of office incumbent Democrats that it sees as too comfortable to stay.

The question is a serious one. Priebus could have landed a punch Hogg couldn’t recover from. Instead, Priebus just couldn’t help himself. He decided to smear the Democrats by way of smearing Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose deportation case has dominated headlines for weeks.

“The Democrats are a complete mess,” Priebus said. “They’ve got no message. They’ve got no movement. They’ve got no leader. It doesn’t get any worse than that. You’re defending Harvard. You’re traveling to El Salvador for MS-13 gang members” (meaning Kilmar Abrego Garcia).

Another Democrat – another older Democrat – would have done a couple things. One, ignore the lie about Abrego Garcia being a gang member. Two, accept the lie as valid in order to demonstrate some kind of bona fides. This is what US Senator Chris Van Hollen did when he said: “I am not defending the man. I’m defending the rights of this man to due process. And the Trump administration has admitted in court that he was wrongfully detained and wrongfully deported.”

Hogg does neither. He takes the smear head on. 

“This was not an MS-13 gang member and you damn well know that,” Hogg said. “The administration admitted that it was wrong. In America, we have due process and we are a land of law and order. This administration keeps showing time and time again that they do not care what the Supreme Court says, they do not care about the rule of law and you cannot defend sending people to another country.”

There is risk in this. After all, this is America. It’s a plain reality that a lot of white people are going to look at a brown Spanish-speaking immigrant of Central American extraction as a gang member simply because they are terrible people. To them, men like Kilmar Abrego Garcia are already guilty of something on account of who they are. 

But I think the tradeoff is worth it. By centering the smear, Hogg put ownership of it back on Reince Priebus’ shoulders, thus calling into question the character of a man who would stoop so low. “Oh, come on” was Priebus’ feeble retort to Hogg’s “and you damn well know that.”

The other benefit is robbing the Republicans of validation and the appearance of a consensus. It robs them of more chances to keep pushing and pushing with greater lies and smears and bad faith, until it’s impossible for the Democrats to take their own side in the fight.   

Another thing that an older Democrat would have done that Hogg does not do is dismiss the lie as a distraction. That word doesn’t get enough scrutiny. What it means is this: “I’m not going to bother debating racism with racists. Instead, I’m going to try appealing to their wallets.” 

This thinking was evident in comments made to The Hill recently by an unnamed Democratic operative. “People can’t afford eggs, and … you’re flying to sit with someone who’s accused of being in a gang,” they said.

“Republicans have given us such an opportunity with DOGE and … with Trump tanking the economy. Obviously, you can walk and chew gum at the same time, but I don’t think we can take our eyes off the prize in terms of talking about real world impacts and how people are being hurt in their everyday lives by some of these policies. 

“Democrats want to think that everyone has the same morals and values that we do, and we want to think that everyone’s outraged by the same things that we are and we want to be the ones to help people and stand up for the moral injustices. That doesn’t necessarily win elections though, and last cycle was proof positive of that. We need to step back and wait for someone to be deported who has a really compelling story that’s devastating that Average Joe’s upset about.”

Translation: when the Trump regime deports a white person, then we can talk. As long the subject is a brown Spanish-speaking immigrant of Central American extraction, all this is wasted effort and a distraction.

I posted this quote from an unnamed Democratic operative to Bluesky last week and said it was a textbook example of a Democrat conceding to the claims of white power. A shrewd reader demurred. “That’s not conceding to white power,” she said. “It is agreeing with white power.”

It’s also misreading the moment. More polls are showing majorities disapproving of the president’s handling of immigration (and virtually every other major issue). I don’t think that’s because voters have suddenly rediscovered their love for the rule of law. (They elected Donald Trump, after all.) What’s happening is the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia is generating a kind of “media ambience” that people can feel without actually understanding the details of his case. A similar ambience about prices (ie, eggs) informed the last election.

There’s already “a really compelling story that’s devastating that Average Joe’s upset about.” And Democrats like Hogg are refusing to accept Republican bad faith that might dilute that story’s impact.

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