GOP Plans 'Socialism Telethon' at First Midterm Convention — SkimNews
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- GOP organizers are staging a "socialism telethon" at the Sept. 9-10 midterm convention at Dallas's American Airlines Center, leaning on months of compiled footage of progressive figures including Hasan Piker and Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico.
- Trump has labeled Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed — who backs Medicare for All and criticizes Israel — a "communist" and "man of hate," while El-Sayed, an epidemiologist, says he's a capitalist who opposes Israel's actions in Gaza, not "sisters and brothers of the Jewish faith."
- Convention programming pairs "everyday Americans" touting Republican achievements on tax cuts, prescription drug costs, and border security with spotlight segments on Trump's tipped-income tax exemption, Vance's anti-fraud task force, and RFK Jr.'s MAHA movement.
- Vance speaks the evening of Sept. 9 and Trump on Sept. 10, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent taking major speaking roles; unlike 2024, the Dallas floor will be filled mostly by MAGA activists rather than donors and delegates.
- The convention coincides with stark headwinds — a late-July CNN poll showed 73% think Trump isn't paying enough attention to key domestic issues and 65% say his policies are worsening economic conditions.
- Democrats opted against holding their own midterm convention, with DNC spokesperson Kendall Witmer calling the GOP event a "multimillion-dollar celebration" of Trump's ego and a bid to tie vulnerable Republicans to a "failed agenda."
- Organizers will commemorate the first anniversary of Charlie Kirk's assassination and defend the increasingly unpopular Iran war as steps to protect Americans, with operatives Justin Caporale and Tony Sayegh running logistics after their roles in the 2020 and 2024 conventions.
Why it matters: The convention is a deliberate GOP gambit to escape a referendum on a president whose approval sits in the 30s and whose own CNN polling shows 73% of voters think he's neglecting domestic priorities — betting that a sustained anti-socialism video assault on figures like El-Sayed and Piker can recast the midterms as a culture war rather than an affordability verdict.
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