Posting so I stop stewing: Ted Cruz’s pearl-clutching about Biden’s use of the term “the Big Lie” is, as is standard for Cruz, dependent on misrepresenting what was said in order to gin up outrage. Biden did not compare Trump, or even the mob on Wednesday, to Nazis. (1/7)

He compared Trump’s approach to misinformation, & by extension Cruz’s & Hawley’s & until very recently, Graham’s, etc. ad infinitum, to Nazi propaganda techniques.

He was referring to the tactics that Hitler perfected, which were summarized in a US OSS psych profile, as: (2/7)

"His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time..." (3/7)

"...and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it."

That's a perfect description of Trump’s, and huge swaths of the GOP’s, approach. (4/7)

As disingenuous as Cruz’s faux-outrage is, what’s just as repugnant is the claim put forth by GOP leaders that the murderous mob represents the fact that somehow Dems are not respecting the GOP base or taking those people’s concerns/feelings seriously. (5/7)

Putting aside why it’s suddenly so important to take terrorists’ feelings seriously, the people not respecting Trump’s army of hate-fueled fanatics are the GOP (& media outlets amplifying the "steal" narrative): They don’t respect them enough to be honest about reality. (6/7)

Addendum: That OSS report on Hitler, which so perfectly summarizes Trump’s approach to politics/life, is available on the CIA’s site ( https://bit.ly/3s9FLSF ); it was declassified in 1999. That quote is on p. 38. (7/7)