The part of your subtitle "and a case study in how lies become part of our political debate" has me chiming in with my own pair of examples, which are not related to El-Sayed.
I picked up on that they are both from the Republicans and the administration, and they use the same M.O.
This is the M.O.:
“Oh, you thought we were talking about that. No, we were talking about this other thing.”
One case is the blocking of energy grants to states that didn’t vote for Trump.
If you read the factcheck, you see that in court it turned out to be correct that the administration blocked energy grants for states based solely on whether the state voted for Trump in 2024.
This contradicted what the Energy Secretary had seemed to say.
Well, the Energy Secretary has since clarified that when he said whether the state voted for Trump played no role in the decision, he was talking about the first half of the total decision process: the assessment of whether it should be funded. Whereas the actual non-funding of projects only in states that voted against Trump was in a later half of the total decision process!
This methodology is EXACTLY what I caught 10 months ago, in statements by J.D. Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson that the Democratic shutdown was because the Democrats wanted to provide healthcare to illegal aliens.
So, ten months ago, the government shutdown, which was over two items: the non-extension of the ACA expanded subsidies--which did lapse 1/1/26, and the OBBB cuts mainly to Medicaid and expanded Medicaid and a few others--timed to be after the coming midterms.
The total amount of money involved in the cuts is $1.5 trillion over ten years.
that about 1%-2% of the money involved was for undocumented immigrants (over whether the federal reimbursement rate for emergency ER care required by the Reagan-era EMTALA law for undocumented immigrants was to be 90% vs 50%), and about 7% was for temporary protected status people. The other 91% was for U.S. citizens and maybe a bit went to green card holders.
So, it sounds like, certainly to most in the MAGA base, that the talking point assertion is that the whole $1.5 trillion is for undocumented immigrants. But, in fact, only 1%-2% is for true undocumented immigrants, and even if you count "legally present" people like temporary protected status people, you only get 9%.
THE TRICKY STATEMENTS FROM JOHNSON AND VANCE:
So, I caught these statements at the time, and the MO is the same:
"it is a fact, that no one can dispute, that they [the Democrats] shut the government down over restoring free healthcare to illegal aliens as part of their $1.5 trillion wild partisan wish list."
(See. He said "as part of" there. So he can claim he was only talking about the 1%-2%!)
in a “press conference” where a “reporter” asked the first question about “two key Democrat lies".
I have transcribed what J.D. Vance said, in the next two paragraphs:
"Look the text is very clear and I’ve I even saw, I think it was George Stephanopoulos in an interview with Mike Johnson did a fact check That was totally rooted in Baseless claims. It was basically Democrat propaganda. if you look at the legislative texts, that they gave us, they tried to turn on two separate provisions, that would give Health care benefits to illegal aliens
number 1. if you’re an American citizens, you’ve been to a hospital. in the last few years, you probably noticed that, wait times are, especially large and very often somebody who’s there in the emergency room waiting is an illegal alien very often a person who can’t even speak English. Why do those people? get health care benefits at hospitals paid for by at citizens. The answer is a decision made by the bid Administration that the Trump Administration working with Congressional Republicans. undid. We turned off that money. spigot to healthcare funding for illegal aliens. the Democrats in their legislative text want to turn it back on. That’s 1 Thing.
The second thing, Matt is, we all know that there are various ways in which the the, the, the Biden Administration waived the way illegal immigration status. They gave Parolees, they gave us Asylum claims to people who weren’t really claiming Asylum And when they waived the magic wand of amnesty giving millions of people legal status, even though they were in the country illegally, they also gave those people access to health care benefits. So what the Democrats are engaging in is a slide of hand, they’re saying, no, no, no, no. Those weren’t illegal aliens, who are getting health care benefits? even though? everybody? Excuse me Knows they were in the country illegally. it’s a lie told by the Democrats that they’re not trying to give health care benefits to illegal aliens. It’s a lie that is obviously untrue. If you just look at the text that they gave us and all you have to do is understand that this is about who benefits, We think the American people’s government ought to benefit, American citizens. The Democrats are willing to shut it down to benefit illegal, aliens. the contrast couldn’t be more clear."
It's the same trick. Vance explicitly refers to the 1%-2% for ER care to genuinely undocumented people, and also to the temporary protected status people (another perhaps 7%). Leaving out 91%!
--
(My impression on this is that what Johnson and Vance did is actually not illegal because they were not under oath, and my understanding is that lying not under oath by politicians is completely allowed in our system. So, Mike Johnson and Vance took the extra, but legally unnecessary, precaution of making a statement that, even under oath, might be legally not perjury.)
However, I don't think the people in the base, if they could somehow be given the truth, would find that acceptable. I'm sure they thought the whole thing was about Democrats trying to give healthcare to undocumented immigrants.
Suppose, even, such a POTUS supporter even went to the POTUS post on the matter of 10 months ago:
they would see that the administration has come up with only $192.813 billion (over 10 years). This number is falsely high, due to inclusion of certain numbers that don't involve undocumented immigrants or TPS people, but, POTUS himself refers to the true total as $1.5 trillion =$1,500 billion here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLgkXhvbELE&t=38s . Even that inflated number works out to just 13%. What about the other 87% ? )
--
The Republicans seem to have mostly stopped making the assertion by the time of the actual lapsing of the expanded subsidies (1/1/26), perhaps sensing that the falseness of the assertion would be too easily detected.
I still caught it more recently than that on Twitter, say here:
In cases like this, you would hope that even posting the $192.813 blllion vs $1,500 billion comparison on twitter would cause a realization of deception. But, I don't think it would, unfortunately.
--
Also, have a few other notes on the deceptions, and a second example by POTUS, here:
And the Haitians were eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs and, oh, are they getting deported? In the face of such stupidity, I also have to wonder if we are doomed.
I am both astounded and not surprised by the lengths of depraved false witness being brought forth by the far right and their Christian nationalist cohorts.
Lo these many years of MAGA political power I have learned the secret of Ukrainians' stalwart attitude toward Putin and his support. Accept that they lie. It's a simple as that. No need to analyze them or try to figure out whether what they say is legitimate or not. No need to do anything other than resist them.
Reality is created through word choice. “Slaughterhouse, puppies, kittens,” pulls the heart strings. Maybe we need to change “illegals, immigrants, invaders, detention camps” into our fellow human beings, little children, legal residents, concentration camps and prisons.” Voters/animal lovers are outraged about animals and could less about their own species—-the human lives detained in questionably unhealthy conditions, and the number of innocent human lives is growing in these filthy inhumane conditions daily.
I know this isn’t the point about the article here, but it is my first reaction that deepens with each sentence I read.
Abdul talked about the vastly improved dog save rate in Detroit years ago on his podcast. Republican lies about public servants like Anthony Fauci and Abdul El Sayed know no bounds. Despicable.
This is pretty crazy, especially when you consider Kristi Noem was given a Cabinet post by Trump, approved by a Republican Senate, and no one in the GOP seemed to have a problem with it. Since this is a Senate race, maybe if it comes up on a debate stage, which hopefully it will so some truth can be brought to bear, El-Sayed should ask Rogers if he would have voted to confirm Kristi Noem.
Funny you bring up Noem. She is exactly the person that would read the Daily Mail headline (ignore the article/stats) and advance it on social media. All with a straight look on her face.
And then she'd attend church services in the morning.
So, MAGA has deployed an armed, masked secret police to occupy our cities, puts brown people in concentration camps and assaults and kills the America’s population. They have called members of our population vermin, Satanic and demonic. They have unleashed an American Nazi movement.
These are the people telling us that a Democratic candidate for elected office is a puppy-killer.
Once a thing gets stuck in MAGA's head, it's very difficult to dislodge it.
If you're feeling strong, have a look at a YouTube site called "Parkergetajob" - where a reasonably educated 24 year old "debates" MAGA calllers, who call in anxious to disabuse him of his "communist" views.
I have heard just about every insane piece of MAGA "belief" trotted out as gospel on there. From "Obama was born in Kenya" through "Trump wasn't convicted of a felony" to "The selling country pays the tariffs" - and on and on and on.
Once that idea get stuck in the peanut brain, it's there for life.
And THAT is what's so disgusting about the El-Sayed story. In ten years time, MAGA will STILL be saying "Oh, yeah - THAT guy! The one who killed all those poor little puppies."
I wouldn't mind so much if I thought they genuinely believed it at least that would have the virtue of honest belief. But they don't - they know damn well the story is a crock - which is why the ad halfway down the page how the REVERSE was actually the story. "Can't sue me! I told what happened on line 50! Not MY fault if people don't bother to read!"
I'd like to ask them why they didn't headline the story "El-Sayed Makes Massive Improvement to Dog Pound"?
These lies spread because the people ingesting them want to believe them. El-Sayed represents an “other” to them, and they want to believe that “others” are inherently bad, so they’ll flock to anything (especially pernicious lies) that prove that the “others” are inherently bad.
Never mind the fact that El-Sayed is a Michigander born and raised who has made a concerted effort to give back to his state, and in this situation he showed all of the practices of good leadership (positively transformed a dysfunctional organization, knew when to delegate decisions to others, made sound decisions quickly, and directly spoke to critics about their concerns).
Also, what’s especially galling is that the MAGA crowd who spread and believe the lies will happily justify the fact that they have psychopathic dog killers (Kristi Noem) in their ranks.
Since the Daily Mail is a British publication, I wonder if it might be worthwhile to sue or threaten suit under Britain’s more liberal defamation laws — we don’t always agree with them, but can be useful times. It might get them to at least retract or issue a correction to the story.
My other point is the race aspect. They would never use this hyperbolic language if he were white and not a Muslim. Note Kristi Noem who took care of a problem vs. ‘puppy killer’ for Sayed even though most of those dogs likely weren’t puppies.
Wait! Huh? Isn't the MAGA King the one who hired Kristi Noem into his administration literally because she openly bragged about putting her puppy down in a gravel pit?
This is a pure desperation move; the right wing fever swamp makes up stories when it gets desperate (see the lying from Trump and Vance re Haitians in Ohio).
"[target of right wing nut jobs] are eating/hurting/killing the dogs, the cats, your pets". It's amazing how consistently an electorally significant number of voters fall for this crap again and again. Even after being debunked. I talked with someone who admits Trump lies but still took his accusations about the reflecting pool being vandalized seriously. Carl Sagan coined the phrase 'glorification of stupidity' years ago. It's now our cultural norm. Are we doomed?
The lie was also picked up by “Democrats for Mike Rogers,” a Twitter account nominally run by Democrats crossing party lines. Picked up so fast that I wonder if that account is astroturf.
The part of your subtitle "and a case study in how lies become part of our political debate" has me chiming in with my own pair of examples, which are not related to El-Sayed.
I picked up on that they are both from the Republicans and the administration, and they use the same M.O.
This is the M.O.:
“Oh, you thought we were talking about that. No, we were talking about this other thing.”
One case is the blocking of energy grants to states that didn’t vote for Trump.
(I caught the factcheck of yesterday on that: https://www.factcheck.org/2026/08/wrights-hairsplitting-statements-about-canceled-energy-grants-in-blue-states/ .)
If you read the factcheck, you see that in court it turned out to be correct that the administration blocked energy grants for states based solely on whether the state voted for Trump in 2024.
This contradicted what the Energy Secretary had seemed to say.
Well, the Energy Secretary has since clarified that when he said whether the state voted for Trump played no role in the decision, he was talking about the first half of the total decision process: the assessment of whether it should be funded. Whereas the actual non-funding of projects only in states that voted against Trump was in a later half of the total decision process!
This methodology is EXACTLY what I caught 10 months ago, in statements by J.D. Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson that the Democratic shutdown was because the Democrats wanted to provide healthcare to illegal aliens.
So, ten months ago, the government shutdown, which was over two items: the non-extension of the ACA expanded subsidies--which did lapse 1/1/26, and the OBBB cuts mainly to Medicaid and expanded Medicaid and a few others--timed to be after the coming midterms.
The total amount of money involved in the cuts is $1.5 trillion over ten years.
THE FACTS ON THE MATTER:
The fact is (verifiable from factcheck here: https://www.factcheck.org/2025/11/trump-falsely-claims-democrats-want-1-5-trillion-for-illegal-aliens/ or, in more detail, from my own posts here:
https://normspier828307.substack.com/p/exploring-the-republican-assertion
and here: https://normspier828307.substack.com/p/further-elaborations-on-whether-the )
that about 1%-2% of the money involved was for undocumented immigrants (over whether the federal reimbursement rate for emergency ER care required by the Reagan-era EMTALA law for undocumented immigrants was to be 90% vs 50%), and about 7% was for temporary protected status people. The other 91% was for U.S. citizens and maybe a bit went to green card holders.
So, it sounds like, certainly to most in the MAGA base, that the talking point assertion is that the whole $1.5 trillion is for undocumented immigrants. But, in fact, only 1%-2% is for true undocumented immigrants, and even if you count "legally present" people like temporary protected status people, you only get 9%.
THE TRICKY STATEMENTS FROM JOHNSON AND VANCE:
So, I caught these statements at the time, and the MO is the same:
1) House speaker Mike Johnson here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHtZU1Vc7k4&t=63s
he said:
"it is a fact, that no one can dispute, that they [the Democrats] shut the government down over restoring free healthcare to illegal aliens as part of their $1.5 trillion wild partisan wish list."
(See. He said "as part of" there. So he can claim he was only talking about the 1%-2%!)
2) As well, V.P. J.D. Vance made a similar statement, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7W1L5iENcI&t=504s
in a “press conference” where a “reporter” asked the first question about “two key Democrat lies".
I have transcribed what J.D. Vance said, in the next two paragraphs:
"Look the text is very clear and I’ve I even saw, I think it was George Stephanopoulos in an interview with Mike Johnson did a fact check That was totally rooted in Baseless claims. It was basically Democrat propaganda. if you look at the legislative texts, that they gave us, they tried to turn on two separate provisions, that would give Health care benefits to illegal aliens
number 1. if you’re an American citizens, you’ve been to a hospital. in the last few years, you probably noticed that, wait times are, especially large and very often somebody who’s there in the emergency room waiting is an illegal alien very often a person who can’t even speak English. Why do those people? get health care benefits at hospitals paid for by at citizens. The answer is a decision made by the bid Administration that the Trump Administration working with Congressional Republicans. undid. We turned off that money. spigot to healthcare funding for illegal aliens. the Democrats in their legislative text want to turn it back on. That’s 1 Thing.
The second thing, Matt is, we all know that there are various ways in which the the, the, the Biden Administration waived the way illegal immigration status. They gave Parolees, they gave us Asylum claims to people who weren’t really claiming Asylum And when they waived the magic wand of amnesty giving millions of people legal status, even though they were in the country illegally, they also gave those people access to health care benefits. So what the Democrats are engaging in is a slide of hand, they’re saying, no, no, no, no. Those weren’t illegal aliens, who are getting health care benefits? even though? everybody? Excuse me Knows they were in the country illegally. it’s a lie told by the Democrats that they’re not trying to give health care benefits to illegal aliens. It’s a lie that is obviously untrue. If you just look at the text that they gave us and all you have to do is understand that this is about who benefits, We think the American people’s government ought to benefit, American citizens. The Democrats are willing to shut it down to benefit illegal, aliens. the contrast couldn’t be more clear."
It's the same trick. Vance explicitly refers to the 1%-2% for ER care to genuinely undocumented people, and also to the temporary protected status people (another perhaps 7%). Leaving out 91%!
--
(My impression on this is that what Johnson and Vance did is actually not illegal because they were not under oath, and my understanding is that lying not under oath by politicians is completely allowed in our system. So, Mike Johnson and Vance took the extra, but legally unnecessary, precaution of making a statement that, even under oath, might be legally not perjury.)
However, I don't think the people in the base, if they could somehow be given the truth, would find that acceptable. I'm sure they thought the whole thing was about Democrats trying to give healthcare to undocumented immigrants.
Suppose, even, such a POTUS supporter even went to the POTUS post on the matter of 10 months ago:
https://web.archive.org/web/20251008181004/https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/10/fact-democrats-shut-down-government-over-free-healthcare-for-illegals/
they would see that the administration has come up with only $192.813 billion (over 10 years). This number is falsely high, due to inclusion of certain numbers that don't involve undocumented immigrants or TPS people, but, POTUS himself refers to the true total as $1.5 trillion =$1,500 billion here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLgkXhvbELE&t=38s . Even that inflated number works out to just 13%. What about the other 87% ? )
--
The Republicans seem to have mostly stopped making the assertion by the time of the actual lapsing of the expanded subsidies (1/1/26), perhaps sensing that the falseness of the assertion would be too easily detected.
I still caught it more recently than that on Twitter, say here:
https://x.com/RightPulseNewss/status/2031137049487507585
In cases like this, you would hope that even posting the $192.813 blllion vs $1,500 billion comparison on twitter would cause a realization of deception. But, I don't think it would, unfortunately.
--
Also, have a few other notes on the deceptions, and a second example by POTUS, here:
https://normspier828307.substack.com/p/exploring-the-mass-deception-and
if anyone is interested.
And the Haitians were eating their neighbors’ cats and dogs and, oh, are they getting deported? In the face of such stupidity, I also have to wonder if we are doomed.
I am both astounded and not surprised by the lengths of depraved false witness being brought forth by the far right and their Christian nationalist cohorts.
Lo these many years of MAGA political power I have learned the secret of Ukrainians' stalwart attitude toward Putin and his support. Accept that they lie. It's a simple as that. No need to analyze them or try to figure out whether what they say is legitimate or not. No need to do anything other than resist them.
Reality is created through word choice. “Slaughterhouse, puppies, kittens,” pulls the heart strings. Maybe we need to change “illegals, immigrants, invaders, detention camps” into our fellow human beings, little children, legal residents, concentration camps and prisons.” Voters/animal lovers are outraged about animals and could less about their own species—-the human lives detained in questionably unhealthy conditions, and the number of innocent human lives is growing in these filthy inhumane conditions daily.
I know this isn’t the point about the article here, but it is my first reaction that deepens with each sentence I read.
Abdul talked about the vastly improved dog save rate in Detroit years ago on his podcast. Republican lies about public servants like Anthony Fauci and Abdul El Sayed know no bounds. Despicable.
This is pretty crazy, especially when you consider Kristi Noem was given a Cabinet post by Trump, approved by a Republican Senate, and no one in the GOP seemed to have a problem with it. Since this is a Senate race, maybe if it comes up on a debate stage, which hopefully it will so some truth can be brought to bear, El-Sayed should ask Rogers if he would have voted to confirm Kristi Noem.
Funny you bring up Noem. She is exactly the person that would read the Daily Mail headline (ignore the article/stats) and advance it on social media. All with a straight look on her face.
And then she'd attend church services in the morning.
So, MAGA has deployed an armed, masked secret police to occupy our cities, puts brown people in concentration camps and assaults and kills the America’s population. They have called members of our population vermin, Satanic and demonic. They have unleashed an American Nazi movement.
These are the people telling us that a Democratic candidate for elected office is a puppy-killer.
If only they could fix just one problem, they wouldn't have to make up hideous lies.
Too busy stealing taxpayers money to fix anything , oh and their pet
" contractors " .
Once a thing gets stuck in MAGA's head, it's very difficult to dislodge it.
If you're feeling strong, have a look at a YouTube site called "Parkergetajob" - where a reasonably educated 24 year old "debates" MAGA calllers, who call in anxious to disabuse him of his "communist" views.
I have heard just about every insane piece of MAGA "belief" trotted out as gospel on there. From "Obama was born in Kenya" through "Trump wasn't convicted of a felony" to "The selling country pays the tariffs" - and on and on and on.
Once that idea get stuck in the peanut brain, it's there for life.
And THAT is what's so disgusting about the El-Sayed story. In ten years time, MAGA will STILL be saying "Oh, yeah - THAT guy! The one who killed all those poor little puppies."
I wouldn't mind so much if I thought they genuinely believed it at least that would have the virtue of honest belief. But they don't - they know damn well the story is a crock - which is why the ad halfway down the page how the REVERSE was actually the story. "Can't sue me! I told what happened on line 50! Not MY fault if people don't bother to read!"
I'd like to ask them why they didn't headline the story "El-Sayed Makes Massive Improvement to Dog Pound"?
These lies spread because the people ingesting them want to believe them. El-Sayed represents an “other” to them, and they want to believe that “others” are inherently bad, so they’ll flock to anything (especially pernicious lies) that prove that the “others” are inherently bad.
Never mind the fact that El-Sayed is a Michigander born and raised who has made a concerted effort to give back to his state, and in this situation he showed all of the practices of good leadership (positively transformed a dysfunctional organization, knew when to delegate decisions to others, made sound decisions quickly, and directly spoke to critics about their concerns).
Also, what’s especially galling is that the MAGA crowd who spread and believe the lies will happily justify the fact that they have psychopathic dog killers (Kristi Noem) in their ranks.
But of course Kristi Noem was lionized by the right when she bragged about shooting her dog.
Since the Daily Mail is a British publication, I wonder if it might be worthwhile to sue or threaten suit under Britain’s more liberal defamation laws — we don’t always agree with them, but can be useful times. It might get them to at least retract or issue a correction to the story.
My other point is the race aspect. They would never use this hyperbolic language if he were white and not a Muslim. Note Kristi Noem who took care of a problem vs. ‘puppy killer’ for Sayed even though most of those dogs likely weren’t puppies.
We should enact some of the reforms JVL talked about in recent Triads and make these kind of false statements prosecutable.
Wait! Huh? Isn't the MAGA King the one who hired Kristi Noem into his administration literally because she openly bragged about putting her puppy down in a gravel pit?
This is a pure desperation move; the right wing fever swamp makes up stories when it gets desperate (see the lying from Trump and Vance re Haitians in Ohio).
"[target of right wing nut jobs] are eating/hurting/killing the dogs, the cats, your pets". It's amazing how consistently an electorally significant number of voters fall for this crap again and again. Even after being debunked. I talked with someone who admits Trump lies but still took his accusations about the reflecting pool being vandalized seriously. Carl Sagan coined the phrase 'glorification of stupidity' years ago. It's now our cultural norm. Are we doomed?
But notice which people they are using it for: not white candidates and they won’t. This is reserved for those of a darker hue.
came with the same thought, this is just: 'they're eating the cats, they're eating the dogs' with a slightly different coat of paint
The lie was also picked up by “Democrats for Mike Rogers,” a Twitter account nominally run by Democrats crossing party lines. Picked up so fast that I wonder if that account is astroturf.