MAGA Candidate Wants to Lower the Political Temperature—That’s Rich Coming From Him

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty

After somebody supposedly took a swing at him as he arrived for a debate on Wednesday night, New Hampshire GOP Senate nominee Don Bolduc took the stage and spoke as if he were a voice of reason.

In what was his third debate with incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Bolduc was asked about the recent attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband.

“It’s a sign of the times. It’s a sign of political problems. Republicans and Democrats that fuel issues with people that get them to the point where they are just so upset at an individual that they strike out at them. Happened to me outside just before I came in here,” Bolduc said.

So, Bolduc wants politicians to lower the political temperature? That comes from a guy whose own discourse has fired up the anti-woke and election-denying factions of the populace.

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Just eight days before the debate confrontation awakened Bolduc to the idea that what politicians say has consequences, he spread the false and ridiculous rumor that schools in the state were encouraging kids to identify as cats and setting out litter boxes for them.

“Guess what? We have furries and fuzzies in classrooms,” Bolduc said. “They lick themselves, they’re cats. When they don’t like something, they hiss, people walk down the hallway and jump out.”

The 60-year-old retired brigadier general was not done.

“And get this, get this, they’re putting litter boxes, right? Litter boxes for them.”

He added, “These same people that are concerned about spreading germs…They let children lick themselves and then touch everything… And they’re starting to lick each other!”

He sounded as if he actually believed it.

“I wish I was making it up,” he said.

Of course, he was making it up. The Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire, confirmed nothing of a sort was happening. But Bolduc was more than happy to make Pinkerton a target of the lunatic fringe to score political points with some gullible voters.

This is not the only lie Bolduc has embraced. Although he has jumped back and forth on the issue, Bolduc has repeatedly insisted the last election was stolen from Donald Trump—backing the rhetoric that sparked a deadly riot at the Capitol.

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“I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals, saying that Trump won the election, and damn it, I stand by my oath,” he said during the primary. “I’m not switching horses, baby.” He referred to it as being stolen as recently as Oct. 10, even suggesting the same might happen in his own bid for Senate.

He’s also called Republican Gov. Chris Sununu a “Chinese Communist sympathizer.” (Sununu is now supporting him over Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan). He’s slammed the commonplace practice of discarding unneeded embryos during fertility treatment as “disgusting.” And he bought into the wackadoodle conspiracy theory that COVID vaccines were a delivery system for microchips.

But that was Bolduc seeking the Republican nomination. The Bolduc who arrived at Wednesday night’s debate is focused on becoming the senator and to do that he needs votes from people able to recognize his talk of commies and conspiracies is dangerous and disqualifying nonsense.

After the encounter outside the venue, 37-year-old Joseph Hart was handcuffed and charged with trespass and disorderly conduct. Bolduc continued to pose as a voice of reason, which is another kind of crime.

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