Republicans “debase themselves” for attention, transgender Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE) proclaimed during a discussion on Pod Save America.
McBride, who decided at the age of 21 to go by “Sarah” instead of his original name of Tim, offered his theory on Republican behavior in Congress. Attempting to position himself on higher moral ground, McBride began, “I used to think that the antics we saw from folks in Congress who were taking up a lot of oxygen was the politics of reality TV in pursuit of a rational goal, attention, for the sake of power, for the sake of influence.”
“What I’ve come to realize over the last year is that for many of the folks that you see taking up oxygen on the other side of the aisle, in particular, it’s not in pursuit of a rational goal,” he said, concluding that this is more of an “addiction” of wanting more attention.
“I think that’s one of the things we actually don’t talk a lot about… One of the things you most frequently hear about these people when they get to Congress is they were so normal when they got there,” McBride, the first man who believes he is a woman to openly serve in Congress, continued.
“And granted, they’re people who ran for office, so I doubt they were that normal, but by congressional standards, that they were relatively normal. And then what happens is, with all of the best intentions, they go viral once — and they’re not doing it in pursuit of that — but they just find themselves going viral for something they’ve done,” he said, explaining that social media is addictive, creating a dopamine hit when something hits particularly well.
McBride continued, “When you go viral nationally, it is like the most instantly addictive drug. And I don’t mean that as a trite throwaway line. I don’t mean that as a metaphor. I mean literally. It is addictive.”
“And one of the things that we don’t talk a lot about is that much of the behavior you’re seeing in Congress is from people who are struggling themselves,” McBride said, singling out Republicans as being addicted to attention, debasing themselves to feel that next “high.”
“They find themselves going viral, and as is the case with many addictions, they will debase themselves and inflict collateral damage on anyone else in pursuit of that next high, and it’s the same strategy that I employed before, but it’s a different understanding, because in the context of people coming after me early on, my job was not to take the bait,” the congressman said. Then, McBride added, you prevent these Republicans from having that “high” that he claims they are pursuing.
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Many commenters were quick to point to the lawmaker’s stunning lack of self-awareness. One X commenter added, “Says the dude who pretends to be a woman for attention.”
At the time of his formal switch to identify as a female despite biological reality, McBride wrote, “With everything I did, from the mundane to the exciting, the only way I was able to enjoy it was if I re-imagined doing it as a girl.”
During his time in congress, McBride has staunchly opposed President Trump, even accusing him of waging an “all-out assault” against “American democracy” over the commander-in-chief’s desire to pursue election integrity measures, asserting that President Trump was taking notes from his “favorite dictator.”