He’s right to feel disgusted, as I explained at length yesterday. Spending money on election truthers because you think they’ll be easier to beat in a general election is party-over-country nihilism. Spending money to defeat one of the 10 Republicans who had the backbone to vote to impeach Trump is “you deserve to lose every race on the ballot this year” territory.

Centrist Democrat Dean Phillips is mortified that his party is wasting the donations of liberals to try to replace the GOP’s small minority of principled conservatives with Trump slobberers. I wonder how many rank-and-file Democrats ended up contributing part of their paychecks this year to getting MAGA candidates elected in Republican primaries.

I’m disgusted that hard-earned money intended to support Democrats is being used to boost Trump-endorsed candidates, particularly the far-right opponent of one of the most honorable Republicans in Congress, @RepMeijer. Another reason to reform our broken campaign finance system. https://t.co/hhKYcLVmxk

— Dean Phillips 🇺🇸 (@deanbphillips) July 26, 2022

He’s not alone. David Axelrod is “disappointed.”

Republican @RepMeijer⁩ placed his young political career at risk by voting to impeach Trump.
Disappointing that Ds are trying to help Trump exact vengeance. https://t.co/x9U2Mcx9pY

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) July 26, 2022

Matt Yglesias finds it “insane.”

Boosting the Trumpier candidate in GOP primaries for PA-Gov and MD-Gov is morally a bit dubious but these are at least winnable races for Democrats.

Going against Pete Meijer given the losses facing House Dems is just insane. Spend the money defending your incumbents!

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 26, 2022

The far-left AOC-aligned activist group Justice Democrats resents the expenditure.

Democratic Party leadership will literally support Republicans before they start supporting progressives. https://t.co/U4x7nqOZq8

— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) July 26, 2022

Adam Kinzinger, still technically a Republican but more of a conservative independent since joining the January 6 committee, is fuming mad:

.@AdamKinzinger on Dem grps backing GOP election deniers in hopes of easier general election races:

"I think it's disgusting.. don't come to me after having spent money supporting an election denier in a primary, and then come to me and say 'where are all the good Republicans?'" pic.twitter.com/SseetxLrO8

— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) July 26, 2022

Just about the only non-MAGA political actor in America who thinks this is a good idea is, uh, the head of the DCCC, who’s in charge of trying to get Democratic House members elected this fall.

DCCC chair Sean Patrick Maloney, asked about GOP primary meddling generally on MSNBC this morning: “I think you might see us do that, sure.” pic.twitter.com/3oZ0xYsqj8

— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) July 26, 2022

They deserve to lose every race on the ballot. And when some of these MAGA candidates boosted by Dems inevitably end up winning the general election too, Democrats should never be allowed to forget their role in paving their way to Congress. If John Gibbs defeats Peter Meijer and ends up in the House next year thanks to this fall’s red wave, he may end up being the biggest “rigged election” crank in the chamber. And if he is, no member of the other party should ever be free to complain about him without being challenged about having helped make his political career possible.

Mr. Gibbs, who was an aide to former Housing Secretary Ben Carson, could not win confirmation in 2020 to direct Mr. Trump’s Office of Personnel Management over comments he made accusing Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, of taking part in a “Satanic ritual,” and calling Democrats the party of “‘Islam, gender-bending, anti-police, ‘u racist!’”

More recently, Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Meijer clashed over the legitimacy of Mr. Biden’s 2020 victory, which Mr. Gibbs baselessly called “simply mathematically impossible.”…

After Mr. Meijer’s impeachment vote, Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the House majority leader, praised Mr. Meijer for what he called “a very impressive display of courage and integrity.”

“Guess that doesn’t count for much when a marginally increased chance of flipping a House seat is on the table,” Mr. Meijer quipped in a text message on Monday.

The ad Democrats are running on Gibbs’s behalf doesn’t mention the “Satanic ritual” insanity, of course, merely that Gibbs loves Trump, worked for Ben Carson, opposes unchecked immigration, and supports “patriotic education.” A normal dude, just like you or me. Meijer’s campaign has been left to argue that “Democrats don’t want to face Peter Meijer in the November election because Peter is the best candidate to represent West Michigan in Congress, and he’s the only candidate who will put the interests of the 3rd District ahead of partisan priorities.” Which is clever strategy as far as it goes — it’s true that Dems fear Meijer more than Gibbs, and knowing that might make Meijer more appealing to Republican voters on “which of these two will own the libs the hardest?” grounds.

But the fact remains that Democratic ad spending on Gibbs’s behalf is cutting into Meijer’s financial advantage. His best chance of winning the primary is to have the airwaves to himself in the final weeks of the race. Maloney’s DCCC has now complicated that.

If there’s any justice, his own district will send his ass packing as part of the coming red wave. Fingers crossed:

#NY17:

Mike Lawler (R) 46% (+2)
Sean Patrick Maloney (D-inc) 44%

McLaughlin & Associates/@lawler4ny (R) Internal, 400 LV, 7/19-21https://t.co/p3AZpJTgwY

— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) July 26, 2022

I’ll leave you with Kinzinger reacting in real time to how his committee’s revelations over the past month are playing with Trump voters. Retirement can’t come soon enough.

WATCH: @AdamKinzinger's reaction to new @donie interviews with Trump and Pence supporters pic.twitter.com/8Kx6I4eLup

— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) July 26, 2022