Shes doing a very good job as congresswoman.
Just as good in Congress as she is on cable. COURTESY OF JAYAPAL CAMPAIGN

Yesterday evening Congresswoman Pramila Jaypal (WA-7, that's us right here in Seattle!) appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to talk immigration.

The normally bow-tied blowhard tried every trick available to pundits in an attempt to derail Jayapal. He asked gotcha questions in bad faith, he drummed up false rage and consternation out of nowhere, he yelled, he interrupted her, he lied, and he tried to rush her at the end. But throughout, Jayapal remained calm, cool, and collected as she casually dismantled the bad arguments he hurled at her.

Watch the whole thing right here and enjoy your life for once:



A few of my favorite moments:

At first, Carlson tries to frame the argument to suggest that Trump's immigration proposal—which would provide a path to citizenship for 1.8 million DREAMers while ending family-based immigration, killing the visa lottery program, increasing border security, and ultimately reducing legal immigration by millions per year—is actually not a racist bill designed to decrease the population of brown people in this country. In fact, Carlson argues, since the bill grants a path to citizenship to 1.8 million immigrants, the proposal is actually good for people of color! Jayapal immediately returns us to reality by reminding her host that Trump rescinded DACA in the first place, which allowed Republican Senators to use the lives and livelihoods of DACA recipients as a bargaining chip to pass the most racist bill they can possibly pass. It's a cynical attempt to completely change the direction of the country's immigration policy for the sole purpose of keeping the GOP in power, and it's insane to think otherwise.

A few moments later, when Carlson tries to ask the same dumb question in a different way, Jayapal takes control of the conversation and forces him to address the contradiction at the heart of recent Republican immigration policy: "The cornerstone of our country's immigration policy has always been family-based immigration," she says. "And the Republican party used to be the party of family values. I don't know that anyone's claiming that today."

Under his breath, Carlson replies, "Oh c'mon, that's a slur." But it's not a slur. Jayapal called out a hypocrisy he couldn't deny, and so he leveled an accusation of foul play instead of offering a counter claim. In this moment, you can tell he's not used to losing arguments, that he's not used to ceding control of the conversation, and that he's getting nervous.

All of this feeds into his manufactured explosion around minute 3:20, which is when he yells, "I'm not arguing against immigrants!" (though he absolutely is) and then proceeds to spread a lie about the kinds of family members immigrants can sponsor under the current policy. In response to this tantrum, Jayapal laughs at his outrage, calls out his lie, and grounds her argument in her personal experience. Though he tries to get a rise out of her, tries to make her lose her cool on cable, he just can't. She won't play into his bullshit talk show game. She wins.

Right now Senate Democrats aren't planning to use what leverage they have in the current budget negotiations to protect DACA recipients from deportation come March 8. Despite Trump's wildest dreams, and despite a few protests from House Democrats, it's not looking like they're going to shut down the government again over the issue. If the Democrats aren't going to use the levers of power available to them, if they're really going to trust Mitch McConnell's "intentions" to address the fate of millions of immigrants soon, then they're lucky to have representatives like Jayapal out there walking into lions dens and trying to win over the general population.

This helps, too: