PBS NewHour host Geoff Bennett, New York Times columnist David Brooks, and Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart came together on Friday to discuss multiple-defense related controversies from the past week and accuse Republicans of “screwing up” the military for the sake of their “culture wars.”

Bennett began the conversation by discussing the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act, “And the House narrowly approved its version last night, and it includes Republican provisions blocking abortion coverage, diversity initiatives at the Pentagon, transgender care. In years past, this was a bipartisan enterprise.”

That’s not true, but that didn’t stop Bennett from asking Brooks, “What do you make of this effort by Republicans to use this bill as a cudgel in the culture wars and to really virtue-signal to members of their base?”

[This is known in the business as “gaslighting.” ~ Beege]