THE NEW ABNORMAL

Does the MyPillow Guy Think He’s a Governor?

If not, why was he trying to party-crash the Republican Governors Association conference?

Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO and Trumpist conspiracy-peddler, flew his private jet to the Republican Governors Association meeting the other day.

The guvs promptly threw him out. But the incident got Molly Jong-Fast thinking: Does the MyPillow CEO think he’s already a governor or something?

Subscribe to The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Overcast. To listen to our weekly members-only bonus episodes, join Beast Inside here. Already a member? You can listen here and sign up for new episode email alerts here.

“Spoiler: Making MyPillows does not make you my governor. Now, chances that Mike Lindell could actually become governor of a small Republican state, 80 percent,” she quips on the latest episode of The New Abnormal. “Like, it’s not even that hard for someone that famous and insane in the Republican party to become a governor.”

Lindell claims he wouldn’t “run to be a dogcatcher right now,” because he doesn’t trust the voting machines. Plus, he’s from the blue state of Minnesota. So maybe the risk of a Governor Pillow isn’t quite so high. But L.A. Times columnist Virginia Heffernan would like to “quickly add something about Mike Lindell being a cosplay governor.”

“I think we need to understand that being in politics leads to governing and governing is boring. It is not a PR operation,” she says. “And I feel like we have made these jobs celebrity roles. Public service should not be—is not—being on a reality show.”

“Like, I feel like we need to really dial down the razzle-dazzle, really play up the drudgery,” Heffernan continues. “I just don't know why every single industrialist and every single lady with abs or gorgeous arms would want to be, of all things, a governor.”

Biden, Heffernan opines, is doing a pretty good job at the drudgery—dollars going out, jabs going out, all leading to Trump signs going down. Sure, the Donald has his cultists, like Lindell. But, “I don't think people can hold onto this much insanity for this long, especially when it's a tiny minority of people who believe it,” Heffernan adds. “Democrats need to know how to win.”

To which Jong-Fast replies, oh-so-gently: Are you freakin’ kidding me? With all of these Republican attempts to retcon the Capitol riots? To chop away at the right to vote? To instantiate their ability to overturn elections? All while Team Biden snoozes it away? “The Democrats are bringing an ice cream sundae to a knife fight,” Jong-Fast says.

Plus! Politico’s Tara Palmeri talks about her search to find Liz Cheney supporters in Wyoming. And Battle for the Soul author Edward-Isaac Dovere gives us a peek into how Biden sees the political landscape. “The presidency that he has in front of him now, he knows, is so different from what he ever expected to have,” Dovere says, And part of that is rethinking how he incorporates the progressivism within the party that took root and that was so much part of this campaign. And it’s just, it’s a really complicated evolution for him. It’s not the presidency he thought it’d be running in 2019 when he got into this race.”

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

The Daily Beast

Tracy ConnorEditor

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.