GET ME REWRITE: GOP kicks off a festival of documents whataboutism and most of the media buys a ticket

 

Video screenshot:  CNBC

Dictionary definition:  Merriam-Webster

Headline:  MSNBC

From MSNBC

Republicans naturally seized on the news with trademark whataboutism. But as my colleague Steve Benen pointed out, it’s “clearly insane” to liken the Biden story to the Trump mess. 

Indeed, if the Biden camp’s explanation is true, then it’s immediately obvious that there’s a difference between the Biden and Trump situations, just from a common sense standpoint, because a recurring theme in the Trump investigation is his failure to turn over documents to the government after being asked for them, while Biden didn’t even have to be asked.

 

According to Merriam-Webster, the first known use the word 'whataboutism' occurred in 1978.

Other coinages from the same year include:

• attention deficit disorder
• ditz
• factitious disorder
• generalized anxiety disorder
• logic bomb
• proniing