because remember, i was discussing this at this table with rachel over the past two nights. if you have a lead, you don t hype it. you turn your voters ow and win. so many republican leaders know their slate of maga candidates lately is very weak. mitch mcconnell warned about low quality candidates for that reason. so republicans concluded they needed to inflate their perceived support in the hopes that might create more support than they actually have, just like donald trump when he was a candidate in 16 benefitted from european sourced fake content farms pushing something then called fake news. he benefitted from that an facebook and then tried to turn that term memorably on his opponents. a candidate who can t really win or fill an auditorium is like a singer who can t really sell out