I get your point, but it's honestly a conundrum. We can't just ignore that a real elected government official is doing this stuff.

Yes, I understand that the more publicity they get, the more followers they get, but I don't know how many people remember the starts of the tea party-- at the beginning, it was just some wacky far-right nutjob coalition that everyone laughed it. Tea partiers didn't really make the news because we all thought it was stupid.

Then... they started getting elected into small local positions. We all kind of nervously chuckled, thinking no way would this be a problem.

And over time, with everyone pretty much laughing them off, they grew in power and morphed into basically what the MAGA cult is today.

Ignoring them didn't work, they didn't go away. I don't know if giving them more press would've worked, but at least we'd have seen it coming and taken it more seriously, instead of treating it like a joke.