Team Trump better than Trump
Thursday night's hearing showed staffers who respected the Constitution
If there’s one thing the House Jan. 6 committee has done, it is make me even angrier over former President Donald Trump’s cynical and abusive actions in an attempt to deny his own election loss. And I’ve been angry since Jan. 6.
I’ve heard from many readers who brand anyone who criticizes Trump as cowardly but laud Trump loyalists as brave. Really it was former staffers like Sarah Matthews, Matt Pottinger and Pat Cipollone who showed true grit.
If it were brave to defend Trump, then why did GOP Sen. Josh Hawley and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy move from decrying the violence right after the mob hit the Capitol to defending the mob’s instigator after encountering the anger from their base?
The best moment of Thursday night’s hearing, by the way, was this video of Hawley running, set to music by a social media wag:
These hearings should provide the moment of no return for Candidate Trump.
When good people who worked years for Trump — including a parade of aides whose names you probably didn’t know before — testified against Trump and the grifters — Rudy Giuliani, Sydney Powell — embrace the lie, the dynamic has shifted.
Even McCarthy and Hawley likely will turn on Trump again, because it will be the expedient thing to do.
The Only Trumpers put enough heat on elected Republicans that many feared to stand up to Trump. The result was a party of toadies. Gullible toadies, who bought this insanity.
@realdonaldtrump
Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!
Jan 6th 2021 - 2:24:22 PM EST·Twitter for iPhone·View on Twitter
Um, the Vice President had the courage to stay in the building in order to protect the Constitution.
As to the stolen-election lie, consider the words of former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr, who wrote, “The election was not ‘stolen. Trump lost it. He was repeatedly warned by his advisers — and the data showed it clearly — that a significant segment of voters who supported him in 2016 had grown tired of him. They liked his policies, they liked the result of his policies, but they hated his obnoxious behavior. He did not have to win back all these defectors, just a few. He could have done it without diminishing the enthusiasm of his base, but he made no effort — none.”
Debra J. Saunders is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Chapman Center for Citizen Leadership, and creator of the Podcast, “Trailing Trump: Notes from the Back of the Briefing Room.” Comments welcome below.