Donald Trump built his entire candidacy on racist nativist rhetoric. It was the foundation of his appeal to his white supremacist supporters. He was going to build the wall to keep out the immigrants. He was going to curtail immigration of Muslims. And when infamous KKK enthusiast David Duke pledged his support for Trump's candidacy, Trump initially declined to condemn him, claiming, "I don’t know anything about David Duke."
Now Trump is enacting possibly the most overtly racist agenda we have seen in modern politics with his voter suppression commission, his Department of Homeland Security's rampant and indiscriminate targeting of immigrants, and his Justice Department's return to tougher sentencing standards that won't necessarily make us safer but are surely aimed at people of color who are disproportionately impacted by such policies.
But now that all the hatred Trump fostered while Republicans either condoned his policies or looked the other way has resulted in the death of a brave 32-year-old woman and civil rights activist, Heather Heyer, Republicans have found their voice.
"We should call evil by its name," Hatch wrote on Twitter Saturday.
Wow, suddenly all these people that Trump egged on at his rallies and appealed to for their votes are "evil." Suddenly. And naturally, Tump's one-time running mate and now vice president lathered on the thickest in hypocrisy.
In an interview with NBC’s Peter Alexander, Vice President Mike Pence – who said on Sunday, "We have no tolerance for hate and violence from white supremacists, neo Nazis or the KKK” – criticized the media for focusing on what Trump said (and didn’t say). “I take issue with the fact that many in the media are spending more time criticizing how the president addressed the issue yesterday.”
Pence—who is in the White House right now because he jumped at the chance to join the ticket of a guy who eagerly stoked racism and violence at his rallies and failed to condemn the likes of David Duke—now has "no tolerance" for violence and bigotry. Nice to see Pence has found his moral compass—don't worry, he'll bury it in a drawer again just as soon as the media glare wanes.
And yes, we are "criticizing" Trump for being the morally repugnant human being he is precisely because people like Mike Pence have cheerfully rooted Trump on as long as they stood to benefit from his depravity.
Anyway, let's just say we're not sold on Republicans' newfound condemnation of Trump. Most likely, once they get past this speed bump, their support for him and his policies will continue right up until his numbers completely tank—and no, being the least popular pr*sident in the history of presidential polling isn't enough to inspire courage from the GOP.
“The Republican politicians still fear the Trump base in their own districts and states,” said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, located in Charlottesville. “When he goes down to where Nixon and Truman were, in the mid- to low 20s in the polls, then they will start waving bye-bye to him.”
Until then, expect Republicans to forgive their Dear Leader just as soon as the spotlight on his support for white supremacists and neo-Nazis dies down.