Since the riot on Wednesday, there has been a lot of anger and derision directed at Josh Hawley, and to a lesser extent Ted Cruz, and rightly so. Every bit of it is justified: they earned it.
But let us not forget about the other members of the Sedition Caucus, and especially those who were prepared to go the distance with Hawley and Cruz — until, at the very last minute, they weren’t — the ones who enabled, rode and milked the “stolen election” lie for all the political juice it was worth. . . until they were slapped in the face with the rioting and death they helped cause, and they realized it wasn’t a game, that people ACTUALLY BELIEVED the lies they were telling, and people were prepared to take action based on those lies. People were prepared to riot and kill and die based on those lies.
Steve Daines is one of those enablers and co-conspirators, one of the charter members of the Sedition Caucus, and in the heat of the moment, also a coward. Daines was fully prepared to take the final step of filing baseless objections to Presidential electors, long after all the wild theories had been discredited, long after court after court had thrown these claims into the garbage. And then when the rioting and the killing happened, as we say in Montana, he turned yellow, he chickened out, and he left Hawley et. al. swinging in the wind, hoping to save his own sorry ass.
I can't think of anything, short of actual treason, more damaging to the American project than calling into question the integrity of our elections - and especially a Presidential election, the most consequential event in our democratic process. You might think that, as a United States Senator, before you use the power and authority of your office to do something as significant as undermining a Presidential election, you might stop and ask yourself: what are the facts here? Is there any actual proof for this? Where are the people saying this — Donald Trump, Fox News, etc. etc. etc. — where are they getting their information?
Steve Daines did none of this. Like so many of his fellow Republicans — and in Montana it includes Greg Gianforte, Matt Rosendale, and Tim Scott — he jumped at the chance to once more serve his Master, Donald Trump, and to curry favor with Trump supporters. Like so many, he put ambition, politics — and I am sure fear of his Master — over his responsibilities to this country. He spread the lies about the election and refused to accept the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s victory. In doing so, he sowed the seeds of the distrust that is now a deep and sullen fever burning in Republicans, in Montana and across the country.
Because of Steve Daines and all the others, now a sizable portion of our citizen question the legitimacy of this election, believe is was “stolen.” As damaging as the Wednesday riot was, this is the real and enduring legacy of the lies spread by Steve Daines and his buddies.
And so we now see cleary who Steve Daines is: an opportunist, a liar, and finally, a coward.
If he had any conscience, any integrity at all, Steve Daines would resign. As if. If the Senate has a a spine, it will move quickly to expel Daines and the others. Not holding my breath.
But there is something Steve Daines could do, something suggested by of all people Mitt Romney, and that is . . . . .to tell the truth. Tell your constituents the truth: that there is no evidence of voter fraud and there never was. It was all lies, and I did my part in giving them credibility and spreading them around. Joe Biden was elected in a fair election, and everything that happened after election day was a fraud perpetrated by Donald Trump, Fox News, Rudy Giuliani - and myself — for political gain. It won’t excuse what he has done, but it may begin to repair some of the great damage he has caused in our state and our nation.
And he could say, to Montana and to the country, I am sorry.