Republicans are trying to take health care from 24 million people to give giant tax breaks to the wealthy. They are standing behind a popular vote-losing president who’s tried to ban people of a specific religion from entering the country, whose ties to a foreign country that interfered with the U.S. elections remain in question, who is actively seeking to profit from the presidency, and whose tweets and press conferences … well … you have to think said Republicans are projecting when they accuse Democratic candidates in blue states like New Jersey of being “unhinged.”
What’s making Democrats supposedly unhinged? Why, their criticisms of Donald Trump, as David Weigel reports. Phil Murphy, Democratic candidate for New Jersey governor, has pointed to what was being said about Adolf Hitler during the early days of his rise to power, noting that “you could unfortunately drop in names from today into those observations from the 1920s.”
Republicans are outraged. Outraged. According to a Republican Governors Association spokesman, “Murphy compares the sitting president of the United States to a mass-murdering dictator that committed genocide, and it’s beyond normal for a far-left partisan attack. It’s unbecoming of a statewide office candidate, and it directly disrespects the office of the presidency.” Got that? It’s not the behavior of the guy in the Oval Office that’s a problem, it’s pointing out his behavior.
Murphy isn’t backing down:
“If the RGA would like to spend 2017 litigating Donald Trump’s xenophobia, we would welcome that debate,” said Murphy senior strategist Julie Roginsky. “When they are finished defending Donald Trump’s message of exclusion, perhaps we could next ask them to devote some time to defending Gov. Christie’s economic record in New Jersey.”
Republicans are going to have to reckon with their record and with Donald Trump’s unpopularity. They’re clearly looking to avoid both of those conversations. Democrats can’t let them off the hook, even in the face of “unhinged” bluster.