GOP: Fear Factor edition
Dems— We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.
GOP officials— We have everything to fear, including Trump, Trump’s voters, women (pregnant or not), all LGBTQ+ folks, books, medical doctors, American history, light beer, Mickey Mouse, Taylor Swift, Mr. Potato Head, green M&Ms, etc.
Why Mitch McConnell won’t speak out on Trump’s indictment
The silence from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) about Donald Trump’s historic federal indictment is deafening. It’s based on fear and longing — McConnell’s singular focus on regaining the power of being Senate majority leader via a GOP Senate in 2024…
McConnell’s silence strips any shred of credibility from his Feb. 14, 2021, Senate floor defense of his decision not to vote to convict Trump for impeachment offenses of abusing presidential power and obstructing justice.…
McConnell’s hope of regaining his lost power as Senate majority leader is undoubtedly why he remains silent now about the Trump indictment. He doesn’t want to offend Trump’s base, including voters in states like West Virginia, where he wants them to vote for Republican Jim Justice in 2024; in Ohio, where he wants the conservative base to help defeat Democrat Sherrod Brown; and in Montana, where he wants a future Republican candidate to take Democrat Jon Tester’s seat. thehill.com/...
Mitch McConnell is the main reason Trump is back.
We shouldn’t feel sorry for him
But McConnell does remain in thrall to the right wing of his party. Like many Republican elites, he lived in fear of the Tea Party movement of the 2010s that served as the Iliad to MAGA’s Odyssey. He watched Republicans nominate far-right candidates and blow winnable races in 2010 and 2012 — and therefore his chances to become Majority Leader until 2015. Indeed, he was so critical of such candidates that he was considered a “RINO” by his own colleagues for a long time.
It was only when he blocked Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court that McConnell was fully embraced by his GOP colleagues across the spectrum; they realized then that his dislike of the far right was less about ideology and more about the ballot box. Blocking Garland solidified McConnell’s reputation among Republicans and Democrats alike as a cutthroat tactician and enforcer. It also helped Trump ascend to the presidency...
McConnell likely hoped that by not voting to convict Trump, he could avoid a row among his conference. That, in turn, would turn allow him to focus solely on opposing Biden’s domestic agenda and hammering him during the midterm elections. His short-termist thinking allowed Trump to gather himself and return emboldened. www.independent.co.uk/…
How Trump Has Used Fear and Favor to Win Republican Endorsements
The former president keeps careful watch over his endorsements from elected Republicans, aided by a disciplined and methodical behind-the-scenes operation.
On his last day as president on Jan. 20, 2021, Donald J. Trump stood in a snapping wind and waved goodbye to relatives and supporters before he took his final flight on Air Force One back to Mar-a-Lago. No elected Republican of any stature showed up at Joint Base Andrews for the bleak farewell…
Today, three years after Jan. 6 and more than a week before the Iowa caucuses, Mr. Trump has almost entirely subjugated the elected class of the Republican Party. As of this week, every member of the House Republican leadership is formally backing his campaign to recapture the White House…
Entire primary campaigns were organized around winning his endorsement. Trump insiders were hired by candidates as “consultants” for the sole purpose of saying nice things about them to Mr. Trump in the hope he might endorse them. Mr. Trump received these candidates at his homes in Florida and New Jersey and watched gleefully as they, in Mr. Trump’s own words to aides, “kissed my ass.” www.nytimes.com/…
House Republicans fear Trump too much to aid Ukraine
They include the speaker, Mike Johnson, who won’t allow a vote
Republicans apparently had the great misfortune of getting what they asked for. First, they demanded that the border and Ukraine be linked. When Senate negotiators offered the toughest immigration law in decades, most Republicans rejected the offer. A foreign-aid-only bill passed, and now Mr Johnson is complaining that it does nothing to control immigration…
Even though a majority of the House still supports Ukraine, many Republicans don’t feel strongly enough to defy House leadership and Mr Trump. It’s one thing to support Ukraine; it’s another to risk losing a primary to a Trump-backed challenger. www.economist.com/…
Former Wisconsin GOP chair said he feared Trump supporters
Andrew Hitt told CBS's '60 Minutes' that he would have been 'scared to death' if he was the reason Trump lost Wisconsin
Andrew Hitt appeared on CBS’s “60 Minutes” and said he was scared of what Trump supporters would do to him and his family if courts later overturned President Joe Biden’s victory in Wisconsin.
“If I didn’t do that, and the court did throw out those votes, it would have been solely my fault that Trump wouldn’t have won Wisconsin,” Hitt said. “Can you imagine the repercussions on myself, my family, if it was me, Andrew Hitt, who prevented Donald Trump from winning Wisconsin?
“It was not a safe time. If my lawyer is right and the whole reason Trump loses Wisconsin is because of me, I would be scared to death,” he continued.
Hitt was one of 10 false electors who signed documents in 2020 saying that Trump won Wisconsin. The group admitted in a settlement late last year that their actions were used in efforts to overturn the election results. www.wpr.org/…
Republicans fear they will be targets in Trump’s ‘retribution’ campaign
The former president is already attacking those who have endorsed his GOP opponents or have crossed him in other ways
Donald Trump has promised a presidency of “retribution” if he wins another term in office. Many Republicans fear they might face the brunt of it.
The former president has threatened to have donors to his Republican opponent Nikki Haley “permanently barred” from his orbit. A top adviser has vowed to destroy the career of Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), the House Freedom Caucus chairman, after he endorsed another Trump challenger, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The Trump campaign has also attempted to condemn former aides who worked for his rivals during the GOP nomination fight and has twisted arms demanding endorsements, telling lawmakers that Trump will remember exactly when they backed him…
Trump has complained repeatedly to advisers that Republicans are not loyal enough and often shares more anger toward Republicans who buck or criticize him than toward Democrats. In 2021 and 2022, he made it a near-singular mission to defeat GOP lawmakers who voted for his impeachment and who publicly disputed his claims of election fraud. www.washingtonpost.com/...
Yo, Republican politicians. You are wasting your time.
Trump is insatiable. You cannot appease him enough.
He can never have enough money, food, women, praise, fans, whatever.
He is basically a hollow leg of a man.
Watching GOP politicians/opponents debase themselves for Trump, I think of some Roman Emperors who were said to host meals and orgies where all the guests were forced to participate.
Was the motive the voyeurism of the Emperor or his joy in the power of making men and women bend to his will? Why elevate a man who likes to watch others squirm? Is cruelty the only point?
Republicans- If Trump is re-elected, your lives will get worse, not better. You’ll always be afraid.
If Biden is re-elected, we can all breath easier. Even the GOP and red state folks.
I’m not a big Haley fan, but she is finally speaking more truthfully about Trump.
