This series tracks Republicans and Trump associates who have lost the orange man faith. Read part one here, part two here, part three here, part four here, part five here and part six here.
Usually we quote about nine different Republicans who have seen the light, but sometimes we don’t.
Mike Murphy is a Republican political consultant who has worked for John McCain, Jeb Bush, Lamar Alexander, Arnold Schwarzenegger and others. He deserves this diary of his own:
2016:
“The pain is legit. But Trump is a stupid vote. Because Trump won't solve any of those things, he'll make them all worse. You're voting against your pain. You're voting to create more. You're going for a kind of witch doctor of politics who is promising things based on magic.”
*
“If Trump kept up Jeb's schedule for one day, he'd be in the hospital ... Jeb [Bush, presidential candidate] was the anti-Trump in a Trump year. But being the anti-Trump is a huge badge of fucking honor. I think you get that tattooed on your forehead: ‘I'm the anti-Trump.’ People will be congratulating him on that the rest of his life.”
*
“If your banker comes in one day wearing a diaper, speaking gibberish, you're going to pull your money out of that checking account.”
*
2017:
“Everything is a racial stereotype with him half the time; we've got to admit that about Trump.”
*
“There was something about Obama that brought out the real alt-right crap. And because it was like one of these things where, ‘Hey, there are a bunch of cannibals that have joined our army, and they’re doing pretty well on the left flank.’ ‘Good, give them guns.’ You know? That kind of mentality. And so now, half the party is eaten by cannibals. And guess what? They’re eating us next.”
*
2018:
“[The Trump presidency] has been deadly for the Republican party and the conservative cause and horrible for the institution of the presidency and the county’s civil discourse as a whole. A Moscow loving grifter is on the loose in the White House. Shame on the Vichy Republicans who constantly enable him.”
*
“We've got to break this equation of ‘I'm right, you're evil. So everything you do is suspect, everything you say is a lie, your facts are fake news.’ Because that is an acid on politics. We've got to get rid of that.”
*
“Donald Trump is the most unpopular first-year president in the history of polling, easily. There’s nobody – he is first, second, and third place. So that is a bad thing... You know, there could be a foreign intervening event. Martians land with the same hair and say, you know, ‘Only he understands us, and we are going to save the planet.’ But, assuming normalcy, the forces are pretty bad.”
*
“You want to win in politics? Stop wasting time being dragged screaming out of hearings and learn to f'ing organize. Signed, Reality.”
*
2019:
“It's not like we are asking these folks [Republican lawmakers] to land on Anzio beach or hold Pork Chop Hill ... all that is required is to show some guts against a blatant demagogue who is massively unprepared by temperament, knowledge or character to be president of the United States.”
*
“Now, there is of course one great rescue device for the Republican Party that we have thankfully relied on time and time again and that of course is the Democrats.”
*
“Out here in California, they are beating their dreamcatchers into stabbing sticks. While there have been other Trump failures, it was this sad episode [Charlottesville] that truly revealed how Trump sees the world. He failed the big test of a President. He should have defended American values. Instead he proved he doesn't really understand what those values are.”
*
“There will be more Trump outrages, despite whatever staff shuffling occurs in the White House. Trump is the atomic clock of Trump craziness; he cannot change.”
*
Sources: here and here.
To be continued ...
Readers’ tips in the comments are invited.