From the moment they arrived in Florida Sunday for an annual retreat, House Republicans have been knocked on their heels by Trump's claim Saturday that he would be arrested on Tuesday in the probe related to hush money payments he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
During House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's first press conference, he spent roughly half of his time responding to Trump-related questions, many of them indictment-centric, according to Politico.
While McCarthy blasted the Manhattan district attorney's hush money probe as a political ploy, he ultimately tried to steer the MAGA masses away from the widespread protests Trump had tried to incite.
In other words, McCarthy, acutely aware of the Jan. 6 insurrection that undoubtedly cost GOP candidates dearly in the midterms, was trying to avert another Trump-inspired electoral disaster.
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In fact, later on Sunday, McCarthy was questioned directly about Trump's rallying cry to "take our country back," which echoed the language he used to rile his cultists ahead of the Jan. 6 attack.
Forced to defend Trump, McCarthy burped out, "He's not saying something negative. ... Nobody, nobody is for violence."
*Except for that one time.
Two days later, McCarthy spent another press conference defending Trump with Hillary Clinton whataboutisms and a dash of Trumpian rhetoric to top it off.
When asked about the hush money payments, McCarthy quickly compared Trump's dealings to Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee getting fined last year for misreporting payments that helped produce the Steele Dossier as "legal payments."
"A million dollars they spent, and you know what? At the end of the day, they didn't get prosecuted, they got fined," McCarthy said. McCarthy then proceeded to rattle off some gibberish about "equal justice" (i.e., an eye for an eye) and "personal money" and "statute of limitations.”
And finally (drum roll, please), in true Trumpian fashion, McCarthy told the reporters and Americans what they were thinking.
“I think in your heart of hearts, you know, too, that you think this is just political. And I think that's what the rest of the country thinks, and we're kind of tired of that," McCarthy said.
Indeed, Kevin, we are tired of being told what we think. You know it, I know it, the country knows it, and even Republicans know it—which is why so many GOP voters have been desperately hoping for a Trump alternative to arise from the ashes of the Republican Party and claim the 2024 nomination.
Republicans supposedly have other issues they want to explore, such as the economy, border security, and foreign policy. But let's be real, the only thing that really matters is Trump and whether he manages to slay his 2024 rivals on the way to capturing another Republican presidential nomination.
If House Republicans are surprised that Trump has managed to hijack yet another retreat for the third year in a row, they have no one but themselves to thank. They gladly gifted the party to Trump when 139 of them voted against certifying the 2020 election immediately after the Capitol assault and 197 ultimately voted against impeaching Trump for inspiring the deadly terrorist attack.
Two years ago at the retreat, House Republicans were tiptoeing around Trump when only a single one of them had the spine to realistically contemplate his involvement in Jan. 6. Responding to reporters, Liz Cheney said the decision on whether to charge Trump in the matter should be left up to the Justice Department. She also broke with McCarthy on the focus of a yet-to-be-formed Jan. 6 commission.
“I think it’s very important that the January 6 commission focus on what happened on January 6 and what led to that attack,” Cheney said. McCarthy was still pushing for a diluted investigation into political violence that would also encompass Black Lives Matter, antifa, and other left-leaning groups.
Not long after the retreat, McCarthy helped organize Cheney's ouster from her number three role as House Republican Conference leader.
In 2022 Cheney chose to skip the retreat, and House Republicans were giddy about not to having to deal with her intrusive reality checks.
“The difference between now and a year ago is that Liz Cheney was a distraction from the concerted focus on winning back the majority,” said Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, then-leader of the Republican Study Committee.
Too bad their unending blank check to Trump doomed House Republicans' chances of riding a red wave into the strong majority history forecast for them.
One year later, Trump continues to collect on that blank check at the expense of the Republican Party.
“There’s this myth that Republicans in Washington want to ‘move on’ from Trump,” Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist and former House G.O.P. oversight adviser, told The New York Times. “They aren’t hostages; they are volunteers. These retreats have become an exercise in futility for House Republicans because ultimately, they ignore their own political self-interest, double-down on a loser and end up underperforming in the election.”
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