Congressional Cowards is a weekly series highlighting the worst Donald Trump defenders on Capitol Hill, who refuse to criticize him—no matter how disgraceful or lawless his actions.
Republicans this week had a seriously hard time defending President Donald Trump's bad behavior, making mealymouthed excuses for the racist and idiotic posts Trump made mocking Democratic leaders during the government shutdown in which he’s taking perverse pleasure.
After Trump met with Democratic congressional leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer ahead of the funding lapse, Trump posted a racist AI-generated video depicting Jeffries in a sombrero and mustache—showing he was never serious about negotiating with Democrats to get a funding deal but just wanted the meeting to be able to humiliate his opponents.
Yet rather than tell Trump to stop acting like the racist, petulant child that he is and actually work to get a deal, Republicans instead said it's everyone else who has to get their own feelings in check—because Dear Leader's actions can never be questioned.
"Many of you asked me this morning about sombreros and memes and why Hakeem Jeffries is all alarmed by that. Look, these are games, these are sideshows, people are getting caught up in battles over social media memes. We've gotta ... this is not a game. We've gotta keep the government open for the people. I don't know why this is so complicated. To my friend Hakeem … man, just ignore it," House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Wednesday, the first day of the shutdown.
Reporters continued to press Johnson about Trump's stupid behavior, with a Fox News reporter asking on Friday how Johnson could say that Trump is taking "no pleasure" in the GOP shutdown, while the next saying that Trump is "just having fun and trolling."
Johnson replied with this word salad:
So the effects are very serious on real people, real Americans. We support federal employees who do a great job in all these different areas, but what they're trying to have fun with and trying to make light of is the absurdity of the Democrats' position and they're using memes and all these tools of social media to do that. Some people find that entertaining.
Johnson added, "Is he trolling the Democrats? Yes. Yes! Because that's what President Trump does and people are having fun with this.”
Johnson couldn't condemn Trump's behavior even when confronted by a Democratic lawmaker. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) went up to Johnson in a hallway in the Capitol and told Johnson that Trump is "unhinged."
"He is unwell. What are you doing?" Dean said to Johnson, to which he interjected with this cowardly response.
"A lot of folks on your side are too. I don’t control him," Johnson said.
Wow, what a profile in courage!
Other Republicans similarly couldn't bring themselves to criticize Trump.
Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI), who served as chair of the House Republican Conference, would not answer when asked by CNN's Wolf Blitzer if Trump's racist video was appropriate.
"Listen, the president sure can get a laugh and get a rise out of the Democrats with his social media. I don't think that's anything new to anybody," McClain said.
Sadly for Republicans, while debasing themselves to defend Trump will make Dear Leader happy, it won't help the party deflect blame for their shutdown.
Polls show that voters think Republicans are at fault for not getting a funding bill passed—and Trump posting creepy and racist AI videos is unlikely to change that.
"Who do Americans blame more for the shutdown? They blame Republicans," CNN polling analyst Harry Enten said. "The New York Times: By 7 points they blame Republicans. Marist: blame Trump and Republicans by 12 points. How about the Washington Post? By a 17-point margin" they blame Republicans.
