Every Republican In Congress Is A Trump Republican

Killer by Nancy Ohanian

Yesterday saw a growing consensus that all Trump does is make everything worse. IT's almost as if he wants to start a second American Civil War! Yesterday, This Week reported that some Trump advisors-- including Kushner-in-law-- "don't think there's any political benefit in Trump addressing the nation from the Oval Office since the few times he's done so haven't turned out so great." Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), on State of the Union went even further, indicating that Trump is a poor leader who doesn't know how-- or is unwilling to-- "lower the temperature" and that he's "continuing to escalate the rhetoric-- the opposite of the message that should be coming out of the White House."

The Lincoln Project is out with another killer ad today, "Flag of Treason," although I would have called it "A Time for Chosing." Obviously it's about Trump, but if you think about it more closely, it about every Republican in the Senate and every Republican in the House who continues to enable him, many strictly for their own careerism. Seantors up for reelection in November, especially Cory Gardner (R-CO), Steve Daines (R-MT), Martha McSally (R-AZ), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), David Perdue (R-GA), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Susan Collins (R-ME), Joni Ernst (R-IA) and, most of all, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) should watch this clip and think about their own roles. And their constituents should watch it and ask the same question about them before they decide how to vote in November. Why don't the DNC, the DSCC and the DCCC come up with ads this good?





David Nather, reporting for Axios detects a crack in the GOP shield protecting Trump. I don't see it (nor does Nather, but it makes good copy). He wrote that the psycho-president's "mockery of coronavirus masks, his false claims about the dangers of voting by mail and his insinuations that a cable TV nemesis was involved in a murder are testing more high-profile Republicans' willingness to look the other way." And then adds a caveat: "Republicans learned a long time ago how dangerous it is to alienate Trump’s base-- which is why any hint of disagreement, even a whisper, is so remarkable when it happens." But, come on... this counts as a crack in the GOP shield?

This week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made a point of embracing the public health recommendations-- putting on a mask at appearances in Kentucky and declaring, “There should be no stigma attached to wearing a mask."

• He’s not the only Republican to counterprogram Trump. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said wearing a mask is "about loving your fellow human being. … You are not wearing it so much for yourself as you are wearing it for that person that you will come in contact with," per CNN.
• North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum urged his state’s residents to “dial up your empathy” and called the mask debate “a senseless dividing line.”
• Even Trump favorite Sean Hannity declared: “If you can't social distance, please wear the mask.”

...After Trump threatened to withhold funds from Nevada for sending out mail voting ballots, its Republican secretary of state, Barbara Cegavske, pushed back in a statement: “For over a century, Nevadans, including members of the military, citizens residing outside the state, voters in designated mailing precincts, and voters requesting absentee ballots, have been voting by mail with no evidence of election fraud.”

After Trump announced Friday that the U.S. will sever its ties with the organization, Senate health committee chair Lamar Alexander [who is retiring in a few months] said in a statement: "I disagree with the president’s decision."

There should be a close look at the mistakes the organization may have made on the coronavirus, Alexander said, but "the time to do that is after the crisis has been dealt with, not in the middle of it."

Republicans were more subtle in distancing themselves from Trump's tweet warning the Minneapolis protesters that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

But there was an unmistakable difference in the tone of McConnell's statement-- which declared that "our city, our state, and our country have to pull together"-- and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's statement on Twitter that George Floyd's memory should be honored by "rebuilding America into a more perfect union."

As Nather wrote... "not exactly a revolt." Nope. Republicans have pretty much decided to go down with the ship. By all means, throw them an anchor. Republicans in the House who once tried cultivating quasi-moderate images despite Trump, are all silent now. Where are Fred Upton, John Katko, Alex Mooney, Elise Stefanik, Brian Mast, Jaime Herrera Beutler, Vern Buchanan, David Joyce, Tom Reed, Steve Chabot and Mario Diaz-Balart today? Not to mention the Senate "moderates" like Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and... well, there are no others, unless you want to count Mitt Romney, Rob Portman and [giggle] Cory Gardner. Down with the ship-- as many of them as possible!