The shame of GOP lawmakers endorsing Trump now
Timothy P. Carney
Video Embed
In the 2024 GOP primary, some Republican politicians support former President Donald Trump over former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley or Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) out of loyalty — maybe Trump helped them win competitive primaries in the past. Others support Trump because they are very Trumpy themselves — in ideology and temperament. And others are openly and nakedly opportunists who never pretended to be anything else.
Yet the past few weeks have featured a new wave of Trump endorsers: establishment Republicans who know, or should know, just how unfit and harmful Trump is but see a personal upside in endorsing him.
BIDEN LOSES GROUND WITH YOUNG VOTERS AND MINORITY VOTING GROUPS: POLL
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) planted his Trump flag on Tuesday, stating he believes Trump, who stoked a violent and pointless riot at the Capitol by refusing to accept his 2020 defeat, is the best leader for his party.
Freshman Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) also endorsed Trump for the GOP nomination, suggesting she sees her party as one rightly headed by a serial philanderer who has less concern for honesty than nearly any politician on the scene today.
Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) made it clear he doesn’t value competence or character in the Oval Office when he endorsed Trump recently.
Everyone who has worked closely with Trump, whether members of his administration or powerful lawmakers, knows how thoroughly unfit he is for the presidency. His narcissism, his incontinence, his incuriosity, and his general lack of decency are just four traits that make him incapable of the sort of work the job requires.
Average voters likely don’t know this. Right-leaning voters know the media are extremely biased against Republicans and are getting more so, so they are apt to believe that everything negative reported about Trump is simply slander. Scalise, Scott, and the other lawmakers don’t have that excuse. They know how bad Trump is.
Trump’s establishment endorsers, also including Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Kevin Cramer (R-ND), either endorse Trump’s flaws or believe Trump is the inevitable nominee, so they might as well get on board with him.
Endorsing the guy who will win anyway has a long tradition among feckless or extremely calculating politicians. But when that guy is very harmful to your party and the country, then the endorsement is pernicious.
Endorsing a candidate is declaring that you think that candidate is a good man for the office. I don’t believe that Cramer, Britt, Scalise, Scott, or Graham believe Trump is a good man for the presidency or to head the GOP. It seems more likely they don’t mind declaring something glaringly false if such a declaration will aid them.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
It’s one thing to endorse Trump against a Democrat. To endorse Trump over more normal Republicans of much higher character, such as Haley and DeSantis, is another thing.
A few years from now, especially if Trump wins in 2024, expect Britt and Scalise and the others to say how disappointed they are in Trump for whatever horrible thing he did. We shouldn’t buy it.