Last night Chris Hayes mused a bit on the earnest Trump staffers who testified to the J6 Committee about the moment they acknowledged Trump was not behaving well.
The two staffers who testified Thursday, for example, both decided to resign on January 6. And I’m glad they did, and I am grateful they chose to testify, but damn. What took them so long? And even now I’m not sure they’ve fully faced the truth about the pile of avarice and ignorance that Trump really is, and how much damage he did to the nation.
It may be significant that today, the editorial boards of both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post — both Murdoch media — are calling Trump’s failure to act on January 6 shameful. The WSJ editorial board cannot resist throwing some shade at the committee hearings, of course, but they slammed Trump hard, at long last. “His only focus was to find any means — damn the consequences — to block the peaceful transfer of power,” the Post writes. “There is no other explanation, just as there is no defense, for his refusal to stop the violence.”
Well, yeah. But will that stop the Post from endorsing Trump’s presumed 2024 bid to go back to the White House? Or, if not Trump, some other authoritarian pile of bigotry?
At the New York Times, Michelle Goldberg writes about the myth of the good Trump official. She writes that the parade of Republican witnesses to the committee, all of whom had stood by Trump when he did other underhanded, damaging things, were all fulsomely praised by co-chair Liz Cheney for their integrity and courage. And, of course, that integrity and courage showed up a tad late to the party.
It is a sign of the committee Democrats’ love of country that they have allowed the hearings to proceed this way. They are crafting a story about Jan. 6 as a battle between Republican heroism and Republican villainy. It seems intended to create a permission structure for Trump supporters to move on without having to disavow everything they loved about his presidency, or to admit that Jan. 6 was the logical culmination of his sadistic politics.
If you believe, as I do, that Trump’s sociopathy makes him a unique threat to this country’s future, it makes sense to try to lure Republicans away from him rather than damn them for their complicity. There is a difference, however, between a smart narrative and an accurate one. In truth, you can’t cleave Trump and his most shameless antidemocratic enablers off from the rest of the Republican Party, because the party has been remade in his image. Plenty of ex-Trump officials have come off well in the hearings, including the former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger, the former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and, in video testimony, the former White House counsel Pat Cipollone. That shouldn’t erase the ignominy of having served Trump in the first place.
Consider Rusty Bowers, the Arizona speaker of the state house whose testimony in the fourth hearing underscored the Trump campaign’s lack of evidence for its election fraud claims. Even after his clear and forthright testimony that was devastating to Trump, he declared he would still vote for Trump in 2024. Say what? Since then, he has had some second thoughts. I don’t see how any rational person could know what Bowers knows and still even fleetingly entertain the idea of voting for Trump again. I have little forgiveness for anyone who voted for him the first time, never mind twice.
And it’s not just Trump. Now that Trump has paved the road to fascism, there are plenty of other politicians eager to take that road. Ron DeSantis, for example, is currently more popular among the base than Trump himself. He’s Trump without the baggage, they are saying. At Vox, Zack Beauchamp writes that DeSantis isn’t patterning himself after Trump but after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Even worse. And at New York Magazine, Jonathan Chait wrote that Ron DeSantis Would Kill Democracy Slowly and Methodically.
So, yeah, just “moving on” from Trump isn’t good enough. Republicans need to step back from the brink of right-wing authoritarianism, period. And they are no where close to doing that.
Jonathan Swan at Axios has been writing about a Schedule F executive order that was launched 13 days before the 2020 election. Basically, this was a plan to fire key career career civil service employees whose work impacts policies and replace them with Trump loyalists. Do read this; it’s terrifying. See also “Trump’s Revenge,” also by Swan. This plan would have gone into full effect in Trump’s second term, which he mercifully never got. But another authoritarian right-wing administration could revive it.
At this point, it’s possible the powers with the money, like the Murdochs, might have decided Trump is done and they are ready to move on to another tool. Hence, the editorials in the Wall Street Journal and New York Post.
In other news — there are reports this afternoon that the missing Secret Service texts have been found.
Today’s knee slapper — from this Kansas City Star editorial about Josh Hawley and what a waste he is, I learned that he has a new book coming out next year from Regnery Press. The title? Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs.
Heh.
I read somewhere that Missouri Dems are planning a Hawley 5K race. Here's hoping Hawley's political career is finished.
Hawley is not up for re-election until 2024. There is lots of time for 'corporate persons' to use their 'free $peech' to reinterpret history and mold voter opinion between now and then.
It's on video. He can't change that.
It's bad enough when you get mocked nationally for being a coward in a GIF that spread across the country quicker than a FOX "news" lie, but it's especially delicious that your own local paper targets your cowardice for mocking!
Congrats, Senator "Hee-haw" Hawley!!!
"Cue the Benny Hill theme-music!!!"
Once upon a time… there were people of integrity among the leadership of the GOP. Some were also opportunists but the same has always been true of Democrats in leadership positions. But now, you aren't allowed to criticize Trump in GOP circles.
Rusty B. was cast out by the AZ Republican leadership. I don't see how Liz Cheney will survive. I'll be pleasantly surprised if none of the witnesses in the J6 hearings are murdered. No, I'm not being rhetorical.
In a different decade, I'd agree that the Republicans who thought everything else that happened for four years was OK and normal deserve criticism, but they also know that Trump radicals will kill them if they can find them. So excuse me if I don't pile on. Yes, they're wrong for lying with Trump for years and ignoring the racism in his policies against Muslims and Hispanics. Absolutely! But these witnesses are not like Barr or Meadows, writing fiction to try to reshape the perception of the DOJ (among others) about how they bent the rules.
Also, the J6 Committee did not squelch claims by the Trump people about the "prior accomplishments" of the administration, which the coup attempt would sully. I wanted to puke until I realized – the hearings aren't for people like me, they are for the low-information moderate who CAN be persuaded not to ever support Trump. Having people who are/were suckers for Trump testify is enormously powerful!
Not enough said about how HUGE a screw-up McCarthy is – for withdrawing from the J6 Committee. Was a bigger gift EVER presented to Nancy Pelosi?? The production has been brilliant BECASE they are united in getting the truth out there – and the crap that Hawley and Gym Jordan would have thrown as a diversion did not happen.
Agree entirely. The Republicans of yore were intelligent and mostly dedicated to solving problems. It seems the ones these days have adopted techniques used by low level mobsters of the "nice business you got there, be ashamed if something happened to it" genre.
A diversity of ideas seems furthest from their minds, their existence appears to be dependent on "dear leader".
Wow. It's almost like Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon never existed.
I haven't forgotten about Tricky Dick or Joe. But both were initially allowed to abuse their authority by the GOP and taken down by the GOP later. Both became "too" authoritarian, even for the GOP and both were willing to lean on Republican leaders who questioned their methods.
Something new is how the rank and file idiots are now driving the bus. GOP leadership (with a few noble exceptions) is scared of being primaried from the far right. Leadership is on a leash held by the most extreme wack jobs. And it's having an effect.
If it holds up, there's been a 15-point shift in the GOP away from Republican candidates. IMO, it WILL hold up (and be cemented) when pre-election violence breaks out.
Larry Hogan, Republican guv of MD will not support the Trump-endorsed candidate for Governor. The Republican says they just gave up the governor's mansion. (I think he's right.)
My guess, as I look at the stress lines, is that the fracture will happen along a Trump/DeSantis fault line. Fox has been giving DeSantis so much air rime he's almost a host there. Fox may think that DeSantis will be their puppet if he gets the White House. Trump thought Fox was supposed to be an auxiliary office of the West Wing.
But Trump does not want to go to jail – So he will push Fox and DeSantis to move over. Trump will demand that the entire RNC and Republican leadership punish them for heresy – and they won't. A lot of Republicans, including McConnell, want Trump gone. And the Trump card (pun intended) is that Trump can form his own party and run as an independent if the GOP won't crown him king. And this will destroy the Republican party for the foreseeable future.
There used to be more or less liberal Republicans. Nelson Rockefeller and John Lindsay come to mind. There used to be Republicans who were traditionally conservative but not psychopaths. The Republican party used to contain a spectrum of opinions that went from hard right to center, and the center in those days is where center-left is now. Now it's mostly hard right.
Oh, Rupert where are you? You are playing the edges and making money in your media empire thanks to lax standards in this country against hate speech and journalistic honesty and integrity. Is this just a ploy to keep off the radar screen? The committee will be looking at changes needed to avoid another future coup attempt. We alone as a country allow media to feed hate addicts using public airwaves.
I remember when Rush Limbaugh had a seat at the republican convention (he got a moment's recognition on camera) at daddy Bush's convention. It was seen as a possible embarrassment for the party and the candidate at that time, it seemed. Now hate hags get speaking time and Rush and Trump played golf together. Now the "Kracken" take orders using right-wing media and the not very social internet media.
Your bold statement about a fascist wing's control of the republican party is well taken. 6/1 was hate mobilized as a political force. Righteous hate is obvious from the hearings as was how and by whom it was controlled. We know who profits from its sale on our public airwaves without ethical restraint. Legal restraint is needed, and this country needs to adopt the standards exemplified by other democracies.
Here's some more good/positive news.
Liz Cheney serves notice to Ginni Thomas that the Jan 6th committee is prepared to subpoena her (msn.com)
I wish the organizers funders of the rally jan 6 and the designer of the Rieffenstahl movie shown that day should be exposed and prosecuted as need be. Their messages showed they had previous knowledge of the planned capital riot and worried about their own cupability.
But will that stop the Post from endorsing Trump’s presumed 2024 bid to go back to the White House? Or, if not Trump, some other authoritarian pile of bigotry?
The Post and WSJ notwithstanding, will anything stop any of the testifying republicans, or those like Farah, Grisham and other former Trump admin officials, from supporting Trump again in 2024? I don't buy that it required almost four years to realize reasons why integrity, conscience and just common decency should require that you not work for Trump, and yet Hutchinson, Matthews and others testifying for the J6 committee all "waited" until the bloated, corrupt ship, reeking of indicted criminals and cheap Trump University level grifters along the way, slipped beneath the surface before indignantly deciding to step off. While I acknowledge the value of their testimony, and their courage in giving it, because I am sure they are being savaged by rabid Trumpers — many have faced as much for far less — they are not heroes in the same sense of someone acting after a threat is stopped is.
As damning as the testimony of Barr and the emotional Rusty Bowers was, they’ve already said they’ll support Trump in 2024. Many others now making the reputation rehab rounds will likely follow suit if Trump were to somehow get “elected” in 2024 and happily jump back on board; “I had to do it to protect the country” is what we’ll likely hear. And that’s because these people support wholeheartedly not just the republican party but the Trump ideal, ethos and personage of the party. To them, I suspect J6 was just a missed opportunity, a failed attempt at a worthy undertaking, and but for that failure, they’d still be with him.
I'd bet on Trump going to jail, via Fulton County DA Fanni Willis, with a helpful push off the stage via Rupert Murdoch and his kind who can read the tea leaves and are doing what they can to prepare the way for a DeSantis or some one with less baggage, and a whole lot more competent.
I saw a video of someone who runs Republican focus groups – she said the J6 hearings are having an effect, but not in the sense of any moral awakening or outrage, just in the political calculation that Trump has too much baggage to be re-elected.
I view Trump's insistence that he really is running in 2024 as somewhat genuine but also as a defense against Merrick Garland who could credibly be charged with trying to destroy Biden's opponent, a blatant politicization of the Justice Department. Garland would need to appoint a special prosecutor to avoid this conflict of interest- more and more delay, which is what Trump wants. Fanni Willis, save us!
A little off topic, but it's more good news. At least for me.
Man's 63-month prison term matches longest for Capitol riot (msn.com)
McGruff says take a bite out of crime! If you can't do the time than don't do the crime?