Cowards, Liars, Quislings Powering Trump To A Dictatorship
The chickens are coming home to roost, again.
Throughout trump’s four disastrous years as president, nearly every Republican lawmaker either applauded or a few offered tepid criticisms of trump’s dangerous words, from his claims that the COVID-19 pandemic would simply disappear to his hollow warnings that he has a nuclear button “much bigger & more powerful” than the nuclear weapons of North Korea and that “My Button works!”
In those early years of the trump regime, Republican apologists-enablers reacted to trump’s lunacy by saying it was all bluster, just “trump being trump” and that the rest of the administration and the congress would reign him in.
Turn the clock up to Sept. 29, 2023, and polls show that it is entirely possible that the thug may be anointed for another four years to destroy the nation and wreak havoc on the rest of the world.
And yet, the enabling, rationalizing, apologizing continues. Many Republicans still insist the 2020 presidential election was rigged and that the media exaggerated the seriousness of the Jan. 6, 2020 riot at the Capitol by trump supporters. These quislings parrot their flawed leader’s outrageous claims that the Justice Department is fulfilling some kind of political grudge by indicting trump five times, with a total of 91 criminal charges in four cases.
Yet, during last week’s GOP presidential debate, there was hardly a word from the seven candidates about the elephant in the room, AKA trump. The worst comment about trump came from Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who said trump was “missing in action” while candidate Chris Christie called him “Donald duck” and Mike Pence criticized trump for wanting to consolidate too much power in Washington, D.C. Not exactly fighting words or the words of people who understand we are on the brink of national madness. The candidates, apart from Christie, are either frightened little children, rank politicians or probably, both.
The worst is surely yet to come.
Trump has said he would require “retribution” for anyone who had crossed him, including charging media that opposed him with treason and invoking a possible death sentence for former chief of staff, Gen. Mark Milley. In the midst of the Jan. 6 uprising, Milley contacted China to assure them the U.S. had no plans to attack and for that, trump said, Milley is a traitor.
Retired four-star U.S. Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey warned that trump-supporting MAGA Republicans, “is a parallel to the 1930s in Nazi Germany.”
Trump ominously told his captive MAGA followers that he would take no captive political enemies as he leads his minions over the apocalyptic cliff.
“I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution,” trump said.
The dictator in waiting has labeled judges and government lawyers as the enemy who need to be stopped in their so-called vendetta.
And the silence from the great number of Republican officials is deadening. But, again, nothing new. Here are a few past examples of trump’s most unsettling comments and actions.
Starting the new 2018 year in menacing fashion, trump again raised the prospect of nuclear war with North Korea, boasting that he commands a “much bigger” and “more powerful” arsenal of devastating weapons than does North Korea.
“North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times,’” trump tweeted. “Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!”
The Senate Majority Leader at the time, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., only that he wishes trump would tweet less.
Early in his 2016 presidential campaign, trump impugned migrants from Mexico as “people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
“The Mexican Government is forcing their most unwanted people into the United States. They are, in many cases, criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc.,” trump said.
Sen. Ted Cruz R-Texas, commended Trump for bringing immigration to the forefront of the discussion.
“I salute Donald Trump for focusing on the need to address illegal immigration,” said Cruz, always the willing lap dog. “The Washington cartel doesn’t believe we need to secure the borders. The Washington cartel supports amnesty and I think amnesty’s wrong, and I salute Donald Trump for focusing on it.”
Cruz said trump “has a colorful way of speaking. It’s not the way I speak, but I’m not going to engage in the media’s game of throwing rocks and attacking other Republicans. I’m just not going to do it.”
Cruz lost his bid for the 2016 presidential nomination after a series of crude, personal attacks by trump. Later, Cruz was a staunch trumper who gave credence to the false claim that the 2020 election was fraudulent.
Former Pennsylvania senator, Rick Santorum, also praised trump although he didn’t like the”verbiage he’s used.”
“I like the fact that he is focused on a very important issue for American workers and particularly, legal immigrants in this country,” the former Pennsylvania senator said.
Santorum supported teaching the pseudoscience of intelligent design alongside evolution in schools. He also said in 2021 that America was founded by white Europeans and that prior to their arrival, America was populated by nothing more than a handful of primitive warring Native American tribes.
On Jan. 2018, trump asked during an Oval Office meeting on immigration reform “Why do we want all these people from ‘shithole countries’ coming here?”
Among the few Republicans who responded, Rep. Mia Love, R-Utah, said trump’s comments were “unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation’s values.” Mia Love, whose parents came to the U.S. from Haiti, said trump’s behavior is “unacceptable from the leader of our nation.”
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., could not have been more tepid in his response. Scott, an African American, is running for the GOP presidential nomination and said on a recent debate that he will support trump if he wins in 2024.
“The American family was born from immigrants fleeing persecution and poverty and searching for a better future,” said Scott, while failing to utter trump’s name. “Our strength lies in our diversity, including those who came here from Africa, the Caribbean and every other corner of the world. To deny these facts would be to ignore the brightest part of our history.”
Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, jumped on the milquetoast platform and said that “If these comments are accurate, they are disappointing.”
“I would not talk about nations like this, because I believe the people of those countries are made in the image of God and have worth and human dignity,” said Lankford who also chose not mention trump by name. Lankford voted to acquit in trump’s second impeachment trial and voted against creating the January 6 commission to investigate the riot.
The late, former Senator, Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, wasn’t ready to criticize trump and said he too wanted “a more detailed explanation regarding the President’s comments.”
In 2016, Hatch endorsed trump for president, even after trump had claimed that a federal judge was biased against the president because of his Mexican heritage.
“From what I know about Trump, he’s not a racist but he does make a lot of outrageous statements … I think you can criticize a judge but it ought to be done in a formal way,” Hatch said.
Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., tweeted refreshingly that trump “is a racist and this is the proof. His hateful rhetoric has no place in the @WhiteHouse. Every single Republican must denounce these comments now.” They didn’t.
“Just stay calm. It will go away,” trump said on March 10, 2020, of the COVID-19 virus which went on to kill nearly a million people in the U.S. and millions more around the world.
“It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear,” trump said.
Trump later went on to tout use of the drugs ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to fight the virus. Ivermectin is a drug primarily used to deworm livestock such as horses and cows. Hydroxychloroquine has been used to treat malaria, amebiasis, and autoimmune diseases. Scientific research has not shown that neither drug was effective in treating the novel coronavirus, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned Americans not to use the drugs for COVID-19 infections.
Trump’s comments put the lives of millions of people into jeopardy. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kent. couldn’t muster up any criticism and instead said that “hatred for Trump” was hindering research into ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19.
“The hatred for Trump deranged these people so much, that they’re unwilling to objectively study it,” Paul said. “So someone like me that’s in the middle on it, I can’t tell you because they will not study ivermectin. They will not study hydroxychloroquine without the taint of their hatred for Donald Trump.”
And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., had her typical, uneducated and informed comments that “Ivermectin, monoclonal antibodies, & other treatments are saving lives.
“…[O]ur response to #COVID19 should be working towards ending obesity, promote covid treatments that are proven to work, & stop the politically driven mass hysteria,” Greene tweeted. “Allow people to choose natural immunity or vaccines, w/o discrimination.”
Greene’s twitter account was later suspended for repeatedly sharing coronavirus misinformation.
Most of the the 241 Republicans in Congress kept their mouths shut after release of the Access Hollywood tape which showed trump bragging that he could grope women without consequence because he is a “star.”
Hatch described trump’s sordid comments about women as “offensive and disgusting.” Despite the “offensive and disgusting” words, Hatch was offended but not enough to withdraw his support of trump.
A total of 16 Republicans did decide to withdraw their endorsement of trump.
Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., called trump “a candidate whose flaws are beyond mere moral shortcomings and who shows a disgust for American character and a disdain for dignity unbecoming of the Presidency. I cannot and will not support someone who brags about degrading and assaulting women.” In 2020, Gardner had second thoughts and endorsed trump for president.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said the comments were “offensive and wrong”and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., called on trump to quit the race. On May 28, 2021, Thune voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the January 6 capitol riot.
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., called trump’s comments an “assault of women,” and the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said trump’s comments, “make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy.”
In 2017, trump defended white supremacists and insisted that both sides were to blame for a deadly rally held Aug. 11–12 by white nationalists in Charlottsville, Va. The so-called Unite the Right rally included neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Klansmen and far-right militias. Some groups chanted racist and anti-Semitic slogans and carried weapons, Nazi and neo-Nazi symbols, the Valknut, Confederate battle flags, Deus vult crosses, flags, and other symbols of various past and present anti-Semitic and anti-Islamic groups.
“You also had some very fine people on both sides,” trump said. “You had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists. The press has treated them absolutely unfairly.”
Some Republicans denounced trump and even used his name.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was a strong critic of trump and is now one of his most devoted followers. In 2017, before he found god, Graham said “Trump took a step backward by again suggesting there is moral equivalency between the white supremacist neo-Nazis and KKK members who attended the Charlottesville rally and people like Ms. (Heather) Heyer. I, along with many others, do not endorse this moral equivalency.” Heyer was demonstrating against the neo-Nazis when she was killed after one neo-Nazi slammed his car into a group of protesters.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is also now a big trumper. But in 2017, he took the fearless step to tweet, “Mr. President,you can’t allow #WhiteSupremacists to share only part of blame. They support idea which cost nation & world so much pain.”
Gardner, a 2020 trump supporter, said “The President was wrong” in blaming the left.
Rep. Leonard Lance, R-N.J., a lawmaker known for his less than courageous stands, tweeted, “Mr. President, there is only one side: AGAINST white supremacists, neo-Nazis, anti-Semites & the KKK. They have no place in America or GOP.”
And there were a few Republicans who didn’t use trump’s name but took the honorable and most bold step of denouncing racism.
“We can have no tolerance for an ideology of racial hatred,” said then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. said in a statement, without using Trump’s name. “There are no good neo-Nazis, and those who espouse their views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms. We all have a responsibility to stand against hate and violence, wherever it raises its evil head.”
Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush released a joint statement where they denounced racism but couldn’t bring themselves to using trump’s name.
“America must always reject racial bigotry, anti-Semitism, and hatred in all forms,” they said in a statement.
Shortly after his inauguration, trump, who had called climate change a hoax, withdrew the nation from the Paris climate agreement. The historic agreement was approved by 196 countries as a framework to fight climate change.
Rep. Larry Bucshon, R-Ind., said trump made the right move and that the nation must continue to work to “minimize our impact on the environment through innovation and technology.” He said the Paris accord was a “flawed deal,” is “unfair to American workers and puts our country at an economic disadvantage to the benefit of countries like China, Iran and India.”
Cruz commended trump for “putting American jobs first. This is great news for the TX economy & for hardworking Americans.”
Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., cheered for trump for “prioritizing the bottom line of hard-working Americans over the agendas of environmental extremists.”
While a senator, Inhofe rejected climate science, and supported constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage, and to make English the national language of the United States. According to OpenSecrets, Inhofe has received over $529,000 from the oil and gas industry since 2012.
McConnell said trump was “committed to protecting middle class families by dealing another significant blow to #Obama’s #waroncoal.”
In July 2018, trump refused to blame Russia for interfering in the 2016 presidential election, in stark disagreement with the U.S. intelligence community assessment that Russia meddled with the election. Trump made his comments while speaking at a news conference next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Again, McConnell was duplicitous when he said, “I’ve said a number of times and I say it again, the Russians are not our friends and I entirely believe the assessment of our intelligence community.” McConnell refused to say if he would tell Trump that he disagreed with him.
Rep. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., then chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also couldn’t bring himself to use trump’s name, saying, “I was very disappointed and saddened with the equivalency that he gave between them (the U.S. intelligence agencies) and what Putin was saying.”
Sen. Tim Scott wouldn’t criticize trump by name but instead said “The President’s summit in Helsinki today should have been an attempt at confronting Russian aggression, hacking, and election interference. Russia is not a friend or ally. As Americans, we stand up for our interests and values abroad; but I fear today was a step backwards.”
Hatch also waffled in his criticism of trump.
“Russia interfered in the 2016 election,” Hatch said in a statement. “Our nation’s top intelligence agencies all agree on that point. From the President on down, we must do everything in our power to protect our democracy by securing future elections from foreign influence and interference, regardless of what Vladimir Putin or any other Russian operative says.”
In December 2022, trump continued his false claim of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and called for termination of the Constitution to reinstate him to power.
“A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump posted on his social network Truth Social.
After days of silence and apparently testing the political climate, several top Republicans condemned trump’s comments on disembowling a key to the democratic system. Few said it should disqualify trump from running again for the White House, and many more Republicans remained silent.
The best that Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, could muster was that the comments were “irresponsible.”
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the №2 Senate Republican, dodged the issue.
“He’s going to say what he’s going to say. I don’t think anybody’s going to control that, but I do think if you’re one of the other candidates, this is a golden opportunity,” said Thune.