A Lesson About Pain and Power
For Republicans, the time to ditch Trump is always tomorrow.
1. Horizons
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Charlie’s profound Morning Shots, in which he excavated Mitch McConnell remarks about Trump moments after voting not to convict him of impeachment:
He didn’t get away with anything. Yet. . . .
We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.
McConnell voted against an impeachment conviction, which could have barred Trump from holding office again. And he did so because he said the justice system could take care of Trump.
Today we have Republicans decrying the justice system’s attempt to hold Trump accountable. Here’s Ron DeSantis talking about Trump’s various indictments with Jake Tapper:
This country is going down the road of criminalizing political differences. I think that’s wrong. . . .
And so you have a situation where the Department of Justice, FBI had been weaponized against people they don’t like . . . And so what I’ve said, as president, my job is to restore a single standard of justice to end weaponization of these agencies.
We’re going to have a new FBI director on day one; we’re going to have big changes at the Department of Justice. . .
I hope he doesn’t get charged.
So where McConnell refused to convict on impeachment because he trusted the justice system to pursue Trump, DeSantis now attacks the justice system for indicting Trump—even going so far as to promise that he will fire the Trump-appointed, non-partisan director of the FBI in retaliation for the justice system doing what McConnell promised Americans it would do.
And here’s is the craziest part: Both McConnell and DeSantis are desperate to destroy Donald Trump and make sure he never holds power again.
Yet presented with the chance to stop Trump, both declined and instead told voters that Trump should absolutely be stopped . . . by someone else . . . tomorrow.
This is a pattern we have seen play out with Republicans over and over because of a naked truth about pain and power.