R&I – FS
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump issued a fusillade of falsehoods — from erroneous claims about voting machines changing votes to unfounded claims that he actually won the election. His Twitter feed read like the a delusional conspiracy theorist. He continued to play golf and, well, not do much else.
Surely this increasingly erratic behavior — particularly concerning the necessary transition to the oncoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden — would lead Republican elected officials to step in, en masse, to condemn him and insist that the time has come for him to step aside? Right? RIGHT?!?!
Uh, wrong.
“We invited every single Republican senator to appear here on @MeetThePress this morning,” NBC’s Chuck Todd said Sunday morning. “They all declined.”
In fact, according to Sunday show guests aggregated by Politico, there wasn’t a single Republican member of Congress — senator or House members — on the major shows on any network. (The only show where Republican members appeared was “Sunday Morning Futures,” which is hosted by pro-Trump anchor Maria Bartiromo.)
That is absolutely remarkable. Sunday talk shows are the bread and butter of aspiring politicians. They scrap and fight for coveted slots on those shows, knowing that the permanent political class watches them religiously — and that if you want to get your name out top donors, the media and the rest, doing a series of Sunday show appearances is a really good way to do that. And yet, not one Republican appeared on any of the major shows. And this is less than two weeks after the 2020 election! With lots and lots of people still paying close attention to politics!
Why? Simple: None of them wanted to a) defend Trump’s tweets or b) tell the President to tone it down, thereby incurring the wrath of the man who is, without question, still the most powerful person in GOP politics.
This is, in a word, gutless. Republicans are still running scared of Trump despite that a) in less than 10 weeks he will be an EX-president of the United States and b) by any objective measure, his words and actions post-election have been at best deeply irresponsible and at worst dangerous to our democracy.
Best in Moderation
Article URL : https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/16/politics/republican-senators-donald-trump-2020/index.html