The Silent Republicans
Why are so many Republican officeholders being silent as former President Donald Trump threatens to create an autocracy, if not a dictatorship, if elected again as President?
Why aren’t these Republicans calling out former President Trump for his off-the-rails and dangerous political rhetoric, and for his threats to root out “vermin” groups and create “detention camps” that invoke the days of Nazi Germany?
A few present and former Republican officeholders, former White House staff, and presidential candidates have challenged Trump’s attacks on our democracy, on our Constitution, and on the rule of law – including Senator Mitt Romney, former Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, former White House staffers John Kelly and Cassidy Hutchinson, and Republican presidential candidates Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson.
But, the great bulk of Republican officeholders are just sitting silently by as Trump makes clear that, if elected again, he will work to vitiate the rule of law, prosecute his opponents, and carve up our democracy.
Where was self-styled constitutional authority Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), when Trump called for the termination of the Constitution in order to overturn the 2020 presidential election?
Where was Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and his fellow Republican military hawks, when Trump said that former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley deserved to be executed?
Where were Harvard and Yale law school graduates, Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Josh Hawley (R-MO), when Trump indicated he is prepared to weaponize the Justice Department and FBI against his opponents and said, “If I happen to be President and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, ‘Go down and indict them’”?
Where was House Speaker Mike Johnson, a lawyer, when Trump said he would pardon “a large portion” of those convicted of ransacking the Capitol on January 6?
Where was former Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Grassley (R-IA) when Trump attempted the first presidential coup in our history?
Where were House and Senate Republicans when Trump said undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” in a rant ominously reminiscent of Hitler’s railing about the impurity of immigrants, Jews, and interracial couples?
Where was House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) when Trump threatened judges, prosecutors, their staffs, and potential witnesses in his criminal and civil cases, triggering hundreds of anonymous threats?
Where were congressional Republicans when Trump endangered those involved in his criminal cases, warning, “If you go after me, I’m coming after you”?
We know what happened when Trump urged his followers to “march” on the Capitol on January 6, telling them that “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” His followers dutifully fought like hell, ransacked the Capitol, viciously attacked the police, erected a gallows, and called for Vice President Pence to be hanged.
Trump’s threats are all too real and extremely dangerous.
Congressional Republicans had a moment of truth immediately after January 6, when many called out Trump for inciting the mob attack on the Capitol.
But most soon went back to genuflecting to Trump and within a year the Republican Party, reflecting the backtracking of most congressional Republicans, labeled the violent January 6 attack “legitimate civil discourse.”
The silence of most Republican officeholders today makes them Trump enablers.
If Trump returns to the presidency, they will be complicit participants as he turns the presidency into his personal fiefdom, using it for revenge, and ramps up his efforts to destroy our democracy.
History will be anything but kind to these congressional Republicans who have kept bending the knee to Trump. They appear ready to accept anything Trump does, so long as they can keep their jobs – the fate of our democracy be damned.
So, the bottom line question is this: Why aren’t these congressional Republicans defending our democracy?
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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s and other recent newsletters here. And, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
