That’s what I see when I look at Trump’s rallies, that when I see the lies spewing
at these people, and people going, “I gotta believe in something and he said he’d bring
my manufacturing job back and she didn’t and I’m all in.”
But at the end of the day, aside from, “Yeah, I don’t want to pay taxes,” it’s race.
It’s race.
This is about—this is about the Republican party – or a wing of it – going, “this
is our last chance to save the party, and if we don’t it’s the end of the Republican
Party.”
And the only way they can do that was to tap the race button and say, “go ahead, it’s
okay.”
And he did.
And they did.
And that was the only card they had left to play and they played it and they aren’t
gonna go quietly.
And that’s why when you look at the cowardice of the 15 or so Republicans in the Senate
who are still quiet.
And I’m not talking about Bob Corker and Jeff Flake and who’s the other one that
went out the back door?
That’s not courage.
That’s making sure you’ve got a job somewhere after politics.
Courage is standing up and being a true patriot like we used to have way back in 1776 and
all of that.
We need-- who are the heroes gonna be?
Is it gonna be the Daniel Ellsberg Pentagon Papers guy?
Who’s the guy the Justice Department’s gonna go, “Here, Washington Post, here’s
the unredacted—go.”
I’m waiting for that guy.
We’re all waiting for that guy.
We need people like that, and to look at Congress with all their politics going, “Well if
I do this, I can’t do that.”
You’re all worthless to me right now.
You are all worthless.
I need people to stand up and be heroic.
Who are you?
Because democracy is at stake.
Wow.
This is Jeff Daniels hitting the nail on the head with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace in a speech
that was strikingly reminiscent of his character on the Newsroom, anchor Will McAvoy.
But there was nothing fake about this performance, in which he pointed out the fact that Republicans
have been completely incapable of showing any courage during this administration.
And he’s right, considering the closest that we’ve seen to any shred of courage
were a handful of Republicans writing the equivalent of a [pointing] strongly worded
letter while walking out the door.
Essentially the only Republicans to push back against Trump were those who announced their
retirement immediately thereafter, like Jeff Flake and Bob Corker and Charlie Dent.
And what that tells us is clear: Republicans clearly know that the actions of this administration
are abhorrent, but it’s just not politically convenient for them to speak out about it.
And nothing says leadership like allowing our democracy to get systematically dismantled
out of fear of being on the receiving end of a mean tweet by a 72-year-old who can’t
get through a single sentence where he spells all of the words correctly.
That’s what’s keeping elected officials on the right from defending the foundation
of this democracy.
This guy—
And the latest evidence of this is the way Republicans have responded to one of their
own, Representative Justin Amash, who became the first Republican to call for Trump’s
impeachment in light of the Mueller report’s findings.
He issued a long thread on Twitter, backing up his decision with a detailed explanation.
He pointed out that Bill Barr deliberately misrepresented Mueller’s report, that Trump
has engaged in impeachable conduct, blamed partisanship for eroding our system of checks
and balances and disclosed that few members of Congress have even read the report.
And to a neutral observer, all of this would be completely obvious.
Clearly Barr misrepresented Mueller’s report; he literally tried to exonerate the president
by pointing to a document that explicitly says does not exonerate the president.
Trump HAS engaged in impeachable conduct, including a staggering 10 instances of obstruction
of justice.
It wouldn’t take a legal expert to realize that if anyone on the face of the earth besides
Trump did what he did, they’d have been indicted 10 times over by now.
In terms of checks and balances, congressional Republicans have effectively contracted every
ounce of their power to the executive branch, abdicating their role of advise and consent
for judicial nominees and the allocation of funds to Trump.
And finally, Republicans were claiming that the results of the Mueller probe were a win
for Trump before Mueller even released it, so let’s not pretend that anyone on the
right is actually pointing to the substance of the report in their breathless defense
of the president.
But instead of applauding Amash for actually having a backbone, he was attacked by his
own party, including minority leader Kevin McCarthy—
McCarthy: Well, apparently, those who know Justin Amash, this is exactly what he wants.
He wants to have attention.
Now, you’ve got to understand Justin Amash.
He’s been in Congress quite some time.
I think he’s only ever asked one question in all the committees that he’s been in.
He votes more with Nancy Pelosi than he ever votes with me.
It’s a question whether he’s even in our Republican conference as a whole.
What he wants is attention in this process.
He’s not a criminal attorney.
He’s never met Mueller.
He’s never met Barr.
And now he’s coming forward with this?
Because this is what he wants.
He wants a Sunday show to put his name forward with a question.
That’s how beholden to Trump the Republican Party has become, that’s the extent to which
this party has devolved into a cult of personality.
That they will eat one of their own for the crime of having a shred of integrity, for
defending this country’s principles over a career conman staring down the barrel of
a slew of investigations.
And the worst part is that there have been reports that Republicans ARE privately concerned
about Mueller’s findings, that they know it’s bad for Trump, but that they’re still
too cowardly to speak up.
Which means the attacks on Justin Amash are in especially bad faith, because they’re
attacking him for something that they themselves have expressed.
Not that hypocrisy on the right is surprising, but there really is no floor in terms of the
lengths that they’ll stoop to.
And so while Jeff Daniels and Nicolle Wallace and the rest of the country wait for some
hero to break ranks, to finally comprehend the gravity of the situation that Trump has
gotten us into, the likely outcome remains that if it hasn’t happened by now, it probably
isn’t going to happen.
So to every Republican who can’t manage to find a backbone while this administration
attempts to undo everything that actually makes this country great, America has a message
for you: “You’re all worthless to me right now.”