Opinion by
Jennifer Rubin
Columnist
Today at 10:30 a.m. EDT
It makes for uncomfortable TV. Republicans get really grumpy. Republicans who enabled former president Donald Trump right up to the 2020 election — or beyond — do not like to admit complicity in the rise of a dangerous authoritarian movement. That, however, does not mean the rest of us should forgive and forget.
We saw how incapable Trump enablers are of defending themselves on Sunday’s “This Week.” Journalist Roland Martin simply would not allow Trump ally and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie or Trump’s former Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur off the hook.
Christie gave a high-minded speech at the Reagan Library last week urging his party to step away from conspiracy theories. Fine. But does he imagine we have amnesia? He was a loyal Trump supporter who even helped prepare him for a presidential debate.
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Martin weighed in:
Christie’s bizarre excuse for enabling Trump — he ran against him before helping his campaign — is essentially a defense of partisan hackery. Once the party spoke, what choice did he have but to go along?
Unlike Christie, some Republicans expressed remorse about having voted for Trump (e.g., Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming) and some — a surprisingly long list of Republicans — even endorsed President Biden in 2020. Some (e.g., Sen. Mitt Romney) publicly announced they would not vote for Trump in either 2016 or 2020.
Why does this matter? For starters, historical accuracy matters, and individuals should not be permitted to shirk or disguise their responsibility for a party that has adopted Trump’s dishonest, racist, irrational and authoritarian style of politics that sparked a violent effort to overturn the election. Second, as these past Trump toadies continue to pop up as pundits, professors and authors who opine on issues of the day, we need to ensure that audiences, students and readers understand exactly what they did in creating the MAGA catastrophe. How else can we measure their credibility, especially if they still do not own up to their role?
And that brings us to the role of the mainstream media in helping Republicans launder their résumés. When Republicans — especially congressional leaders or 2024 presidential contenders — come on air or are quoted in print and online media, reporters must remind the public again and again what they did during the Trump years.
When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) appears on the Sunday shows, the host should remind the audience he supported the lawless president in two elections, twice refused to vote to remove him and failed to call out his serial lying. That’s relevant, for example, when McConnell accuses the current administration of lesser offenses.
When House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) opines on the administration, he should be asked why he still opposes investigation into the domestic terrorist attack on Jan. 6 and why he still seeks the approval or counsel of the president who sparked the violence. He should be read the latest screed from characters such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and asked why they are still in the caucus.
In sum, Republicans who have brought us to this point — where anti-vaccine delusion, racist replacement theory and Jan. 6 denial are standard fare from Republican officials and candidates — should not be permitted to escape accountability for their past or to present themselves as credible defenders of democracy. That, of course, would require the media and political class to give up the canard that today’s GOP is just another political party, rather than a dangerous cult that undermines American democracy.
Jennifer Rubin
Columnist
Today at 10:30 a.m. EDT
It makes for uncomfortable TV. Republicans get really grumpy. Republicans who enabled former president Donald Trump right up to the 2020 election — or beyond — do not like to admit complicity in the rise of a dangerous authoritarian movement. That, however, does not mean the rest of us should forgive and forget.
We saw how incapable Trump enablers are of defending themselves on Sunday’s “This Week.” Journalist Roland Martin simply would not allow Trump ally and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie or Trump’s former Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur off the hook.
Christie gave a high-minded speech at the Reagan Library last week urging his party to step away from conspiracy theories. Fine. But does he imagine we have amnesia? He was a loyal Trump supporter who even helped prepare him for a presidential debate.
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Martin weighed in:
Isgur thinks people won’t be “persuaded” by reminding them that she enabled arguably the most corrupt Justice Department in history. That tactical analysis is a wee bit self-serving and in any event non-responsive. She supported a president and party that attacked truth and democracy (and still does!) at every turn. (She was previously more forthcoming in an op-ed for The Post, admitting, “We told ourselves that, by going [into the administration], we were preventing greater harm to the country. But we obscured the reality of a Trump presidency from the public. We gave voters a false sense of what kind of president Trump was.”)
Christie’s bizarre excuse for enabling Trump — he ran against him before helping his campaign — is essentially a defense of partisan hackery. Once the party spoke, what choice did he have but to go along?
Unlike Christie, some Republicans expressed remorse about having voted for Trump (e.g., Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming) and some — a surprisingly long list of Republicans — even endorsed President Biden in 2020. Some (e.g., Sen. Mitt Romney) publicly announced they would not vote for Trump in either 2016 or 2020.
Why does this matter? For starters, historical accuracy matters, and individuals should not be permitted to shirk or disguise their responsibility for a party that has adopted Trump’s dishonest, racist, irrational and authoritarian style of politics that sparked a violent effort to overturn the election. Second, as these past Trump toadies continue to pop up as pundits, professors and authors who opine on issues of the day, we need to ensure that audiences, students and readers understand exactly what they did in creating the MAGA catastrophe. How else can we measure their credibility, especially if they still do not own up to their role?
And that brings us to the role of the mainstream media in helping Republicans launder their résumés. When Republicans — especially congressional leaders or 2024 presidential contenders — come on air or are quoted in print and online media, reporters must remind the public again and again what they did during the Trump years.
When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) appears on the Sunday shows, the host should remind the audience he supported the lawless president in two elections, twice refused to vote to remove him and failed to call out his serial lying. That’s relevant, for example, when McConnell accuses the current administration of lesser offenses.
When House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) opines on the administration, he should be asked why he still opposes investigation into the domestic terrorist attack on Jan. 6 and why he still seeks the approval or counsel of the president who sparked the violence. He should be read the latest screed from characters such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and asked why they are still in the caucus.
In sum, Republicans who have brought us to this point — where anti-vaccine delusion, racist replacement theory and Jan. 6 denial are standard fare from Republican officials and candidates — should not be permitted to escape accountability for their past or to present themselves as credible defenders of democracy. That, of course, would require the media and political class to give up the canard that today’s GOP is just another political party, rather than a dangerous cult that undermines American democracy.
