The GOP’s Narrow Path Past Trump
Rupert Murdoch apparently figured out a way of moving the Republicans past Donald Trump so they can promote younger, more pliable candidates.
In twin editorials in The New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, two Murdoch owned publications of radically different levels of quality, Trump was deemed unfit to ever hold office again due to his petulant three hour temper tantrum on January 6th, 2020 in which he refused to either tell his followers to leave the Capitol or to call out the National Guard.
Rather, he spent his time taunting Republican representatives and senators while musing aloud that maybe Mike Pence did deserve to be hanged.
When House minority leader Kevin McCarthy told Trump over the phone that “You need to get on TV right now, you need to get on Twitter, you need to call these people off” Trump replied “Kevin, they’re not my people. These are, these are antifa.”
McCarthy, who despite his many other grievous personal failings is at least capable of reading political signs and banners, said, “Yes they are, they just came through my windows and my staff is running for cover. Yeah, they’re your people. Call them off.”
To which Trump replied, “Well, Kevin, I guess they’re more upset about the election theft than you are.”
Trump, never capable of thinking two or more steps ahead, didn’t realize he just painted himself into a corner.
If he truly believed the mob was antifa, why didn’t he immediately tell his followers to leave while he sent the National Guard in to deal with the problem?
If he acknowledged the mob were his followers, why did he do nothing for three hours while they physically assaulted police, terrorized staff, vandalized offices, and stole valuable property?
He was gleefully watching all this unfold on Fox News. He knew what was going on. His own staff and many supporters urged him to tell the mob to leave because he was in danger of destroying everything his administration stood for (sidebar: Not a bad idea, I must admit).
This is where Murdoch -- and by extension the Republican party -- can legitimately claim he failed the MAGA movement. He was either willing to let a mob he believed to be criminal in intent ravage the Capitol, or he was willing to expose his own followers to criminal prosecution by not stopping them before things got too far out of hand.
That’s either cowardice or criminal negligence (hey, no reason it can’t be both, right?).
This is where the Republicans can squeeze past him, forever nullifying his hopes of being a kingmaker.
He threw his own people under the bus by refusing to do his duty. His deliberate inaction got several people killed, and ruined hundreds of other lives by hanging felony convictions on them.
Trump finally punked himself.
© Buzz Dixon
