As Democrats have painted Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump as a danger to democracy, other prominent commentators have noted that Trump’s success would not be possible without what they characterize as his political enablers.
Latecomers to that group include the very powerful Elon Musk, but long before Musk made his drastic turn to the right, myriad Republicans — James Comer, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz and more than there is room to mention — pledged their fealty to Trump despite what appeared to be his disregard for their purported principles.
Indeed, after a very brief post-January-6-insurrection stay in political purgatory, then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to court the ousted Trump’s support — and the GOP’s arms opened again to the twice-impeached former POTUS who controlled the purse strings and the cultish loyalty of a voting bloc these politicians needed.
[NOTE: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said of January 6 at the time: “The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.” McConnell today supports Trump’s candidacy.]
Republicans who rely on Trump’s power have justified their Trump support on the idea that Trump — whatever the deficiencies of his “conduct” — shares their “principles” and aligns with them on “policy.”
In an appearance in Pittsburgh, PA this week in support of Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Barack Obama spoke directly to those Republicans — like Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw — and asked them to account for their continued support in light of Trump’s increasingly dangerous lies.
This is four minutes of Barack Obama being both completely fed up with the shenanigans and very effective. pic.twitter.com/t8B2LSrvU7
— Symone D. Sanders Townsend (@SymoneDSanders) October 11, 2024
When the crowd applauded Obama’s expression of frustration with permissive Republicans who countenance lies that hurt Americans in exchange for political power (or political shelter, as it may be), Obama interrupted: “I’m not looking for applause right now,” he said.
Addressing Trump’s claims that the FEMA is hurting rather than helping people and that Democrats have stolen money from relief efforts and given it to “illegal migrants” — just two of the falsehoods that have been echoed by MAGA adherents — Obama asked the GOP leaders to reflect and to reconsider what’s important.
“You have a guy who will just lie about it to score political points and this has consequences,” Obama said. “The idea of intentionally trying to deceive people in their most desperate and vulnerable moment…my question is when did that become OK?”
Obama then said: “I want to ask Republicans, people who are conservative…when did that become OK? Why would we go along with that?”
Obama, his anger rising, tried to illustrate the point by bringing it close to home: “If someone you’re doing business with just outright lies and manipulates, you’d stop doing business with them. Even if you had a family member who acted like that, you might still love ’em but you’d tell ’em: you’ve got a problem. And you wouldn’t put them in charge of anything.”
The 44th president’s riled-up disquisition about what strength is closes the segment — and is worth viewing as it paints a stark portrait of what Democrats see as utterly lacking in their opponent.