No decency
The new campaign ad from Republican Senate candidate Eric Greitens is beyond reprehensible. It’s a test for whether anything is out of bounds in today’s GOP.
Greitens’ spot is a tacit call to violence. In it, the disgraced former Missouri governor cocks a shotgun and says, “We’re going RINO hunting” (RINO refers to “Republicans in name only”). He then joins a group of men dressed in tactical gear storming a house, weapons ready to fire.
This would be a disgusting, tasteless ad at any moment. Whatever you think of your political opponents, it is never acceptable to implicitly threaten violence against them. But in the current political environment, it’s positively vile.
But Greitens is no reasonable man. He was forced to resign as governor in 2018 after being accused of having an affair and then blackmailing his mistress with nude photos. His ex-wife also says he abused her and his children. (Greitens has repeatedly denied both the blackmail allegations and the accusations of abuse.)
Rather than step back and rebuild his life, Greitens is doubling down on his political ambitions. He clearly does not deserve to hold any public office.
The question now is what Republicans will do about it. Even before Greitens’ ad emerged, establishment leaders were worried that his past would place an otherwise safe seat up for grabs if he won the party’s nomination.
This isn’t a case of someone who says something off the cuff that damages him, as was the case for 2012 GOP Senate candidates Todd Akin of Missouri and Richard Mourdock of Indiana. Greitens recklessly courts controversy rather than stumbles into it with inarticulate expressions. If he is willing to run an ad like this to win a primary, who knows what he’ll do to win the general election?
Responsible Republicans need to be clear and consistent: Anyone but Greitens will do. The Eagle Forum, a venerable conservative women’s group founded by Phyllis Schlafly, has stepped up and called on Greitens to drop out of the race. But the call has to come from higher up to have any chance at succeeding.
There’s no one higher in the GOP food chain than former president Donald Trump, and it falls to him to exert the leadership befitting his stature. Trump has not yet endorsed anyone in the race, but he doesn’t have to. He should instead show his power by calling on Greitens to step aside or, if he won’t do that, explicitly campaign against him.
Doing this is a better way for Trump to exert influence than endorsing one of Greitens’ competitors. Backing one horse in a race is risky, especially when all the candidates can credibly claim to be rock-solid conservatives.
Trump has discovered the hard way that his endorsees can lose. If he supports someone running against Greitens, he could find that person beset by scandal, as was the case for Chuck Herbster, his endorsed candidate in the Nebraska gubernatorial primary. That would only fuel the growing narrative that Trump’s influence is weakening.
Opposing Greitens and otherwise staying neutral, by contrast, means Trump has a strong chance of winning. Greitens leads by a narrow margin in most polls and cannot afford any loss of support. A recent Emerson College poll also shows Greitens is winning 32 percent of the vote among people who say that they are more likely to vote for someone Trump endorses.
It follows that if Trump disavowed Greitens, they would look for someone else. If Greitens loses after Trump took a stand against him, Trump could deservedly claim much of the credit.
Anti-Communist crusader Sen. Joseph McCarthy finally lost his considerable influence when a man shredded him with the phrase, “Have you no sense of decency?” That’s what Republicans from Trump on down need to tell Greitens now.