GOP fiddles while tweets burn party’s principles
WASHINGTON — If Republicans think the responsibility for President Trump’s indefensibly crude Twitter swipe at MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinksi lies with him alone, they’re wrong. At this point, the party has become complicit.
As the GOP’s highest elected official, Trump is the party’s standard bearer. His attack tweets aren’t just damaging and disrespectful to the office he holds, they’re a pox on the house of Republicans who either defend him, downplay his gross misconduct or ignore it.
Republicans frequently talk of being the party of Reagan and Lincoln, extolling their principles as American ideals. Then they stand idly by as Trump sets those principles on fire.
Yesterday members of the Grand Ol’ Party could have stood up to the president and refused to lift another finger to advance his agenda until he takes full responsibility for his actions. But they didn’t. They just gave the media sound bites or tweeted their displeasure.
They will wait out this controversy, like all the others, and then go right back to Trump’s side in the interest of political expediency. And in so doing, they will continue their role as enablers of his nastiness.
Sure, a string of lawmakers including House Speaker Paul Ryan — when he was asked by reporters — called the tweets “inappropriate.”
“Look, what we’re trying to do around here is to improve the tone and the civility of the debates, and this obviously doesn’t help do that,” Ryan said.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel essentially offered a shrug and a pivot.
“He is a human. He showed that today,” she said. “But that’s not gonna keep Republicans from focusing on what we need to do from a policy standpoint to help the American people.”
Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who excoriated Trump for retweeting a nasty message about his wife during the presidential campaign, yesterday told reporters: “I don’t comment about tweets. I’ll discuss substance and policy but on tweets I’ve got nothing to say.”
Utah U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch expressed his overall disapproval of Trump’s tweeting habits, noting to reporters “every once in a while you get a dipsy-doodle!”
There were some stronger responses.
“This has to stop,” U.S. Sen. Susan Collins declared on Twitter.
But in an MSNBC interview later, when asked what she will do about Trump’s behavior, Collins replied, “Well I respect the fact that he is president and I am going to continue to negotiate with him on issues that I really care about. He’s president of the United States.”
That’s right, he is the president of the United States, and the leader of your party. And he knows you’ll let him get away with it.