Breaking with Trump

So many Republicans, exemplified by the invertebrate House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Calif., continue to debase themselves in defending defeated former president Donald Trump despite his attempt to overthrow our democracy. In turn, mainstream media outlets shrug their shoulders at the sycophancy and deep dishonesty. “What do you expect?” they effectively argue. “It’s just politics.”

It is just that sort of cynicism — Republicans’ abiding contempt for voters and the media’s irresponsible indifference to anything but horserace politics — that leaves America vulnerable to the return of Trump and Republican authoritarian rule. If it’s all a game and no one is expected to do the right thing, then why not reelect the lying MAGA crowd-pleasers?

The Trump sycophants and the media overestimate how hard it is to break with the leader of the insurrection. Some conservatives do it without batting an eye.

Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson essentially told off his spineless fellow Republicans in an interview Sunday with Fox News’s Bret Baier. “Republicans need to do a lot of soul-searching as to what is the right thing here and what is the right thing for our democracy in the future and not simply adhere to the basic instincts of some of our base.”

Hutchinson added that “Trump is politically, morally responsible for much of what has happened, but in terms of criminal liability, I think the committee has a long way to go before they could establish that.” It’s not clear why Hutchinson can’t seem to grasp the facts of the conspiracy to defraud the United States and to disrupt Congress’s proceedings to certify electoral votes, but at least he refuses to play along with the “big lie.” Too bad Arkansas Republican Sens. Tom Cotton and John Boozman have not the decency to follow his lead.

You might argue it’s easier for Hutchinson to criticize Trump, since he is term-limited from seeking reelection. But there are Republicans in deep-red states who are seeking reelection and refuse to pander to the MAGA base or defend Trump. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who voted for the independent commission to investigate the insurrection, declared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that Trump’s actions on Jan. 6 were “wrong” and that Trump would not be his pick in 2024.

He also agreed with the suggestion that Trump was guilty of “dereliction of duty.” Bacon went further, saying he would not dismiss out of hand a criminal indictment of Trump. Despite these views, Bacon won more than 80% of the vote in his primary contest last month.

It is not hard for Republicans to admit the obvious, to stop pandering to the deluded MAGA base and to acknowledge that Trump betrayed his oath. Yet the timorous McCarthy (not to mention the ridiculously ambitious crew of 2024 contenders) cannot manage even that.