I-paper reporter and author Patrick Cockburn says whenever you’ve got a group of angry villagers with torches, you’ll likely soon have a fire — and President Donald Trump’s house appears to be the kindling.
“A shattered Republican Party will be looking for somebody to blame for their electoral calamity – and accusing fingers are already pointing at Trump as the pied piper who led them to their doom,” reports Cockburn.
The Republican Party, under House Speaker Mike Johnson, has been nothing if not a rubberstamp for Trump, excusing his behavior, protecting him from both the law, and impeachment, rationalizing his most controversial statements, and approving his most controversial policies.
“Trump sought to move on from the scandal revolving around child abuser Jeffrey Epstein, with Democrat representatives alleging that the Justice Department has released only half the papers relating to Epstein,” said Cockburn. And with Republicans in charge of the House and Senate, critics say the party largely succeeded in blocking much of the information and pertinent names in the files.
And what did Republicans get for their devotion? A 6-foot, 3-inch anchor with a troubling hyper-focus on ballrooms and a habit of calling inflation a hoax.
Worse, Trump has acted as a dictator over the GOP, personally picking and choosing primary winners who hold the most fealty for him, or who happens to be running against another Republican who has at some point crossed him — regardless of whether Trump’s personal pick is the best candidate to survive a general election.
Trump chose flawed Texas senatorial candidate Ken Paxton to survive GOP primaries, and he chased out incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn, a well-respected incumbent who was arguably more competitive than Paxton.
One exchange between CNN anchor Jake Tapper and reporter John King made things brutally lucid as they discussed the long list of candidates Trump personally chose who bombed Tuesday night.
“Who picked Darline Graham in South Carolina?” asked King
“Trump,” said Tapper.
“Who picked Michael Whatley in North Carolina,” said King.
“Trump,” responded Tapper.
“Who picked Mike Collins in Georgia?”
“Trump.”
“Who picked Vivek Ramaswamy in a governor’s race in Ohio,” called King.
Trump,” answered Tapper.
“Welcome to the night,” said King, casually summarizing the GOP midterm disaster Tuesday night.
“In the last few years, [Trump] has kept an iron grip on his party as he repeatedly delivered victory and crushed dissent,” argued Cockburn, in the I-Paper. “But the coalition that twice sent him to the White House has now disintegrated. Though he may still enjoy the devotion of fanatic MAGA loyalists, the midterms showed that this is not nearly enough. The house that Trump built is falling apart before our eyes.”
But now the villagers are at the drawbridge, and Republicans have few incentives to put themselves in harm’s way to defend Castle Trump.
For example, “amid widespread public suspicion of a[n] [Epstein] cover-up, the Democrats will ensure the case has maximum transparency,” said Cockburn. “Accusations of corruption against Trump and his associates cut through with voters during the campaign and will be a focus of congressional attention.”
One of many, most likely.