Republican efforts to best Democrats in the midterms with their typical “gotcha” tactics must face a “perfect retort” from their enemies, according to a top conservative analyst for the New York Times, as the party’s “groveling” to President Donald Trump deserves much more pushback.
In a piece published Monday morning, conservative Times columnist Frank Bruni highlighted the Michigan Senate race as a prime example of this dynamic. Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who remains solidly tipped to win the race, has faced numerous attacks for allegedly being too left-leaning in his politics, part of a broader “discussion about the extremes to which many Democrats took wokeness,” as Bruni described it. El-Sayed refused to take the “gotcha” bait in a recent Fox News interview, shrugging off questions about his past “expressions of support for the Green New Deal and defunding the police, as well as his suggestion that the country ditch the Second Amendment,” instead focusing on the economic issues concerning voters now.
In the face of such attacks accusing Democrats and the left of wearing “different faces on different days,” Bruni suggested taking a close look at El-Sayed’s opponent, Trump-endorsed Republican nominee Mike Rogers.
“The face that Rogers flashed in January 2021, when President Trump was scheming to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, signaled disgust with Trump,” Bruni explained. “Rogers denounced his behavior as ‘more gangster than presidential’ and decreed: ‘This trend of refusing to accept free and fair elections, without any proof of fraud, must end for the sake of our democratic republic.’ In response to news reports that Trump was privately accepting some blame for a MAGA mob’s storming of the U.S. Capitol, Rogers said: ‘You’re damn right you had responsibility for this.’ How firm. How furious. How fleeting.”
He continued: “When Rogers went on to make his first, unsuccessful Senate bid in 2024, he pretty much groveled for Trump’s endorsement, then proudly touted it. Not a word about Trump as thug, Trump as fabulist, Trump as ringleader with blood on his hands. For his current race, Rogers has again cozied up to Trump; while most Republicans tried to ignore the president’s bizarre and largely baseless primetime speech last month about American election irregularities, Rogers made a point of praising it. I wish Democrats would whack at that even harder than they already have.”
Bruni stressed the politicians of all leanings deserve scrutiny when they appear to “change their tunes,” but also argued that there has been “a lopsidedness to all the attention to Democrats’ inconstancy” and that “Republicans have more to answer for in that regard.” Many GOP lawmakers and candidates who once condemned the president for the Jan. 6 riots now “poo-poo that perfidy or wholly rewrite its history,” entirely at his demand.
“They’ve worked their way around to forgiving an assault on the peaceful transfer of power and blessing a failed coup attempt,” Bruni added. “Democratic contortions on policing and pronouns pale in comparison.”