Republicans Know the 1-2-3s of Trump Scandals

Attack, minimize, and move on.

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Former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at Quad City International Airport, March 13, 2023, in Moline, Illinois. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/Washington Post/Getty Images)

Donald Trump has conditioned the Republican Party well. 

When news broke that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had offered the former president the chance to testify before a grand jury investigating him, Republicans fell into a well-rehearsed routine. Anti-anti-Trumpism, which started as a coping mechanism for having a truly rotten person as their nominee and then president, has become a way of being for Trump’s party.

It’s not a new idea. Democrats developed a similar form of this auto-immune disease around the many moral and ethical misdeeds of Bill Clinton. By the end of Clinton’s second term and his impeachment for lying about his trysts with a 22-year-old White House intern, the blue team developed this kind of involuntary response. Republicans spent two years with a similar condition around Richard Nixon’s schemes to win the 1972 election and his lies to cover them up. 

But neither Nixon nor Clinton ever achieved the kind of conditioning Trump achieved with his fellow Republicans. 

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Comments (103)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Gary Robbins

    No, no, no, no, no! I am deeply disappointed in you, and my trust in your accuracy is deeply shaken. Sarah Longwell is the Publisher of The Bulwark, she is not part of The Lincoln Project. I think you need to make an apology to Ms. Longwell, and people like me who subscribe to The Dispatch and The Bulwark, but not The Lincoln Project.

    This is like the Left or the Trumpers saying that National Review, The Dispatch, The Bulwark and The Lincoln Project are all the same. This would be like saying that Reform Jews, Conservative Jews, Orthodox Jews and Ultra-Orthodox Jews are all the same, since they are all Jews. Or saying that Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney, Donald Trump and Josh Hawley are all the same, since they are all Republicans.

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  2. Avatar photo
    Collin

    One line of thinking in the Fentanyl crisis or the immigration issue is never mentioned: black market effects. I know cable news is not known for its nuance. However, opinion columnists and talking heads should be smarter. They rarely discuss the possibility that the mountain of Fentanyl that moves over the border may be the product of black market effects created by the drug war. Similarly, they rarely talk about the possibility that the river of people flowing over the border is the result of a black market created by a slow, dysfunctional immigration system. The solution to the immigration black market does not have to be open borders. Rather, it could be a more efficient and comprehensible system. I’m not saying those are the answers, but I am a little annoyed that no one seems to explore a fairly common line of thinking.

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  3. BadgerBill

    Chris, excellent stuff. A couple comments:

    1). It feels like there’s an inevitability to the horror of another Trump nomination. While not a great way to gauge support, reading the cesspool that is the National Review comment section, while it certainly seems like there’s a lot of DeSantis support, it sure seems like there’s an undercurrent of Trump support, and the DeSantis support is very shallow. What you hear from commenters is the 1, 2, 3 you mention.
    2). As for Gallagher running for Senate in Wisconsin, I’m intrigued. I’m intrigued because he appears to be a “normal” Republican of the sort I would vote for in the Before Time. Tammi Baldwin has been the stereotypical backbencher, a reliable Democratic vote without really doing anything memorable. Here’s the problem: if Trump is the nominee (shudder), I cannot in good conscience vote for anyone who might support Trump’s agenda. It’s come down to opposing Trump in ever way possible. I’m a ticket splitter, except when it comes to Trump. I guess that makes me that suburban Republican voter who now will never vote Republican until Trump and Trumpism is gone.

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    Rdpulfer

    "If Moses came down Mt. Sinai with a Trump indictment chiseled in stone, Kevin McCarthy would demand oversight hearings on the prophet’s prior interference with navigable waterways. "

    I can just see the House committee now. "Moses, I noticed you parted the Red Sea. Why didn't you part the Blue sea instead? Is it because you're secretly a Democrat?"

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    1. Avatar photo
      Angie

      I know this is late and I apologize if you get emails and it annoys you..
      But, this cracked me up, laughed out loud....thank you, I needed that

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        Rdpulfer

        Happy to help!

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  5. Phillyex1

    The hire raises further doubts about Youngkin’s interest in a 2024 presidential campaign…” Talk about non sequiturs.

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    Paul Hoppenjans

    Not reported about the prison escape story was that the Newport News Sheriff's Office codenamed the search operation "Operation Finding Nemo," and that one of the prisoners recaptured was described as a small, orange and white-striped clownfish.

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    Dlyons

    Will be curious to see if voters look past the overreach of this administration.
    1. Afghanistan withdrawal
    2. Misuse of nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve
    3. Student loan bailout.
    Moving on.

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    Mike B

    " If Moses came down Mt. Sinai with a Trump indictment chiseled in stone, Kevin McCarthy would demand oversight hearings on the prophet’s prior interference with navigable waterways. "

    Priceless! The golden statue of Trump at CPAC a couple of years ago has to figure in there somehow, too.

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  9. James Morphew

    I think there is ample room to criticize Bragg's grand jury and still advise against any Trump nomination. Although congress calling for investigations of a state prosecutor is just nuts, and will only serve to make those Republicans look silly. Again.

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  10. Karin

    Excellent news letter, Mr. Stirewalt. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and appreciated the hard truths that you shared. Thank you.

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