Politics - News Analysis

‘Worse than Imagined’: Congressional Republicans Know Yesterday Was ‘Devastating,’ ‘Left Speechless,’ and Cannot Get Away

We have heard a lot of tough talk from the Republicans, especially those espousing that the Secret Service agent story had been “debunked” (it hasn’t). This is the tweet that the GOP House Judiciary Committee had the temerity and tastelessness to put out yesterday after Hutchinson’s testimony:

Yeah, tough talk on Twitter from some tough guys. (Does an actual adult run that Twitter account or do they contract out to some high school kids for $10/hour?)

And yet behind the scenes, The Atlantic says that the Republicans knew just how hard they were hit yesterday:

Even Republican members of Congress who have long supported Donald Trump told reporters, anonymously, that Hutchinson’s testimony was “worse than they imagined.” They were “stunned” and “left speechless.”

And then the Atlantic hands down the indictment of the entire Republican party as enablers:

… Perhaps the case against Trump presented by the January 6 committee and previous Trump loyalists—by now so overwhelming as to be unquestionable—will cause some members of Congress, academics, and “public intellectuals” in the right-wing infrastructure to distance themselves from Trump. Of course, until now Trump has crossed no ethical line, has shattered no norm that caused them to say “Enough!” Instead we’ve heard whataboutism and strained-to-the-breaking-point excuses.

But from this point on, none of it matters. Anyone still carrying water for Trump is now forever tied to Trump and all his crimes:

No matter; the die is cast when it comes to the Trump presidency and those who made it possible. The events of January 6 were, in their own twisted way, a fitting denouement for the Trump presidency. It was so obvious, for so long, that this wouldn’t end well. Trump was the primary architect of the attack on the citadel of American democracy. But he had a lot of help along the way.

Hutchinson’s testimony was a withering indictment of America’s 45th president. But it was also, if less directly, an indictment of his party, his supporters, his acolytes, those who went silent and those who spoke up on his behalf. He and they are ever twinned.

Exactly. There is nowhere left to hide. And wait until the Committee ties it all up with evidence that Trump planned it with the help of various members of Congress. It is coming.

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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, with Nicole Hickman

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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