Another pathetic display by a Republican "leader"
Meet Tom Emmer.
The last time (and maybe the first time!) you heard the name “Tom Emmer” was back in the fall — when he spent less than 24 hours as the Republican choice to lead the House.
Hours after the House Republican Conference chose Emmer, Donald Trump took to Truth Social to submarine the pick. Wrote the former president:
I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors. RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them. He never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement, or the breadth and scope of MAGA—MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! He fought me all the way, and actually spent more time defending Ilhan Omar, than he did me—He is totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters. I believe he has now learned his lesson, because he is saying that he is Pro-Trump all the way, but who can ever be sure? Has he only changed because that’s what it takes to win? The Republican Party cannot take that chance, because that’s not where the America First Voters are. Voting for a Globalist RINO like Tom Emmer would be a tragic mistake!
Hours later, Emmer removed his name from consideration.
It was obvious to anyone paying even a little bit of attention that Trump had submarined Emmer. But, just to make sure, Trump took credit.
“He’s done. It’s over. I killed him,” Trump said, according to reporting in POLITICO.
Emmer effectively disappeared — until this morning when he popped up to (wait for it!) endorse Donald Trump for president!
WHAAAAAAT?
Just so we are totally clear here: Trump singlehandedly stomped on Emmer’s dream of being Speaker of the House. Emmer turned around and endorsed Trump’s presidential campaign.
Why, you ask? A few reasons:
After House Majority Leader Steve Scalise endorsed Trump on Tuesday, Emmer was the only member of the Republican leadership in the House who hadn’t gotten behind the former president. And that’s a lonely place to be.
Emmer likes his job (and wants to keep it). There’s no path to leadership (or to stay in leadership) in the current Republican party that doesn’t run through total fealty to Trump. Emmer knows that.
So, I get it — on a political level.
But it is literally impossible for me to believe that Tom Emmer — who voted to certify the 2020 election — really believes that Donald Trump is the best choice to lead the Republican party in 2024 and beyond. Or that Emmer has forgiven and forgotten Trump for tanking his chances of being Speaker.
What Emmer’s Trump endorsement speaks to is that there simply are no elected leaders in the GOP willing to stand up and say “WHAT THE HELL ARE WE DOING HERE?” Not even Emmer who was openly and publicly humiliated by Trump.
It’s that reality that makes me very skeptical that anyone other than Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee for president in 2024. The party’s “leaders” are terrified of him and what his base can do to them if they don’t fall in line. So they are willing to endure any number of indignities just to hold onto their jobs.
I know we have been over this ground before. And that I shouldn’t be surprised by any of it. That the Republican party is best understood as a cult of personality centered on the whims and wants of Trump.
And yet, I still find myself amazed that people like Emmer — by all accounts a serious and substantive guy with a totally defensible ax to grind with Trump — just meekly accept that endorsing someone who they clearly loathe is their only path to political relevance.
It’s scary that the Republican party as been reduced to this. Because you can be sure they won’t stand in the way AT ALL if and when Trump is elected president again.
It is far past time that we acknowledged that MAGA is its own "Party", and that most of the Republicans who still stand by their principles are too spineless..or too selfish.. to do anything about it.
It is their shame that history will remember.
I know that hindsight is 20/20 but I have been thinking lately that Joe Biden tried to take the high road with regard to Trump and the Republican Party. Don't spike the football after Jan 6, don't demonize Republicans----Trump will go away and the Republicans will return to being the party you could disagree with, but not fear. I think that was a noble thing to try, and I am certainly not claiming foresight in this matter, but in hindsight, that appears to have been a major, and possibly disastrous, miscalculation. I can see why he would have preferred not to bash Trump, starting in 2021 by showing the contrast between his presidency and Trump's, but ignore him instead, it would be better for the country. Similarly with Merrick Garland ---it would be better not to have to prosecute a former President, as a bad precedent for the country in the future. But now, with the aforementioned hindsight, these efforts may be coming too late. Trump is actually stronger within his party than he was in 2021. I believe that I understand Biden and Garland's well intentioned efforts to heal the country and avoid setting precedents for as long as possible, but unlike the situation with Ford and Nixon, Trump hasn't gone away and is more dangerous a threat than ever. I hope that our nation can survive this evil man