After the trial, Mitch McConnell delivered a scathing speech, calling Trump “practically and morally responsible for instigating the events of the day.” However, these were just words. shortly after, he indicated his willingness to support the former president if he emerges as the party’s 2024 candidate.
Shortly after Jan. 6, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told colleagues he was considering calling Trump and telling him to resign. But he never mustered up the courage to do so, and soon he flew to Mar-a-Lago, where he again became Trump’s supplicant.
Fearful of alienating the MAGA faithful and always motivated by a blind hatred of their Democratic opponents, leaders who could and should have abandoned Trump have helped restore him.
Even after revelations that Trump had been tipped off by the Secret Service before his MAGA crowd showed up in Washington on Jan. 6 with an arsenal of weapons, they were left with his options. In response to Trump’s accusation, McCarthy immediately hit out at Alvin Bragg, an African-American prosecutor and Democrat, claiming that he had “done irreparable harm to our country by trying to interfere in our presidential election,” words that certainly apply more to Trump. , or Vladimir Putin anyway.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell criticized Trump on Jan. 6 but later endorsed him for the 2024 nomination.Credit:Bloomberg
America has seen demagogues reach the White House throughout its 247-year history. It has witnessed presidents like Richard Nixon with authoritarian tendencies. In President Andrew Jackson, Trump’s populist soulmate, the demagogue and the authoritarian came together. However, presidents who have abused their power have been restrained not only by the constitution but also by members of their own party.
Loading
As the Watergate crisis reached its conclusion, a delegation of senior Republicans told Nixon that he should resign. When Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to pack an obstructionist Supreme Court with justices who would support his New Deal program, he was blocked by fellow Democrats worried about what they saw as a dictatorial power grab.
This guarantee, based on a system based on norms as well as rules and laws, has been important for centuries. But in the Trump years, those protections were so often absent.
His vice president, Mike Pence, bravely pushed back against Trump on January 6, rejecting the ludicrous suggestion that he could unilaterally cancel the presidential election on the day Congress certifies the results. But Republican leaders should have made that clear weeks ago. Their maniacal restraint allowed the “Big Lie” to metastasize to such monstrous proportions.