Washington is all atwitter this week over the latest leaked audio recordings. These feature Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy plotting to finally rid the Republican Party and the country of the clear and present danger former President Donald Trump always represented.
Of course, the reason for the buzz is that McCarthy gives new meaning to the oxymoronic concept of leading from behind. Because, mere weeks after the date of those recordings, he faced rabid support for Trump among the increasingly unhinged base of his party. And, instead of providing the sensible leadership the occasion demanded, McCarthy cowered and began hailing Trump as the greatest hope for America.
Frankly, not since cuckold Ted Cruz went from calling Trump a “sniveling coward” to kissing his brass ring had a politician demonstrated such alacrity to shift his principles like a finely lubricated weather vane. Yet, listening to pundits and reporters regale viewers with their take on those recordings, you’d think Washington had just cause to be “shocked, shocked” by McCarthy’s lies and hypocrisy.
More to the point, though, one of the most insidious features of Trump’s dystopian presidency had everyone from advisers to reporters profiting while America was so clearly losing its way. Specifically, Trump was like a cash cow they all kept milking for fodder to peddle as bestselling tell-all books or ratings-generating breaking news.
But, even long after Trump’s presidency came to an insurrectionist end, many are still milking this cow for all it’s worth. Put another way, the cottage industry of books, news, and gossip related to Trump’s presidency just keeps growing. I cite in this regard Betrayal by ABC reporter Jonathan Karl, The Chief’s Chief by Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, and One Damn Thing After Another by former AG William.
In fact, the audio recordings at issue are just part of the slick promotional campaign reporters Alexander Burns and Jonathan Martin of The New York Times are using to hype sales of their book, This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future, which will be published next week. To give you a sense of the sensation it’s causing, here is how MSNBC reported Wednesday on their selective leaks:
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New reporting, and the ongoing release of audio recordings of Republican congressional leaders expressing private anxiety and anger about former President Donald Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot, has gifted us with one of those rare opportunities to observe the difference between what’s felt and what’s said. It hasn’t been pretty. An ever-clearer picture of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s rank opportunism and naked ambition is emerging with every detail, underscoring how Trumpism has been shielded by Republican politicians fearful of losing their chance to become even more powerful.
The first piece of reporting from The New York Times, published Thursday, revealed that McCarthy, R-Calif., was not only fed up with the then-president, but thought Trump should voluntarily resign. Audio recordings obtained by the Times captured McCarthy telling Republican leaders in the days after Jan. 6, I’ve had it with this guy’; contemplating the possibility of using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump; and suggesting he would tell Trump, whose actions he called ‘atrocious and totally wrong,’ that he should resign in light of the imminent passage of an impeachment resolution in the House. …
But as we now know, McCarthy was indeed more than willing to play politics with the lives of his own colleagues, as well as with the life of American democracy. He didn’t take meaningful steps to put a stop to it, but he did target a Trump critic within his party [the woman who stands alone, Liz Cheney]
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Except we hardly needed a book chock-full of behind-the-scenes quotes to reveal how much Trump has forced Republican leaders like McCarthy to see themselves for the fascist, racist, and pusillanimous hypocrites they always were. This is why a vote for Republicans is a vote for Trump to make America look like Russia – complete with all its Orwellian lies, dystopian realities, and silenced dissenters …
In fact, when Barr was squeezing those Trumpian teets to promote his book, here is how I dismissed him at HuffPost on March 12:
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Republicans like Barr and Bolton now personify the triumph of tribalism over patriotism. With fire-and-brimstone indignation, they condemn all the damage Trump has done to America and warn he would do even more if given the chance. Yet, with Stockholm Syndrome-like inclination, they concede they would vote for him again if he’s the Republican nominee in 2024.
In other words, they would vote for a thoroughly unfit Republican over a thoroughly fit Democrat. That only makes sense in banana republics. And the only explanation is a Republican motto that has morphed from loyalty to country over party to one that says: My party, loyalty to country be damned!
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So, despite all the hype, the only thing this latest book really reveals is that there’s still a lot of milk left in that cash cow that is Donald J. Trump. But I cannot overstate the categorical imperative of American voters fully appreciating the import of the title to my commentary on Barr, namely “Republicans Like Barr Value Loyalty to Party Over Country.”
Related commentaries:
Ted Cruz… cottage industry of Trump books… William Barr…