After 4 years, Trump’s legacy boils down to last two months
Jan 7, 2021, 2:30 PM | Updated: 3:37 pm
(AP Photo)
(AP Photo)
From the time he was a mere candidate for president of the United States, we were told how violent Donald Trump’s supporters were. However, with a few notable exceptions, fringe, anti-Trump lefties appeared to be the violent ones.
Well, that all changed Wednesday as Trump supporters — who claim to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the military and law enforcement — attacked police and clashed with the National Guard.
Self-described “patriots“ turned into traitors, invading the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from fulfilling its constitutional duty to certify the Electoral College vote.
And Trump, who spoke to those supporters minutes before they stormed the Capitol gates, managed to give only tepid pleas for peace once the invasion was underway.
In a video posted to Twitter, he blathered more blatant lies about the 2020 election before finally telling people to “go home.”
This morning, after talking with him about his own experiences hiding from the horde, I asked Arizona Republican Congressman David Schweikert if Trump was to blame for the U.S. Capitol riot.
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Schweikert: “This is a build-up I think has been going on for years.”
Me: “But do you believe at least part of the blame lies with President Trump?”
Schweikert: “Oh, I think part of the blame belongs to all of us.”
At first, I thought Congressman Schweikert’s answer was lame… but maybe the congressman is onto something.
Yes, Republicans should have done a lot more to shoot down Trump’s ridiculous, thrown-out-of-court-at-every-turn election fraud allegations. In some cases, like Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward, they perpetuated the lies to boost themselves up.
But consider how many Democrats spent the last four years claiming the Russians helped Donald Trump steal the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton. And they (as my friend Alex Castellanos puts it) debased our democratic institutions attempting to overthrow a legitimately-elected president.
People who voted for Trump because they like low taxes or smaller government are scared to admit it in public because the Democrat-cultivated image of a Trump voter is that of a simpleton, racist idiot. (Watch it… you’re talking about my dad!)
So, Schweikert may be right that there’s plenty of blame to go around.
But the blame for yesterday’s riot primarily lies at the feet of Donald J. Trump — an egotistical, megalomaniacal liar, who, in the end, even attacked his most loyal ally: insisting that Vice President Mike Pence should defy the Constitution so that Trump could stay in power.
Trump accomplished a lot in four years. But his lasting legacy is going to be about the last two months of his presidency — lying out of his butt and whipping people into a froth.
Trump didn’t Make America Great Again. Instead, yesterday was the culmination of Trump trying to Make America in his own image. And it looked a lot like a banana republic.
With no offense to banana republics intended.
