GOP needs ‘restraining order’ on bad boyfriend Donald Trump
Jan 13, 2021, 3:00 PM
(AP Photo)
(AP Photo)
Following last week’s attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Greater Phoenix Leadership Council, a group made up of 140 Valley CEOs, took out an ad warning that Republicans who “stoked the flames of this travesty… should be held accountable.”
Glenn Hamer, the head of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry says, “The Arizona Republican Party has been extremely irresponsible and offensive in its rhetoric.”
They’re talking about Republican Congressmen Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs, Republican state legislators and the head of the Arizona Republican Party, Dr. Kelli Ward, who all claimed — with zero evidence that stood up in a court of law — that the presidential election was “stolen.”
In Ward’s case, I believe she’s convinced that saying this over and over has put her in Donald Trump’s good graces. To prove my point, I played a soundbite on-air this morning of Ward saying (like a smitten teen),”You know, I’ve heard the President, um, the President loves me.”
Those business leaders plan on punishing Ward’s party (and her blind love of Trump) by withholding political clout and campaign cash.
But because business relies on Republicans for the business-friendly policies they bring to Washington and the state capitol, this will only go so far.
They’re like Trump voters who hated the way Trump talked — except when he talked about lower taxes, conservative judges and holding the line against defunding the police — which caused them to overlook his flaws and vote for him anyway.
But therein lies the real danger for Republicans: voters. Because if enough think Trump went too far after they voted for him, Republicans who continue to stand by Trump’s lies could lose more than campaign cash — they could lose campaigns.
Kirk Adams, a former Republican speaker of the Arizona House and Gov. Doug Ducey’s former chief of staff, says he knows of several Republicans who’ve switched their registration.
Today, in the House of Representatives, a handful of Republican members voted to impeach Republican President Donald Trump.
If enough Senate Republicans vote to convict Trump, he would be ineligible to run again in 2024.
It’s something I don’t think will happen — but should if Republicans want a post-Trump Republican Party.
Ronald Reagan, the greatest Republican president of my lifetime, said that the 11th Commandment was, “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”
Donald Trump broke that commandment over and over again by speaking ill of almost every Republican who spoke the truth about Trump losing the election. It was chillingly most apparent that he did it to his own vice president when the Capitol riot broke into chants of “Hang Mike Pence!”
No matter how badly some Republicans want to believe, “the President loves me,” he doesn’t love the party, party principles — nor the truth — more than he loves himself.
Republicans need to kick him to the curb like a bad boyfriend. And voting to convict him in the Senate would be the equivalent of taking out a restraining order so he can’t continue to damage their most important relationship: the one with the voters.
