An Outbreak of Republican Truth-Telling
Some in the GOP are engaging in career-ending straight talk.
LAST WEEK A GOP SENATOR suggested that a president could defy a Supreme Court ruling and that Congress should be able to decide presidential elections. A Republican House leader agreed with him that Congress could reject electors. Both are dangerous lies.
A bipartisan agreement to fix an unprecedented crisis at the border was killed by Republicans at the behest of Donald Trump, who wants to campaign on problems and opposes a solution.
After months of delaying and obfuscating on security assistance for Ukraine, as the situation has grown more desperate there, House Republicans finally came out and admitted their original demand for immigration policy in exchange for that aid was not a legitimate offer and that nothing can make them support it. So: no border bill, and no funds to defend Ukraine.
All of these are signs of Trumpās strength, not weakness. Which makes it a curious timeāin a dark week of lies, distortion, and submissionāfor some Republicans to suddenly try telling the truth now that the hour has come to toe the line for good.
There was Sen. Thom Tillis, who called out his colleagues for playing politics on Ukraineāhiding behind voter sentiment and Trumpās wishes to oppose military aid.
āOur base cannot possibly know whatās at stake at the level that any well-briefed U.S. senator should know about whatās at stake if Putin wins,ā Tillis said, according to Punchbowl News.
āSome people around hereāif they really are being driven just by the perceptions of their base, they should grow a spine and explain if they think itās a tough vote.ā
Then there was Sen. James Lankford, who had been deputized by his leadership to craft the immigration compromise that Trump tanked. Lankford isnāt likely to survive another election in Oklahoma after such apostasy, so he felt free to reveal on the Senate floor last week how he had been threatened: āI had a popular commentator . . . that told me flat out, āIf you try to move a bill that solves the border crisis during this presidential year, I will do whatever I can to destroy you.āā
The junior senator from Oklahoma, Markwayne Mullin, was stunned at the treatment his senior senatorāa former pastor and Bible camp directorāhas received back home. āThereās been people saying that [Lankford] is immoral. If that guyās immoral, Iām literally swimming in flames,ā Mullin told Politico.
And Rep. Chip Roy, who had backed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantisās primary campaign against Trump, was clearly more frustrated by the lies his party is telling about the border than he was worried about getting back in Trumpās favor.
āI saw former president Trump make that allegation earlier today on one of his social media posts. āAll a president has to do is declare the border is closed, and itās closed.ā Well, with all due respect, that didnāt happen in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. There were millions of people who came into the United States during those four years,ā Roy said on the House floor.
Lankfordās Senate colleagues who supported his draft bill werenāt pleased House Speaker Mike Johnson was willing to block consideration in the House for Trump, and Sen. Kevin Cramer was willing to say so. He mocked House Republicansā failed attempt to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and said, āWhatās rich to me is the speaker says the [border] bill in the Senate is . . . dead on arrival. And then they proceed impeaching a cabinet secretary, which is obviously dead on arrival.ā
Rep. Mike Gallagher told the truth about the Mayorkas impeachmentāthat impeaching a cabinet secretary for doing a bad job would create a ānew, lowerā threshold that would āset a dangerous new precedent that will be weaponized against future Republican administrations.ā
Gallagher was one of three Republicans to vote against the impeachment, was attacked for it, and announced Saturday that he is retiring from Congress at the end of this term.
When Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an impeachment manager, railed against the three Republicans who opposed impeaching Mayorkas, another of the three, Rep. Tom McClintock, lashed back at her. Greene accused McClintock of āfailing his oath of office,ā and suggested he āread the roomā; McClintock responded by saying āinstead of her reading the room, Iād suggest that maybe she read the Constitution she took an oath to support and defend.ā
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, who started the week chastising his colleagues for sabotaging the border bill as āa pretty unacceptable dereliction of your duty,ā finished the week basically saying Rep. Elise Stefanik had been less than truthful about the Constitution.
Stefanik, auditioning for Trumpās ticket, went on CNN Thursday for another provocative performance and said Vice President Mike Pence mishandled January 6th. She said she would have rejected the electoral votes certified by the states: āI would not have done what Mike Pence did. I donāt think that was the right approach.ā
Crenshaw was asked about it on CNN the following day and said that while he would support Stefanik as vice president, she was āso completely incorrect,ā and that the vice president has no power to decertify an election. āSo this idea that there even is this mechanism for Congress to decertify an election is justāitās totally wrong,ā he said.
Predictably Trump ally and MAGA troll Alex Bruesewitz accused Crenshaw of ārunning to the mediaā to attack Stefanik. āPathetic Dan. What do they have on you?ā he tweeted.
To speak oneās mind, to refuse to tolerate lies, is to be compromised by the deep state. Because in the Trump cult, there would never otherwise be any motivation to do the right thing or tell the truth.
Itās notable that a sudden interest in defending the Constitution, by any Republican, now rises to the level of newsājust ask Pence himself. And it was interesting that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who has made clear he will support Trump because Biden is so terrible, saw fit to go on ABC News last weekend, aware he would be asked questions about Trump. Asked by Jon Karl whether a president is entitled to absolute immunity for his crimes Kemp said no. āMy personal opinion is, no one is above the law,ā Kemp said, adding āYou know, Iāve continued to talk about following the law and the Constitution and thatās what Iām going to continue to do in the great state of Georgia.ā
While Kemp wonāt be run out of office any time soon for his comments, Crenshaw sounds like someone ready to give up his House seat. Such blunt assessments, unsparing facts, and direct criticism of Trumpās party line on things like election denial, let alone of Trump himself, is no longer permitted in todayās GOP.
One other prominent Republican has spoken rare truths in the last few days. Nikki Haleyās presidential campaign might seem like little more than a vanity project, but she at least is speaking with increasing candor about Trump. On Monday, she called his inflammatory recent comments about NATOāencouraging Russia to attack NATO alliesāāunthinkable.ā Haley noted that when Trump was president, he talked āmany times about getting out of NATO.ā She called NATO āa success storyā and asked, āWhy would you go out of your way to put our allies and our military in harmās way?ā
Haley didnāt have company from Republicans condemning Trumpās remarks on Russia. Not many of them criticized Trump for bizarrely mocking her husband this weekend either. Trump questioned where Haleyās husband was. She tweeted in reply:
Haley sure seems liberated from years of defending the indefensible. While sheās unlikely to endorse President Joe Biden, she doesnāt sound like she will ever endorse Trumpāwhich is not nothing.
Siding publicly with Haley on anything will invite death threats for Republicans, so sheās on her own. Yet the realization of Trumpās nomination, and the potential of him winning again, is distressing enough to some Republicans that they are trying to unburden themselves with small doses of honestyāif not about him then about Ukraine, or the GOPās contempt for governing, or about their obligation to the Constitution.
Their quiet chirps for help do nothing to mitigate the threat of Trump. And if he wins, even they will go silent.
