The Republican establishment has long downplayed the Jan. 6 insurrection in a bid to protect the reputation of former President Donald Trump. Now we’re seeing how that complicity has helped set the stage for another such uprising. Consider the GOP’s mental gymnastics designed to downplay Trump’s frantic calls for mass protests over his possible upcoming arrest.
In a post Saturday on the social media platform Truth Social, Trump alleged that the “corrupt” Manhattan District Attorney’s office was on the brink of apprehending him and called for his supporters to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!”
“WE JUST CAN’T ALLOW THIS ANYMORE. THEY’RE KILLING OUR NATION AS WE SIT BACK & WATCH. WE MUST SAVE AMERICA!PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!” Trump wrote in a follow-up post.
As my colleague Hayes Brown explained, on Saturday House Speaker Kevin McCarthy irresponsibly co-signed Trump’s inflammatory and evidence-free allegations about a politicized investigation by promising to direct Congress to investigate “politically motivated prosecutions.” Speaking at a press conference the following day, though, McCarthy could’ve backtracked into responsibility and admitted that what Trump was saying was worrisome or wrong.
McCarthy’s denials implicitly reveal what we all know: that the connotation of Trump’s call for protests is that they should be transgressive, rowdy or violent.
If Trump is charged, those charges should be judged based on the merits of the evidence and legal reasoning provided, not preemptively dismissed as a “sinister” witch hunt. And given Trump’s use of similar language to whip up a mob to storm the U.S. Capitol, responsible Republican lawmakers should push back against his demand for protesters to wrest the country back from “evil” adversaries.
Instead, when it came to discussing Trump’s calls for protests, McCarthy’s remarks were head-spinning. “I don’t think people should protest this, no,” the speaker said. “I…
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