It’s almost impossible to put into words how badly Donald Trump and Kevin McCarthy blew this
It’s important to keep in mind that the Republicans could have had five pro-Trump people on the January 6th Committee, including the Vice Chair. But the Republicans idiotically gave up all their seats.
Speaker Pelosi made clear that she wasn’t going to allow an insurrectionist like Jim Jordan on the committee. But she approved several other House Republican picks, and they were all pro-Trump people who were willing to spew pro-Trump lies. For that matter, while Pelosi was probably always going to use one of her picks on Liz Cheney, the Vice Chair position probably would have gone to one of the five pro-Trump Republicans on the committee. All that talking that Liz Cheney did during the hearing? That could have been a pro-Trump Republican spewing lies instead. Donald Trump and Kevin McCarthy just didn’t want it.
Trump and McCarthy were gambling that if they didn’t participate in the committee at all, the general public would write it off as a partisan farce and wouldn’t care. But twenty million people tuned in for the first public hearing. Oops.
It’s almost impossible to screw up this badly. No simpleton could blow it this badly, because no simpleton would ever even think of an idea this creatively stupid. That’s how we know this decision had to come from Trump and not a simpleton like McCarthy.
It’s yet another instance of Trump’s remaining influence over the GOP working against them both. If you let a half senile fading villain like Trump call the shots, who only cares about revenge and doesn’t even understand what he’s doing anymore, this is the result you get.
The latest polling suggests that Trump may not even be the Republican frontrunner. His influence is going down the drain, and he’s more likely to be in prison by 2024 than in the Republican primary race. Yet Republican leaders like McCarthy are still afraid to cut him loose.
Before he totally lost his edge, Trump understood that if he put an inept idiot like McCarthy in power, McCarthy would likely remain loyal to him until the end, because McCarthy knows he won’t survive five minutes without Trump there to prop him up.
Sure, McCarthy very briefly tried to come out against Trump a few weeks ago. But the minute Trump pushed back, McCarthy took Trump’s advice and caved. McCarthy knows letting Trump continue to call the shots will finish them both off. But McCarthy just can’t help himself.
But at this point Trump is so far gone, he needs his allies like McCarthy to step in and protect him against his own worst impulses. But McCarthy is afraid to stand up to Trump, even for Trump’s own good. McCarthy will continue carrying out Trump’s bad ideas until they both fall.
