There’s no escape.
AP Photo/ Evan Vucci
Following last Friday’s release of an 11-year old recording of a private conversation between Donald Trump and now former Today show host Billy Bush – a conversation in which the two were engaged in gritty conversation about sex and women – some Republicans have bolted for the tall grass.
Led by House Speaker Paul Ryan, several congressional Republicans have been at pains to distance themselves from Donald Trump – all while still courting the very voters who chose Trump as their nominee.
These Republicans are playing a very dangerous game.
For many of them, their seats in Congress are the direct result of a revolt against Washington that spans three elections and accounts for Republican majorities in both houses.
It is the same revolt that accounts for the fact that Donald Trump crushed 16 other well-qualified Republicans to win the nomination.
Here’s the thing for you queasy Republicans. The majority of Republican voters are fed up. They’ve come to regard the Republican Party as incompetent. They’ve come to regard establishment Republicans as a bunch of quislings – men and women who tell voters one thing to get elected only to turn on those very voters when they get to Washington.
It’s all well and good for you folks to be “outraged” by Trump’s 11-year old hot-mic recording. But you were sent to Washington because of voter outrage about a corrupt system that you promised to change. To the eyes of a decisive percentage of Republican voters, you barely even tried.
The fact that the majority of Republican voters chose Donald Trump over the likes of Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, John Kasich and 13 others should be telling you something. The fact that Donald Trump is directly responsible for the highest Republican primary voter turnout in history is a shot across your bow. That Trump can fill up a big-city sports arena on a couple of hours notice is not to be lightly dismissed.
The simple truth is this: you guys cannot escape Donald Trump no matter how hard you try. He is a Frankenstinian monster of your own creation.
Had you not fumbled the mandate that was given you in 2010 and again in 2014, Trump would still be doing a TV reality show. Had the nominee that you and every Republican supported in 2012 risen to the task, we would all be talking about re-electing President Romney.
Renounce Trump and you might very well suffer in one of two ways. Either Trump wins, in which case you will look opportunistic and spineless while having few friends at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Or Trump loses, and you face the very real chance that the voters who hired you – and who retain the right to fire you — will blame you for the loss.
So understand this: There is no ‘safe space.’ You created Donald Trump. You own him.
Like it or not.
If anyone thinks that the hillary hasn’t said some pretty awful things to people who work for her, they should hear how she talks to people when she thinks no one is listening. Men of Trump’s caliber talk. That is just how it is and for the hillary to release 11 yr old tapes like that means absolutely NOTHING to me. If he had been talking about bombing some place or shooting someone as some liberals have been known to do…ayers for one, then I might take something from it. clinton has a track record of being a liar and a cheat(cattle futures), an enabler to her perverted husband, which only shows how she really views women and their rights…to ME, that MEANS something to watch out for, not some mancave type talk that men do when among others like them. GROW UP people and look at what is happening to our country with liberal democrats and rino republicans at the helm. We need someone to take the reins and guide us to a BETTER AMERICA!!! TRUMP is that person, not the greedy, power hungry clintons who will only turn this into a third world country!!!
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but you seem to be making an extremely disconcerting implication in your article. Your use of quotes around the term outraged seems to imply that these Republican leaders are simply feigning their disdain in order to distance themselves from Mr. Trump. I have a wife and two beautiful daughters and we are all offended by Mr. Trump’s remarks. Not only did he admit to abusing women, now there are multiple people who are corroborating his story. This is a very serious issue that should not be dismissed so lightly.
Your last sentence first. You don’t know that multiple people are corroborating the story. You know only that multiple people have, at just this particular moment, come forward. Why now? What took them so long? What were they waiting for? The timing is rather opportune, is it not?
I’m not defending Donald Trump. I just want some consistency. If Donald Trump’s words regarding women are disqualifying, why aren’t Hillary Clintons? There is little doubt that she was ruthless in her attempts to discredit Paula Jones, Juanita Brodderick and other women who accused her husband. There is little doubt that she suborned her husband’s sexual abuse of women.
If Trump’s words about women are such an outrage, why do Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton so willingly and enthusiastically associate with rapper Jay-Z? Jay-Z has been a guest at the White House and he is a big supporter of Hillary Clinton. Here’s what he says about women in his hit record, “Big Pimpin'”
You know I thug em, f**k em, love em, leave em
Cause I don’t f**kin’ need em
Take em out the hood, keep em lookin’ good
But I don’t f**kin’ feed em
First time they fuss I’m breezin’
Talkin’ bout, “What’s the reasons?”
I’m a pimp in every sense of the word, bitch
Better trust than believe em
In the cut where I keep em
‘Til I need a nut, ’til I need to beat the guts
Then it’s, beep beep and I’m pickin’ em up
Let em play with the d**k in the truck
Many chicks want to put Jigga fist in cuffs
Divorce him and split his bucks
Just because you got good head, I’m a break bread…
What Trump said in private is as NOTHING compared to what’s out in the culture and openly celebrated by many on the Left. What about your daughters vis. a. vis. THOSE lyrics?
If what Trump said is such an outrage, how does Hillary Clinton remain married to Bill? How does she continue to embrace the support of Jay-Z? Trump said what he said in what he thought was a private conversation. Jay-Z put these lyrics out and sold millions of copies to the public.
If Dems or queasy Republicans are “outraged,” the outrage is rather selective. If those Republicans cannot in good conscience support Donald Trump, how do they reconcile the fact that their lack of support for Trump constitutes de facto support for Hillary Clinton? With respect to the treatment of women, are Hillary Clinton’s skirts any cleaner than Donald Trump’s?
How do these Republicans then reconcile that they are helping to elect a woman who is evidently not outraged by a rapper who makes millions off of recordings that talk about actually doing terrible things to women? How do they reconcile sending two people with an actual history of mistreating women back to the White House?
It is a serious issue and I can assure you that I am not the least bit dismissive.
Touche’ Paul, It is almost humorous to witness the selective outrage and high moral values of some; especially when the gist of your opinion piece was not in defense of Trump’s leaked video. Yes, it makes no sense for some of the Republicans to head for the tall grass, which only increases the odds that a much worse candidate will be elected. If this is a tactic that they think will help maintain the congressional majorities, they are using the same failed logic that they used in trying to stop some of the damage that our current president has done to our country. Regardless, you have to credit the Democrats with an organized and unwavering loyalty to their party. Even in the face of some of the most egregious ACTS by their fellow party members, they circle the wagons. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have the media also pull their wagons into the circle to assist in any way possible.