"I see nothing. I know nothing."
“I would tell you, in my four and a half years serving alongside the president, I never heard or witnessed behavior of that nature. And so, again, I have no knowledge of those allegations or the truth or veracity of them and I wouldn’t want to comment on a civil judgment.”
Mike Pence
If you see something, say something.
Some Republicans write me saying I am unfair. Most avid Trump supporters and defenders have stopped reading this blog, but a set of old-school Republicans remain Republicans and still read me. They say they aren't Trump and don't like him. They resent being tarred by Trump. Some say they wish he didn't post wild things on Truth Social. They wish he would quit claiming election fraud, rigging, and a landslide election victory. They disapprove of the January 6 riot.
I know of no Republicans who say they support sexual attacks on women, not in the abstract. A unanimous jury determined Trump sexually assaulted a woman by grabbing and penetrating her in a department store dressing room, that he lied about it and defamed her in doing so. The jury awarded her $5 million. Trump mocked her on CNN to the applause of the audience. He called her a "whack job." The Trump-friendly crowd in New Hampshire cheered him. That crowd disappoints me but does not surprise me. In crowds people lose their identity and common sense. This was a high school pep rally. Go! Fight! Win! They were in a mood to cheer their star.
But presumably sober people of discretion -- U.S. senators -- alone and in a time of their own choosing — also volunteered opinions on Trump's behavior, and sided with him.
Senator Rick Scott said "He said he didn’t do it. I don’t know the facts. It’s a New York jury, too.”
Senator Marco Rubio said, "That jury’s a joke. The whole case is a joke."
Senator Tommy Tuberville said, “It makes me want to vote for him twice. They’re going to do anything they can to keep him from winning. . . . a New York jury, he had no chance.”
Senator Lindsay Graham said, "I think the New York legal system is off the rails when it comes to Donald Trump.”
Apparently there is nothing Trump can do that crosses the line of inexcusable behavior. Some part of the GOP electorate is positively thrilled with Trump, in all his norm-breaking alpha-male willfulness. It proves his strength and independence. That group intimidates the others who take a blind eye.
Republicans are in a difficult position. They must deny what they see. The January 6 riot must have been a false flag or just a few rambunctious tourists. The New York defamation trial must have been a stacked jury. Trump makes denial difficult. Trump says he proudly attempted to overthrow the election and to bully the Georgia Secretary of State and that he would pardon the January 6 rioters. He slut-shamed E. Jean Carroll.
This blog writes about Trump because Trump is the whirlwind shaping American politics. Not Biden. Not Schumer. Not McConnell. Not Fox. Trump is shaping the issues at the center of the national debate. That is OK. America can survive and prosper amid vigorous disagreement over policy.
Trump is doing something more consequential. He is normalizing lawbreaking. He is saying the rules of a mature republic are for losers and saps. The writers of the American constitution assumed leaders like Trump would come along. They also assumed that sober men of prominence and discretion would take notice and object. Ambition would check ambition. My dismay is that those presumably ambitious people have willful blindness and obtuseness. They are setting a new norm for America. Nothing is too much. A demagog can get away with anything.
In Sioux Center, Iowa in January, 2016, Trump warned us:
I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.
His supporters are not Christians, supporters of law enforcement, conservatives or any of the BS they say. They only want power to enrich themselves and punish those they hate. It’s that simple and to pretend otherwise is foolish. As someone smarter than me said “the cruelty is the point”