Aaron Rupar has a new substack that you can subscribe to here. His twitter coverage of Trump is unparalleled and the analysis in the newsletter is excellent. He covered trump’s rally last night and addresses the issue of whether or not it’s newsworthy to cover Trump now that he isn’t president.
Let’s just say that he’s not going away and burying your head in the sand and pretending he is no longer relevant is a mistake. He is extremely relevant. He is the undisputed leader of the Republican party and they are formidable. Forgetting that is one of the left’s biggest weaknesses.
Here’s a piece of what he had to say:
Two days after Trump went on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show and echoed the racist opening line of his first presidential campaign by accusing Haitian migrants of spreading AIDS, top Iowa Republicans provided the latest demonstration Saturday of how Trump’s hold over the party remains absolute, with Gov. Kim Reynolds, Sen. Chuck Grassley, and Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Ashley Hinson introducing him before his rally in Des Moines.
Grassley’s night encapsulated the corner Republicans have backed themselves into. Before the rally, Iowa’s senior senator went on Newsmax and turned reality on its head, arguing that Trump actually worked to thwart the January 6 insurrection (nevermind that tape of Trump pressuring a Georgia official to “find” votes for him) and as such is the victim of another witch hunt.
Grassley was later invited onstage by Trump during the rally to receive an endorsement — the 88-year-old recently announced he’s running for another term in the Senate — and offered an extremely cynical rationale for accepting it.
“If I didn’t accept the endorsement of a person that’s got 91 percent of the Republican voters in Iowa, I wouldn’t be too smart,” Grassley said.
Rupar astutely points out:
In the Q&A that launched Public Notice, political scientist Brian Klaas told me he doesn’t think America will survive another Trump presidency. That’s debatable, but what isn’t is that Republicans not only continue to refuse every opportunity to put some distance between themselves and the man who earlier this year tried to intimidate Congress against certifying his election loss, but are eager to take the stage with him when he comes to their communities.
You may be done with Trump — and believe me, I get it — but Trumpism is not done with us.
Don’t look away, people. The consequences could be catastrophic.