Precious few, but not no principled conservatives
Only a fool would predict a new Donald Trump scandal will finally collapse his support. The Trump shock troops who cover their lawns and trucks and boats and bodies in loud professions of their MAGA faith are too far gone.
Trump has spent his life flouting the law using his daddy’s money, his own notoriety, and a bevy of attorneys to keep himself out of the hoosegow. It’s the habit of a lifetime of crime. Laws that apply to ordinary people are but annoying flies Trump swats away. He believes his shit doesn’t stink (contrary to reports) despite attracting swarms of prosecutorial flies.
If anything does end Trump, it won’t be a bullet or another criminal indictment or an investigation into his illegally accepting $10 million in 2016 from an account tied to the Egyptian General Intelligence Service. It might be a personal insult to ordinary Americans. Like the families of fallen soldiers he’s already described as losers and suckers. Only this time, he did not issue the insult on foreign soil but at Arlington National Cemetery.
Perhaps Trump’s exploitation of the nation’s war dead last month to film a campaign commercial was the last straw. And he may still evade accountability for that. A sane candidate would let the matter drop. Not Trump. He’s too entitled for that.
On Wednesday at Duke University, former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, already a prominent Trump opponent, endorsed Trump’s Democratic opponent for president, Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Duke Chronical reports:
Former Congresswoman Liz Cheney revealed she will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris at a Wednesday Duke event titled “Defending Democracy.”
Peter Feaver, professor of political science and director of the Duke Program in American Grand Strategy, who moderated the event, asked Cheney if she wanted to “make news” by endorsing a presidential candidate.
Cheney had previously not weighed in on which candidate she would be supporting in the 2024 presidential election.
“Because we are here in North Carolina, I think it is crucially important for people to recognize … that Trump poses something that should prevent people from voting for him, but I don’t believe we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names — particularly in swing states,” she said. “And as a conservative, and someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this and because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”
Her comments elicited a standing ovation from the audience.
The daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney has been perhaps Trump’s highest-profile Republican critic. She joins other Republicans like her former Jan. 6 committee member, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Rep. Denver Riggleman, as backers of Harris. More than 200 alumni of the Bush administration and former Republican presidential campaigns of the late Sen. John McCain and Sen. Mitt Romney also announced their endorsement of Harris last week.
Asked for comment, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung responded: “Who is Liz Cheney and what does she do?”
Dripping with contempt, that comment from Cheung, Dear Readers, is Trumpism in a nutshell. With all the attendant misogyny.
The Harris campaign responded (ABC News):
“The Vice President is proud to have earned Congresswoman Cheney’s vote. She is a patriot who loves this country and puts our democracy and our Constitution first,” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote. “As she noted in her powerful remarks, this election is a choice between the fundamental threat Donald Trump poses to our democracy and a leader who will stand up for our freedoms and the rule of law in Vice President Harris.”
Jimmy McCain, son of the late Republican Senator John McCain, also endorsed Harris following Trump’s Arlington commercial shoot. The BBC reports that three generations of McCain family members are buried at Arlington:
He added: “The point of Arlington Cemetery is to go and show respect for the men and women who have given their lives to this country. When you make it political, you take away the respect of the people who are there.”
Mr McCain, who was previously an independent, said he has changed his voter registration to Democrat and plans to vote for Ms Harris for president in November.
Trump’s Arlington Cemetery incident may not have finally tipped the scale for Cheney, but surely played a role. Let it not be said that there are no principled conservatives left. Precious few, but not none.