Even Republicans would never stand for that
Nicholas Kristof asks if Don of That Outer Borough is obstructing justice.
For months, as I’ve reported on the multiple investigations into Trump-Russia connections, I’ve heard that the F.B.I. investigation is by far the most important one, incomparably ahead of the congressional inquiries. I then usually asked: So will Trump fire Comey? And the response would be: Hard to imagine. The uproar would be staggering. Even Republicans would never stand for that.
Oh ha no, Republicans will stand for anything. Trump could eat an infant on camera and they would tell us to move on.
Alas, my contacts underestimated the myopic partisanship of too many Republicans. Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, spoke for many of his colleagues when he scoffed at the furor by saying, “Suck it up and move on.”
Yeah suck it up. What’s the big deal? So Russia tilted the election to a malignant narcissist, so what? So the malignant narcissist just fired the guy leading the key investigation of that Russian activity, so what? Suckitupandmoveon.
Trump challenges the legitimacy of checks on his governance, bullies critics and obfuscates everything. Trump reminds me less of past American presidents than of the “big men” rulers I covered in Asia and Africa, who saw laws simply as instruments with which to punish rivals.
He’s our very own Mugabe.
Move on – that’s what some Dems were saying during the Clinton impeachment. The Republicans did not move on. They kept at it. And it would have been valuable, had it not been approached as a partisan vendetta; if they had seriously and soberly looked at the treatment of women by men of power through this impeachment, it would have served a purpose. But their only purpose was to destroy a president from the other party.
Now they want to move on…this infraction goes way beyond having sex with an intern in the Oval Office (though, of course, the treatment of women by men in power, as noted above, is worthy of examination). So now they tell us to move on…let the president commit blatant acts of corruption, crimes against humanity, and perhaps even treason. He’s ours. Suck it up.
It’s hard not to think of The Last King of Scotland whenever Trump does anything, says anything or just stands there doing nothing.
I’m with Sarah Huckabee Sanders: The fact that Trump fired Comey proves that there’s no reason to investigate the Russia stuff. Time to move on!
Or… something.
One interesting thing that I’ve just noticed is that it’s become the thing (since at least the Clinton presidency) to spend most of a president’s term demanding impeachment (if they’re from the other party).
In this case it’s fully justified, but I think we’ve come to the point where every presidency is going to be considered illegitimate by the other side (no matter which other side it is). That’s where we’re at in terms of partisanship at this point in history.