The Washington Post - Opinion: It seemed the GOP might show some self-respect. Now it’s crawling back to Trump.

Opinion by Editorial Board

today

For a moment, it seemed as if the Republican Party might exorcise former president Donald Trump.

 

After four years of submission, GOP leaders were telling the truth. 

 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared that Mr. Trump had “provoked” the Jan. 6 Capitol invasion, having “fed lies” to the rioters. 

 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Mr. Trump “bears responsibility” for refusing to calm the insurrectionists. 

 

There was talk that enough GOP senators might be willing to join Democrats to convict the former president in an impeachment trial.

 

Days later, the era of glasnost seems to be ending. Senior Republicans are crawling back to Mr. Trump. 

 

The big lie of election fraud lives on. It is a sad turn for a once great party.

 

Barely three weeks after Mr. Trump’s mob stormed the Capitol, Mr. McCarthy traveled on Thursday to Mar-a-Lago, the former president’s Florida home, to kiss the ring. 

 

The apparent goal was to patch up his relationship with Mr. Trump following Mr. McCarthy’s mild acknowledgment of Mr. Trump’s guilt. 

 

The visit caps an apology tour in which the House minority leader walked back his criticism of Mr. Trump, at one point absurdly remarking that not just the former president but “everybody across this country” bears some responsibility for the Capitol riot.

 

Mr. McConnell has avoided such a pathetic spectacle.

 

He told reporters that he had not been in contact with the former president since mid-December, and he reportedly has no desire to speak again with Mr. Trump. 

 

But on Tuesday he defied indications that he might vote to convict the former president in the Senate’s coming impeachment trial - indeed, he sent the message that he did not think it should be happening at all. 

 

The Senate minority leader voted to force a debate on whether trying Mr. Trump after he has left office is constitutional.  ...

 

The Guardian - ‘The perfect target’: Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years – ex-KGB spy

today  

Donald Trump was cultivated as a Russian asset over 40 years and proved so willing to parrot anti-western propaganda that there were celebrations in Moscow, a former KGB spy has told the Guardian.

 

Yuri Shvets, posted to Washington by the Soviet Union in the 1980s, compares the former US president to “the Cambridge five”, the British spy ring that passed secrets to Moscow during the second world war and early cold war. ...

 

In 1987, Trump and Ivana visited Moscow and St Petersburg for the first time. 

 

Shvets said [Trump] was fed KGB talking points and flattered by KGB operatives who floated the idea that he should go into politics.

 

The ex-major recalled: “For the KGB, it was a charm offensive. They had collected a lot of information on his personality so they knew who he was personally.

 

"The feeling was that he was extremely vulnerable intellectually, and psychologically, and he was prone to flattery.

 

“This is what they exploited. They played the game as if they were immensely impressed by his personality and believed this is the guy who should be the president of the United States one day: it is people like him who could change the world.

 

"They fed him these so-called active measures soundbites and it happened. So it was a big achievement for the KGB active measures at the time.” ...

 

Craig Unger, the author of seven books and a former contributing editor for Vanity Fair magazine, said of Trump: 

 

“Trump was the perfect target in a lot of ways: his vanity, narcissism made him a natural target to recruit. He was cultivated over a 40-year period, right up through his election.”

 

What a surprise. Trump was played. He is dumb as a door and vain as a mirror. Now the entire Republican party is a Russian asset. God they must be laughing themselves silly. I wonder if 'Q' is also a Russian agent? It would fit beautifully.

Trump probably doesn't feel like he was played though. In fact, Christ alone knows what he is thinking, sitting there in Maralago or whatever the hell he calls it, hated by his immediate neighbours but surrounded by his sycophants, who keep filling his head with the "you're the best President America ever had" and "the election was stolen from you" bs. Of course, most of the Republican party just act like a bunch of cowards and back him 100%, because they're terrified of being voted out and losing their plum jobs in government.

That's my 2c anyway.

 

quickymart:  Trump probably doesn't feel like he was played though. ...

 

Of course not - he's a narcissistic idiot.   🙄

Holy crap, it's like polar opposites here.

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/?ex_cid=rrpromo

He has the best NO legal team left! (For the Impeachment defense)

 

msukiwi:  He has the best NO legal team left! ...

 

msukiwi:

He has the best NO legal team left! (For the Impeachment defense)

 

First on CNN: Trump's impeachment defense team leaves less than two weeks before trial

 

neb:  Won't make any difference, he's got his Retrumplicans back at his feet, he can't be convicted even if he had Giuliani defending him.

 

The Trumpers will call for impeachment to be cancelled because the defendant doesn't have legal representation.

Poor Donald.  Always the innocent victim.   😢

Trump's greatest achievement - revealing America's true colors.

Not red, white and blue, but white, black and yellow.

geekIT:

Trump's greatest achievement - revealing America's true colors.

 

Not red, white and blue, but white, black and yellow.

neb:

geekIT:

 

Trump's greatest achievement - revealing America's true colors.

 

Not red, white and blue, but white, black and yellow.

 

Shouldn't it be white, black and red?

Yellow represents the spinelessness and turncoat capabilities of the Republicans. But yes, red's ok to represent idiot rednecks.

I think America needs a new flag. Ideas, anyone? Rough sketches will do.