Wednesday, February 07, 2024

US hard-right desperate to ingreatiate themselves eith Trump

This stuff would be hilarious if it weren't so sad and scary.

In the aftermath of the DC Court of Appeals' unanimous decision that Donald Trump definitively does not have presidential immunity in criminal cases like the January 6th insurrection trial, right-wing Republicans are running around like headless chickens because they have put all their eggs in the Trump basket and they will be lost if all those eggs are broken.

Mixed metaphors aside, the right-hand side of the GOP are lining up to publicly ingratiate themselves with Trump in a rather embarrassing display of abject obsequiousness, engaging in their usual Orwellian doublespeak.

Matt Gaetz seems to believe that a non-binding resolution in Congress "to authoritatively express that President Trump did not commit an insurrection" will somehow carry some legal weight (even if such a resolution were to somehow be passed). I assume the thinking is that if Trump does not have a legal carte blanche to do anything he likes, which has always been his contention, then they better make damned sure they have tried everything possible (and a few things impossible) to ensure he never ends up in court, or at least not until he is elected again. 

The indefatigable and horrible Majorie Taylor Greene, of course, made her own obeisance to Trump, arguing, without any explanation for those which could not follow her logic, that it was President Joe Biden's inauguration that was the actual insurrection, not Trump's action on January 6th. Er, OK....

Up-and-coming Trump acolyte Elise Stefanik also chimed in, rambling on about "extreme Democrats" who will "stop at nothing in an attempt to prevent Donald Trump from returning to the White House". Yawn.

In all, some 60 Congress members from the right wing of the right wing signed the resolution, which they must know does not have any standing,  legal or otherwise. This is all about setting themselves up as Trump uber-suppoters, in hopes of gaining preference in some putative Trump Royal Court.

Note that all of this is not out of some ethical desire to be doing the right thing, to right a wrong, even if that is how it is portrayed; it is a cynical exercise in right-wing realpolitik. Gaetz himself is currently under investigation for alleged sex trafficking of a minor. These are not ethical people.

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