The Associated Press noted in a new report that as details emerge about Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago scandal, “Republicans have grown notably silent.” There’s certainly some truth to that: Three weeks ago, after learning of the FBI executing a court-approved search warrant, GOP officials tripped over themselves to condemn federal law enforcement and defend the former president.
They’re certainly quieter now, as the details take an indefensible turn.
But that makes it all the more notable with some Republicans trying to stick up for the former president anyway. The GOP minority on the House Judiciary Committee argued yesterday, for example, that the Justice Department “did nothing” about the classified materials “for 18 months,” which is, as political lies go, rather lazy.
Republican Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, meanwhile, made the case that Trump may have taken classified documents to his glorified country club in order to write a book. This, too, is absurd, not only because the former president hires ghostwriters, but also because former presidents don’t need to steal sensitive national security secrets, and refuse to give them back, to finish a memoir.
Republican Rep. Mike Turner — who also recently pitched the “memoirs” talking point — also tried to downplay the alleged felonies, characterizing the scandal as a “bookkeeping issue.” Given the seriousness of the classification status on the materials Trump took, such an argument is unbecoming of a lawmaker who’d chair the House Intelligence Committee in the event of a GOP majority.
But perhaps most striking was the rhetoric from a House GOP leader. The Washington Post reported:
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), the House GOP conference chair, vocally defended former president Donald Trump on Wednesday in the wake of the FBI’s retrieval of sensitive government documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate after lengthy efforts to have them returned…. “This is Russia hoax 2.0,” Stefanik told Axios.
Sounding more like an unhinged media personality than a congressional leader, the New York congresswoman went on to suggest to Axios that federal law enforcement is “corrupt,” adding that the Justice Department and the FBI were “caught illegally meddling in the 2020 presidential campaign.”
Remember, Stefanik was a moderate, mainstream lawmaker who once cared about appearing credible and earning the respect of her colleagues. She’s also a member of the House Intelligence Committee — which means she knows the Russia scandal isn’t a “hoax”; she knows how serious it is that Trump brought highly sensitive classified secrets to Mar-a-Lago; and she knows that federal law enforcement wasn’t “caught illegally meddling” in anything.
But she peddled this nonsense anyway, in part because Stefanik assumes her party will be pleased, and in part because she expects the GOP base to believe things that aren’t true. Several years ago, John Bridgeland, who held a senior position in George W. Bush’s White House, once helped secure her a job and later encouraged Stefanik to run for Congress. Asked what happened to her, Bridgeland recently told Dana Milbank a sad but familiar story. “Quest for power,” Bridgeland said. “But power without principle is a pretty dark place to go. She wanted to climb the Republican ranks and she has, but … she’s climbed the ladder on the back of lies about the election that are undermining trust in elections, putting people’s lives at risk.” That was three months ago. Stefanik’s willingness to climb the ladder on the back of lies remains unchanged.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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