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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Repub Venality Open Thread: When Dear Leader Summons, Repubs Hasten to Obey

Repub Venality Open Thread: When Dear Leader Summons, Repubs Hasten to Obey

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… [I]t was some mix of surprising and revealing how little of the first round of press coverage noted the very Pyongyang-on-Capitol Hill vibe of these events, right down to the set piece press opportunities with grown men and women from the Senate manically clapping like seals as Trump walks into the room, interviews where they express their hopes that Trump will come and lead them again. Our friend Aaron Rupar really seemed to have his eyes open for this, and he captured it in this video.

Perhaps these public performances of dignity loss are so expected at this point that people take them as a given. But I think there’s a bit more to it than that. Most people haven’t seen this stuff in years. And it’s actually much more fulsome and intense than it used to be. Trump’s mix of courtroom defeats and convictions keeps upping the ante for the level of sycophancy required in his and their minds to offset them. It’s the most obvious way that occurs to them to counter those reverses. Not only does it not hurt him, they clap even louder each felony he’s convicted of.

And Trump doesn’t look good. He turned 78 today. But I don’t think it’s age. He looks different since his conviction: disheveled, sweaty, even more rambling than before.

The unity also seems creakier than advertised. I don’t mean there’s disunity precisely. But the whole spectacle didn’t signal a great deal of confidence, certainly less confidence than you’d expect from the Democratic mood which over the spring has often oscillated between pessimistic and doomed. The presidential race remains genuinely uncertain. Congress is likely a bigger driver. The Senate map is so bad for Democrats this year that the idea of maintaining control of the Senate should be absurd. But it’s not. There’s now a legitimate chance Democrats could do it, especially if President Biden is reelected, allowing control in a 50-50 Senate. I’m not saying this is likely. But it seems much more possible than it did only a few months ago. Republicans prospects in the House are worse…

Donald Trump came to the Capitol Hill Club Thursday morning supposedly to discuss his agenda for a second term with House Republicans. Instead, Trump treated his meeting as an opportunity to deliver a behind-closed-doors, stream-of-consciousness rant where Trump tried to settle scores in the House GOP, trashed the city of Milwaukee and took a shot at Nancy Pelosi’s “wacko” daughter.

As one source in the room put it, Trump was “rambling.”

“Like talking to your drunk uncle at the family reunion,” this source said.

Lawmakers who attended the meeting — which was nearly the entire House GOP conference — kicked off the affair with their own show of devotion: They sang “Happy Birthday” to Trump. The former president, who turns 78 on Friday, was then presented with a game ball from Wednesday night’s Congressional Baseball Game, where Republicans whooped Democrats 31-11…

On the other end of the spectrum, Trump dumped on a number of his enemies, railing against the Department of Justice — he called the DOJ “dirty bastards” — and criticized Democrats and President Joe Biden.

He also brought up Taylor Swift, asking the room why the pop singer would “endorse this dope,” referring to Biden, according to a member in the room…

When Dear Leader Summons, Repubs Hasten - STOCKPILE

(John Deering via GoComics.com)


Trump Is Their Dear Leader - STOCKPILE

Reader Interactions

61Comments

  1. 1.

    TBone

    I love this post.  Keep kicking when they’re down, so they won’t forget it.  They’ll lie about it, but they’re crying on the inside.  I watched Grassley’s face on the big screen that day.

  2. 2.

    Villago Delenda Est

    These choads would have all made great members of the Supreme Soviet circa say 1938-1953.

  5. 5.

    StringOnAStick

    The way he’s standing, with his head cocked like a dog who thinks maybe he just heard “walkies” , just plain looks senile to me.

  6. 6.

    scav

    The GOP has nearly cornered the international market on ambulatory self-prostrating doormats.  And they follow the dirt around!  A triumph for history books.  Another manufacturing sector wrested back from the third world.

  7. 7.

    JaySinWA

    I can’t put a name to the person in the “hello darkness” Tweet. He’s in the video below it, at the end of the panning

    ETA apparently Sen. Lankford. Looking pretty seedy compared to his official photo.

  8. 8.

    RaflW

    Mikey J: “We had sustained applause.”

    This is so pathetic. The only reason he said this is because when Trump spoke to CEOs on the same day, that meeting has at least by some outlets been reported as a disaster. MSNBC sys “At no time during his remarks was there any noticeable applause for Trump, two attendees told CNBC.”

    I mean, CEOs are hardly normal people, but they aren’t beholden in the balls-sack-in-vise way that GOP House members are. The contrast is starkly hilarious.

  9. 9.

    Scout211

    What a nice compilation, AL!  Thanks for including that NOTUS article.  I posted that a few days ago just for this quote from someone who attended that meeting:

    As one source in the room put it, Trump was “rambling.”

    “Like talking to your drunk uncle at the family reunion,” this source said.

    I just like seeing that in print again.  And again.  😉

  11. 11.

    West of the Rockies

    @Mike in NC:

    Was Fred Trump genuinely and manifestly suffering from dementia at 78?  At what age was he evidently showing up in his office and being handed blank sheets of paper to sign (with him somehow unaware he was bring placated)?

    Here’s hoping TFG’s dementia gets notably worse in the next 100 days.

  12. 12.

    BellaPea

    Well, and of course there was Trump ass-kisser Marsha Blackburn in the front row. Worst Tennessee senator in history. An absolute disgrace.

  16. 16.

    RaflW

    @Sid: Their plan, Project 2025, only requires a placated and propped up Trump to sign EOs and, if they gain control of both houses, a raft of hideous legislation.

    None of the Republicans in D.C. care one whit if Trump robs the government blind. Heck, they’d think that’s smart!

    They just want his sharpie to do the enabling scrawls on the EOs and bills. He can be further gone than St. Ronnie, they won’t care.

  17. 17.

    Scout211

    Ugh.  Why are conservative mega church pastors so often sexual predators?

    The pastor of one of the country’s largest churches—and who Donald Trump once named as a spiritual adviser—has admitted to “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a woman who says he sexually abused her when she was just 12 years old.

    . . .

    After Clemishire came forward, Morris acknowledged the claims in a statement to The Christian Post, admitting he engaged in “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a “young lady,” refusing to acknowledge Clemishire’s age at the time.

    It was kissing and petting and not intercourse, but it was wrong,” he said.

    . . .

    Clemishire told the Dallas Morning News that her family never condoned Morris’ return to the ministry, despite Morris’ claim to the contrary.

    “We don’t believe anyone that’s done anything like this should be an overseer to anyone in any industry, but especially in the church,” Clemishire said.

    As for whether she found Morris’ public apology to be earnest, Clemishire struck it down.

    “I don’t think that it’s repentant when someone calls a 12-year-old a young lady and tries to just dismiss what happened as just some heavy petting,” Clemishire said. “I don’t believe that’s repentance. There’s no child on earth that any person should ever do that to. It’s just unacceptable. There’s zero excuse.”

    I’m sure Trump never heard of the guy.  His former “spiritual adviser.”

  20. 20.

    SFAW

    @StringOnAStick: ​

    with his head cocked like a dog who thinks maybe he just heard “walkies” ,

    Lissen, libtard: he doesn’t NEED to go “walkies” and he knows it. He’s demented, but his sooper-jeenyus brain remembers he’s wearing a diaper.​

  22. 22.

    gene108

    I wish Trump had a true Pyongyang Stalin-esque personality cult within the Republican Party.

    First Congressional Republican to stop clapping gets taken out back and shot. If it’s someone from the House, hello Speaker Jeffries?

  23. 23.

    TBone

    @Anyway: that’s not really what the article is about.  Of course it would be nice if they spoke up.  They didn’t.  But Tiedrich is!  You really can’t grasp the content of that article solely by its link.

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jeffg166:

    He looks gawdawful.

    I’m taking pleasure in reports that he once again publicly called upon Biden to take a cognitive test, but several times in the calling he got the name of his own WH doctor (who administered his own test) wrong (repeatedly referred to him as Ronny Johnson, not Ronny Jackson).

  25. 25.

    RaflW

    @Scout211: Pastor Morris’s “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a “young lady” (refusing to acknowledge Clemishire’s age at the time) is a CRIME.

    “Not intercourse” may slightly lessen the severity of the criminal charges, but he should be under indictment now.

    edit: Fixed the name, oops. Morris is the criminal pederast.

  26. 26.

    TBone

    We’re still doing snark here, aren’t we?  Mockery?  Dad jokes?  Dotard is a walking landmine landfill for jokes.

    On Judgement Day, two forever Trumpers meet God at the pearly gates and God asks them if they have any questions. One says “yes, please tell us the true results of the 2020 presidential election.” God tells them that the election was not rigged and that Biden won the presidency fair and square. The guy turns towards his friend and whispers, “looks like this fraud goes higher up than we ever imagined.”

  27. 27.

    TBone

    Democrats know that Trump didn’t invent racism. That’s too bad because if he had, it would have already gone bankrupt.

  28. 28.

    Scout211

    @RaflW:

    “Not intercourse” may slightly lessen the severity of the criminal charges, but he should be under indictment now.

    I only excerpted part of  that article so I went back to add another piece of it to your comment, but alas, that was my one free article at Daily Beast and I was blocked.  

    The part that I wanted to quote was that the sexual predator and his church claimed that his crime was in the past and forgiven, implying that the crime was also in the past.  But the article correctly stated that sexual crimes with minors have no statute of limitations in that state.  So yeah, he should definitely be charged.

  29. 29.

    waspuppet

    Instead, Trump treated his meeting as an opportunity to deliver a behind-closed-doors, stream-of-consciousness rant …

    He has treated every single speech, event, rally, meeting and press conference as an opportunity to deliver a stream-of-consciousness rant for nine years and counting.

  32. 32.

    Anyway

    @TBone:

    They didn’t.  But Tiedrich is!  You really can’t grasp the content of that article solely by its link.

    I don’t know who Tiedrich is — don’t recognize the name.

  33. 33.

    cain

    @scav: they are doormats to everyone remotely authoritarian. Business leaders, Trump, Christian leaders and Israel.

    And they are so cheap as well. Just a few 10k to enable millions of profit.

  34. 34.

    wjca

    @Anyway: That’s nice but it doesn’t matter what they agree in private if they also don’t speak up publicly about the risks Dotard presents to the country (and vote for Biden).

    If it causes them to just keep their checkbooks closed, that’s still a win.  Not an overwhelming victory, but still a win.

  35. 35.

    Jay

    @Anyway:

    He’s a wit who got famous trashing and mocking Hair Shitler’s every word on the Former Bird Site, who switched to a longer form on SubStack, he’s up there with Arron Rupar and Brooklin Dad Defiant,

    you know, doing an unpaid job that the Media refuses to do.

  36. 36.

    wjca

    @RaflW: Morris is the criminal pederast.

    IANAL, but I am under the impression that the technical legal term is “child molester”.

  38. 38.

    TBone

    There are only two types of Trump supporters.  Billionaires and idiots.  Check your bank account and see which one you are.

  39. 39.

    MinuteMan

    A good theme song for this would be Bowie’s “Suffragette City: redone as “Sycophant City”.

  40. 40.

    TBone

    So, you’re telling me he was spanked with a magazine with his own face on it by a porn star who reminded him of his daughter?

    I’ll have to get back to you on this one.

    – Sigmund Freud

  42. 42.

    Geminid

    @Scout211: A couple of of Evangelical women run a website named Wartburg Watch that reports on abuse of all kinds carried on by Protestant chuch leaders. They follow up too, so there are typically 2 to 5 different cases covered in a given week.

    They’ll also report some good news including a devotional every now and then, but these women are fed up with abusive patriarchy and they do not pull their punches.

    It’s a site worth checking out, and is named after Wartburg Castle where a German Prince hid Martin Luther for a couple years.

  47. 47.

    RaflW

    @Scout211: The pedo Pastor claims the father ‘forgave’ the pastor when she was 14. She denies her dad did so, and it sounds to me like she could still press charges.

    I’d imagine in TX in today’s awful, Paxton-Abbot political culture, she’d have to be extremely brave and motivated to do so.

  49. 49.

    RaflW

    @wjca: Sorry to nitpic, but there’s at least two more:
    – Other criminals
    – Sex pests (unindicted, since some sex pests are in pt.1 above)

  50. 50.

    TBone

    Strange to think that an embryo can lose its rights…

    if it develops into a female.

  51. 51.

    smith

    @Scout211:The part that I wanted to quote was that the sexual predator and his church claimed that his crime was in the past and forgiven, implying that the crime was also in the past.

    Here’s the paragraph I think you’re referring to:

    He claimed that, with the blessing of the girl’s father and church elders, he returned to ministry two years after the abuse was reported. “I asked their forgiveness, and they graciously forgave me,” Morris said.

    The thing that struck me was his seeking the forgiveness of the girl’s father*, not the girl herself. In other words, the patriarch who owned her decided to forgive the despoiling of his property, so everything was made right.

    *The woman he abused when she was 12 disputes that any member of her family forgave him.

  52. 52.

    RaflW

    @wjca: I confess I’d not ever looked into the gendered nature of that term. Molester is the more proper term.

  53. 53.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Scout211:

    Why are conservative mega church pastors so often sexual predators?

    It’s a religion of hate whose morality system overtly denies that your actions determine whether you are good or bad.  Of course its leaders abuse their power.  Humans want sex, so that’s one of the most common things they abuse power to get.

  56. 56.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @rikyrah: I’m reminded of when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. visited the set of Star Trek and spoke with Nichelle Nichols, who told him she was considering leaving the show, and he pleaded with her not to, that she was a role model for Black little girls everywhere, to include his daughters, doing something aside from a domestic worker.

    Representation does indeed matter.

  57. 57.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @TBone: Once the kid drops from the womb, it’s totally on its own.  How very “pro-life” is that?

  58. 58.

    Jinchi

    Whoever posted that video of Trump along with the AP report has to be perfectly aware of how much BS it was. Because Trump looks severely unwell.

  59. 59.

    Tony G

    @RaflW: I guess that pretending that you represent God — The Creator of the Universe — makes it easier to fuck twelve-year-old girls.

  60. 60.

    wjca

    @RaflW: Sorry to nitpic, but there’s at least two more:
    – Other criminals
    – Sex pests (unindicted, since some sex pests are in pt.1 above)

    Also sorry to nit pick.  But those weren’t my categories, but TBone’s.  :-)

  61. 61.

    Chris T.

    I think at this point if I ever find myself talking to someone who says they’re thinking of voting for Trump, my comment will be: “really? doesn’t he seem awfully loser-y lately?”

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