Member-only story
Trump’s Greek Chorus Needs a Verdict of Their Own
The Trump enablers are far more dangerous together than Donald Trump is singularly
The excellent Matt Labash wrapped his rhetorical powers around something I’ve been stewing on. Illustrating the absurdity of politicos has been Matt’s calling card for a long time now, so it is not surprising something like the Trump verdict this past week functioned as a slow, hanging curve right where Labash could really turn on it. After the excellent synopsis of “that’s mostly what I’ve done since the jury rendered their decision: sat back and watched stupid, reckless people say stupid, reckless things” followed by social media receipts of some of the worst examples, Labash gets to the heart of the matter:
On the other hand, his character, or lack of, isn’t a side-question. It ought to be the main question, as conservatives once obsessed over it in the era of Bill Clinton. Hypocritical gasbags even wrote entire books on virtue. So that even if you think Alvin Bragg overreached, and a judge submitted jury instructions that all but guaranteed a conviction, every single facet of this case would’ve been a disqualifier to any other candidate who didn’t have the cult following that Trump has. The facts, never really under dispute since Trump refused to testify in his own defense for fear of perjuring…