When Donald Trump walked onto that CNN town hall stage the other night, looking as if he’d put on 15 pounds just since lunch, he was greeted by a chorus of hosannahs from a stacked house of Republican faithful.
He stood there for a moment, in a suit that looked a couple of sizes too small. He bowed slightly, careful not to tip over. He looked big enough to have swallowed Mike Pence. And the cheering went on, and it roused a few questions touching only partly on politics.
1. Were these Trump worshippers unaware that a court of law that very week had convicted their man of sexually assaulting a woman? Who cheers for such a creep?
2. Were they unaware that he sat in another courtroom, just days earlier, charged with paying thousands of dollars to hide a sexual fling he had when his wife had just given birth to their youngest child? Who cheers for such a creep?
3. Were they unaware of ongoing criminal investigations in New York, Georgia, Florida and Washington, D.C., that could send the ex-president of the United States to prison for trying to undermine the very Constitution he swore under oath to defend?
Yes, of course they’re aware.
But they don’t care. And that absence of caring gave them license to laugh cruelly when Trump mocked E. Jean Carroll, the woman he was convicted of assaulting; and laughed when he called plucky-but-overwhelmed moderator Kaitlan Collins by some schoolboy insult; and cheered when Trump verbally steamrollered Collins as she tried to stop him from offering one outright lie after another.
And those lies included Trump’s insane claim that the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot was a “beautiful day” in which maybe “a couple” of people got nasty but most of the others he’d happily pardon — including, apparently, those trying to hang Vice President Pence.
Were these patriots unaware of the Jan. 6 riot championed by Trump? Were they unaware that Trump stood by as America barely escaped one of the most terrifying days in its history?
Point of clarification here.
I’m not questioning anyone’s right to vote based on political judgment. I’m questioning people’s judgment of human qualities.
Does character no longer matter? Is it strictly about power now, about who’s a more likely winner, no matter what the winning says about us as a people?
Trump’s great political gift is his con game. He presents himself as a winner, no matter the clear evidence that he’s not. He keeps losing court cases — about 60 in a row — declaring there was no massive fraud in the 2020 election. He’s getting pummeled in his personal fights with prosecutors.
And yet he doesn’t give an inch, and his supporters buy into it despite all undeniable evidence.
That’s the truly disturbing part about Trump, not just that he became president, and might get the job again, but that millions of people are crazy about him in spite of everything.
And who are these people?
They are, most frightening of all, our own beloved countrymen.
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