Item one: We crossed another Rubicon this week with these veep wannabees parroting Donald Trump’s line about not accepting election results. |
As many have observed, democracies don’t die overnight. There’s no One Big Event that does it. It happens bit by bit. Noticing it requires paying very close attention and connecting the
dots as you go along, and most people don’t have the time or dedication to do that. So I draw your attention to a new and ominous development this week: It’s now basically settled that Donald Trump’s running mate will be with him 1000 percent on denying unfavorable election results. Doing so became a litmus test this week. South Carolina GOP Senator Tim Scott is chiefly to blame, but of course it’s also Trump, and the entire cast of craven jellyfish who are today’s Republican Party. As you’ve probably read, Scott was on Meet the Press Sunday and, under questioning from host Kristen Welker, refused six times to say he’d accept the election results. The things he did say were ludicrous: "This is an issue that is not an issue so I’m not going to make it an issue." "I’m not going to answer your hypothetical question when, in fact, I believe the American people are speaking today on the results of the election." "This is why so many Americans believe that NBC is an extension of the Democrat Party." The same day, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum ran for the hills when CNN’s Jake Tapper asked him about potential political violence after the election. He spat out some evasive nonsense about how the important thing about the election is that "both sides feel good about how it was counted." We all know what that means: If one party (gee, which one?) doesn’t "feel good" about the vote count, then violence might be justified. These are, in one way, dismissible men. But these are not dismissible comments. This is new. And it’s worth thinking about.
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Join us on May 18 in Philadelphia and on livestream to examine the disasters of Trump’s first term and everything concerned American citizens want to know about making sure he never takes office again. Speakers include: Will Bunch, George Conway, Molly Jong-Fast, Mary Trump, Rick Wilson, and more.
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In 2016, Trump went around saying things like, "I will totally accept" the election results "if I win." But it wasn’t yet holy scripture. In fact, that fall, Trump’s running mate avowed that the GOP would play by the rules. "We will absolutely accept the results of the election," Mike Pence told Chuck Todd on Meet the Press on October 16. This was very important at the time. It allowed people to think Trump was just blustering, wasn’t to be taken seriously. And his position was seen as a clear liability. Three days after Pence’s Meet the Press appearance, Trump debated Hillary Clinton. Trump refused to affirm to moderator Chris Wallace that he’d accept the election results. Even Republicans asked by Politico agreed that it was Trump’s worst moment of the
debate. Said an Ohio Republican: "His answer on not accepting the results of the election [is] disqualifying—and that’s not an ‘elite’ position." Added a New Hampshire GOPer: "Refusing to accept the outcome of a legitimate American election and refusing to commit to the peaceful transition of power is disqualifying. Stunning." Those Republicans reflected a consensus then among the Republicans Politico asked, and to some extent among rank-and-file Republicans too—53 percent of Republicans even told Politico that Clinton won that debate. The idea that a major party candidate would reject election results was disqualifying, or seemed to be. Of course, Trump won, so the proposition wasn’t tested then. In 2020, he did the same thing, casting doubt on the veracity of the pandemic-era results throughout the campaign. And we know what came of that: January 6. On that day, remember, 139 House members voted against certifying the election results, while 72 voted to certify (or were absent). Eight GOP senators voted not to certify, while 43 voted to certify Joe Biden’s victory. Those voting results were depressing enough, but it must be asked: Would we get similar results today? Or will we next January 6, if Trump is declared the loser and contests the results, as he all but inevitably will? I think this time it would be worse, maybe far worse. As Scott’s and Burgum’s dodges testify, conventional wisdom has changed. Now, it is assured that Trump’s vice presidential choice will, instead of offering Pence’s 2016 reassurances, be right there with Trump in threatening not to accept the results. The new Trump-installed chair of the party, Michael Whatley, is a 2020 election denier whose chief appeal to Trump was that he’s "a Stop the Steal guy." And the new co-chair, of course, is Lara Trump. Around 60 RNC employees were handed their papers in March. The new application process includes asking job-seekers whether they think the 2020 election was stolen. The upshot here should be clear enough. This November, the entire party will be armed to fight an adverse election result. This is new—worse, even, than 2020 and 2021. Scott and Burgum helped cement this posture as the new conventional wisdom this week. But really, they were shaping conventional wisdom far less than they were allowing themselves to be shaped by it. If they hadn’t said what they said, they’d be instantly tossed from Trump’s short list. And the rest of the party? Please. They’ll fall into one of two camps. They’ll enthusiastically parrot the accepted line. Or they’ll use the "It’s not an issue, because Donald Trump will be elected our next president" dodge. And those in the latter camp know very well that the road is littered with the political carcasses of Republicans who defied Trump. So, again: If January 6, 2025 comes around, and Congress is confronted with a situation similar to that other January 6, how many Republicans will stand up for democracy this time? Jellyfish may not have backbones, but they can still sting.
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Item two: Umm…should we now be pulling for RFK Jr.? |
It’s hard to top the brain worm story in terms of sheer yuks, but Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a couple other headlines this week that are worth noting. First, in a MAGA-crowd play, he told MSNBC’s Ari Melber that he wouldn’t rule out January 6 pardons. Then, in yet another new position on abortion, he said he supported a woman’s full right to terminate a pregnancy, "even if it’s full term." This came as a surprise to his running mate (quick: name her!), who went on a podcast and averred: "That is not my understanding of his position and I think maybe there was a miscommunication there." But the biggest Kennedy news of the week was arguably made by Donald Trump, who is very obviously nervous as hell about Kennedy’s potential impact on his electoral fortunes. Thursday afternoon, after watching Stormy Daniels dominate his feckless lawyer, and former secretary Madeleine Westerhout serve up some potentially devastating corroboration of Michael Cohen, Trump posted a video lambasting Kennedy. "RFK Jr. is a Democrat plant," Trump said. "A radical left liberal who's been put in place in order to help Crooked Joe Biden, the worst president in the history of the United States, get re-elected. A lot of people think Junior is a conservative. He’s
not." But here’s the best part. "By the way, he said the other night that vaccines are fine," said Trump. "For those of you who want to vote because you think he's an anti-vaxxer, he's not really an anti-vaxxer. That's only his political moment. So, RFK's views on vaccines are fake, as is everything else about his candidacy." Trump fools his supporters into thinking he’s such a tough guy. But the rest of us know that the louder the bluster, the more terrified he is. He’s terrified of Daniels. He’s terrified of going to jail. And now, he’s terrified of RFK Jr. Polls still show that Kennedy’s impact on the race is still hard to parse. A poll of Wisconsin that came out this week had Joe Biden leading Trump 50-44 head-to-head, but when Kennedy, Cornel West, and Jill Stein were tossed in, Biden’s lead narrowed considerably. That suggests that the three of them hurt Biden collectively. How much of that can be pinned on RFK isn’t certain. But Democrats shouldn’t let
Trump’s attempts to paint Junior as a lefty go unanswered. It’s entirely possible that Junior can steal more votes from Trump than from Biden, but that will depend on what perception voters have of Kennedy come Election Day.
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Last week’s quiz: "Aaaannnnddd … they’re off!" A sociocultural peek inside the sometimes beautiful, often deadly, and quite corrupt world of thoroughbred horse racing.
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1. Who was president when they ran the first Kentucky Derby?
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A. Andrew Johnson B. Ulysses S. Grant C. Grover Cleveland D. William Howard Taft
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Answer: A, U.S. Grant. It was 1875, during his second term.
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2. What was notable about Oliver Lewis, the jockey who won that first Derby, aboard Aristides?
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A. He was blind. B. He was six feet tall, an anomaly even then. C. He was the mayor of Louisville. D. He was Black.
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Answer: D, he was Black. Amazing, no? In fact, Black jockeys dominated the Derby in its early decades. Eventually, they were barred, for all the usual, horrible reasons. What’s astounding to me, knowing all that we know, is that they were permitted in the first place.
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3. In the famous film National Velvet (1944) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney, is Velvet the name of the girl or the horse?
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Answer: The Elizabeth Taylor character was named Velvet Brown. Her horse was called Pie.
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4. Bloodlines are important in horse racing. In thoroughbred lingo, a "dam" is the horse’s mother. What’s the word for the horse’s father?
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A. Pater B. Begetter C. Sire D. Author
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Answer: C, sire. The full lingo goes like this, for example: "Secretariat, by Bold Ruler, out of Somethingroyal." Now you know.
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5. According to the website Horseracing Wrongs, how many horses have been killed on or at U.S. tracks so far this year?
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6. Bob Baffert is the most famous living thoroughbred trainer today. According to New York Times racing writer Joe Drape on NPR’s Fresh Air this week, his horses have done what 33 times?
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A. Won a Triple Crown race B. Won a stakes race with at least a six-figure purse C. Been disqualified at the last second for some infraction D. Failed a drug test
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Answer: D, failed a drug test. Now, that can happen by accident. But 33 does seem like a lot. In 2021, he had a Derby winner, Medina Spirit, disqualified. Baffert said the horse was given an ointment for a rash, and he didn’t realize the ointment contained a banned drug.
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Join us on June 8 for a high-profile event that will feature authors who are currently banned; fellow writers who have taken up the cause; and teachers, librarians, and students who have been directly impacted by the book bans that are sweeping America. Guests include: Lauren Groff, Ellen Hopkins, George M. Johnson, Jacqueline Woodson, and more.
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This week’s quiz: It is forbidden to forbid: Since it’s May, which is when the Paris revolts of that year started, and since students are in the news here in the states, let’s look at the student uprisings of 1968.
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1. French Culture Minister Andre Malraux’s attempted firing of Henri Langlois, who headed this French cultural institution, is seen by many as the event that laid the groundwork for the May uprising.
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A. The Louvre B. L’Opera Nationale C. Cinémathèque Française D. Musée de la Révolution
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2. This man, who went on to serve several terms in the European Parliament, was the best-known leader of the student protests.
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A. Camille Desmoulins B. Pierre Laval C. Rene Lacoste D. Daniel Cohn-Bendit
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3. Milan Kundera used this graffito, spray-painted on a Paris wall during the protests, as a title for one of his novels.
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A. The Unbearable Lightness of Being B. Life Is Elsewhere C. The Festival of Insignificance D. Neither God nor Master
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4. The crisis, which at one point involved one-fifth of the population, ended when President De Gaulle called new legislative elections in late May. What party won those elections?
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A. The UDR (the conservative Gaullists) B. The Communist Party C. The Federation of the Democratic and Socialist Left D. The centrist Progress and Modern Democracy Party
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5. The protests spread from Paris to numerous other cities. In what city did police and paramilitary units fire on students, killing a still undetermined number, nearly canceling that city’s Olympics?
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A. Rome B. Mexico City C. Stockholm D. Madrid
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6. During those tumultuous weeks of early May 1968, which included violence on U.S. campuses as well (notably Columbia), what was the number one song on the U.S. Billboard charts?
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A. "Street Fighting Man" by the Rolling Stones B. "People Got to Be Free" by the Rascals C. "There’s a Riot Goin’ On" by Sly and the Family Stone D. "Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro
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By the way, what is "It is forbidden to forbid," which I invoked above? Answers next week. Feedback to fightingwords@tnr.com. —Michael Tomasky, editor
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