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Rep. Anthony Gonzales was a rising star in the Republican firmament until a vengeful Trump helped quell the smart and charismatic two-term Ohioan’s re-election campaign to warn others of what lies ahead for infidels in his party .
In 2018, Gonzales was the party’s rookie for a seat in Ohio, a Cuban American football star from Ohio State, a first-round pick from the Colts with an MBA from Stanford. Everything was fine – Trump loves athletes and took Gonzales to Air Force One – until Gonzales votes to impeach the president on Jan.6. That day, Gonzales was present in a phone call in which the president could have called his crowd back but did not. t.
Gonzales says that while he could have beaten the buddy Trump chose to challenge him, he decided it wouldn’t be worth it to return to a caucus under the sway of an imperfect man he called “cancer” at the party. and who forced him to seek safety to protect his family. His retirement comes two days before his 37th birthday.
Gonzales is a perfect example of who the Republican Party is sacrificing on Donald’s altar. Trump’s only driving force to interfere with the 2022 primaries is to punish apostates – any party member who suggests he has not voluntarily left the White House for the warm waters of Mar a Lago, or confirmed the election results he lost or, worse yet. of all, voted for impeachment. Already, Trump has backed the challengers of three secretaries of state who did not declare the election stolen, including Brad Raffensperger who refused to “find” the 11,570 votes needed to steal Georgia from Biden.
Trump also supports a challenge to Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski and endorses Mo Brooks, who is running to replace retired Senator Richard Shelby. Brooks stood at the mall on Jan.6 in a camouflage hat shouting, “Today is the day American Patriots start taking names and kicking ass.” Trump has so far backed nearly 40 candidates in 23 states who have little in common other than their abject loyalty to him.
In response to Gonzales’ retirement, Trump sent out a statement that sounded like something from the Politburo, noting the Congressman’s “huge loss of popularity, of which he had little since his ill-informed and very stupid impeachment vote against the current president of the United States, me.
He then congratulated the challenger de Gonzales, “to whom I have given my complete and utter approval”. It was 31-year-old brother Max Miller, a country man and then up front in the White House who scratched the boss’s itch for rallies that showcase him. Miller also served briefly in the notorious staff office known for giving unqualified parents cushy administrative jobs and approving appointees after little verification. He was also famous for his nightly office parties with boys drinking games. Prior to joining Trump, the grandson of a Cleveland real estate mogul was a resume inflator, an indiscriminate Marine reservist (not a recruiter as he claimed) with a confirmed rap sheet at once speak Washington post and Politico which includes arrests for assault, disorderly conduct, drunk driving and flight from an officer.
While working at the White House, Miller shoved Melania Trump’s press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, with whom he was romantically involved, then slapped her after she accused him of having her. misled, according to Politico, who cited “three people familiar with the incident. . Miller has denied that claim, while Grisham has not commented on it, although she perhaps can now that she has a book coming up on her four years in the White House.
The best people! How difficult would it have been to bring the man who lost the Presidency, House and Senate off the stage to a life of golf and broken marriages?
Instead, once polls showed him clinging to his MAGA fans, but not suburban and independent voters that former Attorney General Bill Barr informed Trump as he walked out the door to “think you’re a fucking asshole, “decided Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell to stay with Trump and a base so devoted that some followers will die from a preventable virus to own the libs (the high deaths in the Blue States occurred when he there was no vaccine; the high toll in the Red States despite a vaccine) while attacking the random theft attendant, Walmart clerk and restaurant hostess who dares to ask for proof of vaccination.
It’s the party of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan and the pillow guy who missed last month’s deadline to bring Trump back to the White House. But it’s not just fringe characters joining Trump’s bonfire.
Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy have handed the party over to the ex-president as they watch his supporters cling to him. Wyoming Senator John Barrasso is afraid to traditionally endorse an incumbent in his own state, even if that incumbent is his friend, Liz Cheney, whose only sin is warning his party to mock Trump for his lies is to risk our democracy.
Trump’s quest for revenge is at odds with the party’s desire to win back Congress, which would be more likely with incumbent candidates running for office than weirdos who appeal to the MAGAniacs and satisfy Trump’s thirst for retaliation. But Trump, perpetually tanned, rested in semi-retirement and bubbling with anger, continues to remake the Grand Old Party to his specifications, one primary at a time, anointing sycophants and forcing officials like Gonzales out.
Maybe normal Republicans will find their backbone if Trump defeats them in 2022 and they realize that they have defeated themselves by ceding their party to a madman who would have no power to destroy except the one they gave in to him.
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