Texas GOP leaders must move away from Trump’s poisonous ideas on election, pardons
Writing about former President Donald Trump risks giving attention to someone who’s already overly self-absorbed. But unfortunately, as he spearheaded a rally in the Houston area over the weekend, several Texas elected officials stood by as he took his insanity on the 2020 election to a new level.
After hearing what Trump said about the 2020 election and the Capitol riots, we have to ask Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton and the others: Whose side are you really on? Is this the future you see for Texas?
During his speech Saturday night at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Conroe, Trump said that if he’s re-elected, he would consider pardons for those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in protest of the certification of the election results. And of course, he repeated his unfounded conspiracy theories about a stolen election.
Then, Sunday night, Trump made a bizarre, stunning admission that he hoped or expected — it’s hard to tell — that Vice President Mike Pence would have exercised his power to overturn the 2020 election results as Congress met. Pence and constitutional experts have said that the vice president’s role in the certification process does not allow for that.
On Tuesday, Trump released another statement doubling down on his belief that Pence should have sent back “the votes for recertification or approval.”
Trump’s insinuations and outright assertions continue to undermine the truth and the role of our elected officials following a contentious campaign.
Whatever Trump did during his tenure that Republicans liked, it doesn’t justify supporting this assault on our institutions. He no longer has any control over, for example, judicial appointments. Instead, he’s thrown a 14-month long temper tantrum about the election results.
President Joe Biden has held office for more than a year, but Trump continues to live in the past, smearing anyone who disagrees with him, picking on members of Congress, and bragging about what he would have done. Trump is a schoolyard bully determined to keep his party and the country from moving on.
No election is without flaws, but Biden won clearly and cleanly. If there had been significant fraud, it would be obvious by now. The fact that Trump continues to bemoan the election results, downplay the riots and float the false notion that Pence could have overridden the states’ processes of casting electoral votes is beyond disheartening at this point. It’s dangerous and exasperating.
The pardon flirtation for Jan. 6 rioters is irresponsible, to say the least. Perhaps there will be cases that were over-prosecuted or suspects treated unfairly. But Trump invites more attacks on institutions if results aren’t to the mob’s liking. No former president should behave this way, and elected officials of every stripe should denounce it when he does.
What are Texas officials doing getting caught up in a movement that undermines the rule of law? What more does Pence need to see to denounce his former boss?
Politically speaking, it made sense for Republicans to hold one foot firmly in the Trump camp after the election. He has a solid grip on GOP voters.
But Trump’s claims and threats have gone too far and it’s time for elected officials in Texas to choose. They can no longer walk the tightrope between Trump’s deranged conspiracy theories and lawlessness and another kind of more appealing conservatism. Just because Trump is popular within the GOP doesn’t mean he’s right. Just because he still resonates with throngs of Texans doesn’t mean he’s the only way forward for the Republican Party.
Abbott, Patrick, Paxton and the others will surely stay silent until their primaries, and probably beyond them, too — but they shouldn’t.
It’s time for Republican leaders to help their voters move beyond these proven lies and inflammatory threats.