Liberal New York Times columnist Charles Blow said President Trump’s most hardcore supporters are the “enemy of the Republic.”
Blow wrote Thursday that the convictions of Trump associates Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort should lead to a congressional inquiry, but that Republicans would likely suffer when it comes time for re-election at the hands of their voters, given the president’s 90 percent approval rating within the GOP.
“Traditional Republicans are now afraid to stand on principle because they do so at great peril of being drummed out of politics,” Blow wrote. “The voters are now Trump’s noxious base, ergo Trump holds each of their fates in his hands. Viewed that way, Trump’s base itself becomes the enemy of the Republic. It is its enthusiasm for Trump that is the greatest impediment to a genuine search for truth and an honoring of it.”
Manafort, one of Trump’s former 2016 campaign managers, and Cohen, his former longtime attorney, were both convicted on multiple accounts of financial fraud and tax evasion on Tuesday. Cohen, however, also pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations that he said he committed at Trump’s direction, before the 2016 election.
