Bill Kristol uses a great quote from Churchill in the service of urging all of the various Republican/conservative factions to come together and remove Donald Trump from the ticket.
It occurs to me that there’s another apt Churchill line for this moment:
“The loyalties which center upon number one are enormous. If he trips, he must be sustained. If he make mistakes, they must be covered. If he sleeps, he must not be wantonly disturbed. If he is no good, he must be pole-axed.”
Today is the day for pole-axing.
Churchill had very pragmatic ideas about the importance of party. He was not, in that sense, an idealist. He believed that you went to war with the political party you have, not the party you wish you had. The charitable view of Paul Ryan, Reince Priebus, et al is that they were Churchillian in their support of Trump, believing that the best possible outcome was that they could manage Trump to a narrow, four- or five-point loss, preserving Republican majorities in the House and the Senate.
That view is no longer operable. Trump was already down solidly to Clinton with four weeks to go. Even Arizona and Georgia are toss-up states. The probability of a Trump loss was almost certain and the possibility of a rout substantial. And that was before the “grab them by the p—sy” video. And the deluge of stories that are about to come out of the woodwork about Trump’s behavior towards women who did not sign NDAs. This discussion is going to eat up at least half of the time left before November 8.
And if you think this moment is as bad as it gets for Trump, just wait.
Can you imagine how horrid Trump is going to be unscripted, live, at Sunday night’s debate where the person posing the question to him about “grab them by the p—sy” is apt to be a voter and not Anderson Cooper? He is not going to fool voters. As Matthew Dowd—no anti-Trumper—noted, you merely have to listen to the video of Trump bragging about assaulting women and then the video of his apology to figure out which is the real Trump and which is the act.
Ryan, Priebus, and the rest of the establishment who were so calculating about their support of Trump should be calculating enough today to understand that they have just witnessed extinction-level event. And that this is their last chance to avoid it.
In a way, “grab them by the p—sy” is a gift to pro-Trump Republican elites: It is a gold-plated off-ramp. Because the vision of a narrow, 4-point loss has now been shattered.
But it’s also a the final off-ramp. Because any Republicans who stay with Trump after this are with him to the very end.
