The President Trump experiment has been anything but dull. In 2015 and 2016, most partisans on my side didn’t take him seriously at first. Many found his campaign quixotically entertaining at times. Then they were universally appalled until one day it became clear, it would be Trump. It was always going to be Trump.
The rest is history — that is, until Jan. 6.
Those who stayed in the movement, as opposed to “Never Trump,” didn’t bargain for anything like the events of last Wednesday. People who have devoted their professional careers, and in many cases their lives, to principles such as limited government, pro-growth economic policies, strict constructionist judges, social conservative pro-family policy, and a strong defense, worked with and within the Trump administration to achieve a great deal. They all should be proud of their work.
The vast majority working for stronger pro-life policies or pro-growth tax reform never imagined that the president would go so far as to attempt a coup and foment an insurrection against the legislative branch of government in a cheap and idiotic attempt to cling to power.
This isn’t over. Policymakers cannot just allow the president to walk on Jan. 20 because it is some end date and it happens to be right around the corner. Congress must impeach and convict. It is too divisive to ignore. They must also definitively bar Trump from any future office. How can we trust that in 18 months, a cable news host more interested in ratings won’t offer a segment, or three, to the former president to call in and tell us what is on his mind? This didn’t just happen on Fox News throughout the 2016 primaries. The question of his intentions for 2024 will hang all around, and he will let it. Regardless of whether he ultimately runs again, the media will lock in. Everything else will hinge on that storyline.
If Republican policymakers ever want an honest agenda again, if they care to separate appointing judges or tax cuts or pro-life policies from Trump, now is the time. Of course, the former has zero to do with the latter, but the media won’t spin it that way, and neither will the other team. Look, it’s their job to define us, but we will hand them this definition if we don’t immediately and definitively address this moment.
Our country, our Capitol, a branch of government was attacked as a direct result of a premeditated campaign led by our president and some of his advisers. This was all easily avoidable. We are no longer a country that can boast peaceful transfers of power, at least not in 2021.
Of course, it’s not true that a pro forma session or fear of more division leaves the Article I branch of our government without an ability to assert itself. Congress would not be concerned with process or division if a foreign adversary attacked the U.S. Capitol or a domestic terror event caused mayhem and loss of life to the degree we saw Wednesday.
The ability to govern again starts with what senators called for on Wednesday night, that is, telling the truth. Trump lost, even if I voted for him. Even if 74 million people did the same, garnering him 232 electoral votes. Those are impressive numbers, just fewer than the winner. There isn’t a shred of evidence that there is enough fraud to overturn this election.
Our party’s ideals are more than any one man, one administration, or one Congress. Yes, in ways, he grew the party, and his supporters were attracted to the agenda that was just articulated. Who says we can’t attract them again with a serious approach to the same policy goals?
If we ever hope to govern again, we must address what happened last Wednesday. We cannot be preoccupied with the process, the poor timing of an impeachment, or the supposed need to sidestep a potentially divisive process.
Geoffrey K. Verhoff is a Republican lobbyist and fundraiser and a senior adviser at Akin Gump.
