Better late than never. Paul Ingrassia has reportedly withdrawn after being nominated by the Trump administration to lead the Office of Special Counsel following the leak of texts where he made wildly racist comments and unironically admitted he had a “Nazi streak.” Good.
Still, it’s a shocking stain on the Trump administration that Ingrassia was ever considered for any role in the federal government in the first place. He had already publicly expressed fascist sentiments, such as saying “Trump is the Constitution” and that Trump should remove Supreme Court justices and replace them with loyalists, which in any sane political era would be prohibitively disqualifying.
MAINE SENATE HOPEFUL PLATNER DENIES HE’S ‘SECRET NAZI’ AFTER SS SKULL TATTOO REVEALED
Unfortunately, we are not in a sane political era. There’s no other conclusion we can draw after the Democratic Party’s refusal to call for Virginia Attorney General candidate Jay Jones to drop out, even after his texts wishing death on his Republican colleagues’ children were revealed.
That’s right: Even after it was reported that Jones allegedly told a former colleague over the phone that he wished former Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert’s wife could watch her children die in her arms, Democrats such as gubernatorial candidate and former Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger still lined up to vote for him. When even wishing death on children isn’t enough to override partisanship, something is deeply, deeply wrong.
Something similar, albeit less severe, is playing out with the Democratic Senate candidate for Maine, Graham Platner, who was recently revealed to have a blatant Nazi symbol tattooed on his chest. Suddenly, many of the same liberal commentators who are quick to accuse political figures on the Right of being Nazis are downplaying it as just a “regrettable tattoo,” ignoring the fact that he kept it for years and reportedly bragged about it.
Meanwhile, just a few years ago, Platner reportedly wrote on Reddit that “all cops are bastards;” “if people expect to fight fascism without a good semi-automatic rifle, they ought to do some reading of history,” “fight with signs, and fists, and guns if need be;” and “I got older and became a communist.” This man will most likely be the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine. Again, in a sane world, he would be forced to drop out.
LEAKED TEXTS AND POLICED RHETORIC TAKE OVER POLITICS AFTER CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSINATION
But it’s not as if Republicans are keeping their side of the street entirely clean. Vice President JD Vance has repeatedly misrepresented the Young Republican group chats that recently leaked, falsely claiming those involved were “just kids” even though many were in their 30s. He refused to condemn their “jokes” about putting their opponents into gas chambers, but he did not have that same attitude toward random Americans not professionally involved in politics who mocked conservative Charlie Kirk’s death, publicly calling for them to be fired.
Something very dark is going on. High-profile figures across the political spectrum are facing threats and even assassination attempts, yet both parties keep failing to police their own sides and uphold basic standards of sanity and decency. Until something changes, you can count on our politics only spiraling more and more out of control — and on things getting even more extreme.
Brad Polumbo is an independent journalist and host of the Brad vs Everyone podcast.
