Congressional Cowards is a weekly sequence highlighting the worst Donald Trump defenders on Capitol Hill, who refuse to criticize him—irrespective of how disgraceful or lawless his actions.
Whilst voters have begun to flood Republican city corridor conferences to voice their anger on the chaos Donald Trump and co-President Elon Musk have unleashed upon america with the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity, Republican lawmakers are nonetheless refusing to criticize Pricey Chief Don.
Fairly than promise to finish the destruction the 2 males are inflicting upon the nation and the economic system, GOP lawmakers this week publicly defended Trump and Musk and are writing the present of anger off as an astroturf effort by Democratic teams.
“The videos you saw of the town halls were for paid protesters in many of those places,” Home Speaker Mike Johnson stated in an look on CNN, which is a lie. “These are Democrats who went to the events early and filled up the seats.”
In truth, Johnson informed The Washington Publish that Individuals needs to be thanking Musk for his work—which has led to the firing of 1000’s of federal staff, together with ones that had been let go by mistake.
“Elon has said in recent weeks and told me in his office a couple weeks ago, [that] he thinks it’s very possible this year to identify and eliminate a trillion dollars of waste of your taxpayer dollars,” Johnson informed the Publish. “You ought to be standing up and applauding.”
Due to the embarrassing headlines focusing on Republicans on account of the city halls, GOP leaders at the moment are urging their members to not maintain city halls in any respect—a directive lawmakers appear to be heeding.
For instance, Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a Republican who represents a aggressive district in Wisconsin, canceled a deliberate city corridor together with his workers when he heard that a big crowd deliberate to point out up.
And constituents of Iowa Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks have resorted to protesting at her workplaces as a result of she has not made herself obtainable at city corridor occasions.
It’s not simply Johnson whining about having to reply for Trump and Musk’s damaging actions.
“It’s unfortunate that the other party’s chosen to turn this into a political stunt,” Republican Rep. Jay Obernolte of California informed Politico of the pushback he received at a city corridor in his district.
In the meantime, Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan criticized the offended voters as an alternative of addressing their issues.
“Seventy-seven million voices outweigh those voices at the town halls,” McClain stated at a Tuesday information convention on Capitol Hill, including that “people that hijacked those town halls are happy with the bloated status quo.”
Republicans who confronted offended voters took Musk’s aspect as nicely.
“The fact that Elon Musk is there, he will be able to raise questions, and because of his fame and financial success, I think … he is going to be able to force Congress to look at things like bureaucrats,” Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin stated as his constituents booed, jeered, and laughed at his assertion.
Rep. Mark Alford of Missouri confirmed little sympathy for his constituents who misplaced their jobs attributable to Trump and Musk’s federal employee purge, telling one laid off employee that “God has a plan and purpose for your life.”
Different GOP lawmakers are additionally publicly lauding Musk’s DOGE efforts.
“If I was Elon, I’m asking him to double down, not go slower,” Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas stated in an look on Newsmax. “Think about what Elon did with Twitter. He fired 80% of the people, he changed the name of it, and now today it is worth twice as much as it was before.”
However Republicans ignore voter criticism at their very own peril.
Polling reveals Musk and DOGE are unpopular, with majorities of voters believing Musk has an excessive amount of energy. A YouGov/Economist ballot discovered {that a} plurality of voters need Musk to have much less affect within the Trump administration.
