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In this regard, isn’t it more likely that Christie would take down Trump’s main rival, Florida Gov. DeSantis, on his way to some mythical one-on-one confrontation with Trump?
More to the point: Can (and should) we trust a man who paved the way for Trump’s victory by destroying Rubio—and then quickly endorsed Trump for president?
And to be very clear, the Trump ass-kissing didn’t end there. As The Bulwark’s Jonathan V. Last notes, “Christie was still with Trump as of 2019, when he published his book about ‘his friend’ Donald, in which he said that Trump was a great president who was sometimes poorly served by the unworthy people who surrounded him.”
Christie has said that Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 results was a “red line” for him. But Christie was hardly a profile in courage, refusing to even say Trump’s name while criticizing him at a big 2021 speech at the Reagan Library.
Christie, of course, isn’t the only would-be 2024 Trump rival who is guilty of playing this game. The list includes former Vice President Mike Pence, who on Thursday called Trump’s indictment “an outrage.”
White House Senior Advisor Ivanka Trump smiles while campaigning for Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler on the eve of the run-off election to decide both of Georgia’s Senate seats, in Dalton, Georgia, U.S., January 4, 2021.
BRIAN SNYDER/Reuters
I mean, Donald Trump incited the mob that included rioters stalking the halls shouting for Pence to be hung on Jan. 6—but his former veep isn’t just defending him in regards to the Manhattan grand jury’s indictment, Pence also resisted a grand jury subpoena regarding Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election (this week, a federal judge ordered Pence to testify).
Pence is also weighing a primary bid against Trump. Like Christie, his past support for Trump, coupled with his continued obsequiousness, would seem to be disqualifiers for someone hoping to be the leader of the free world. Pence wants a political rebirth, but isn’t willing to completely disavow the sins of the past.
That’s not to say Never Trumpers shouldn’t welcome converts. They say it’s never too late to do the right thing. But for that to be true, you actually have to do the right thing, not just distance yourself from the person who did the bad thing—especially when you did nothing to stop that person when it counted.
And even if you eventually come to your senses, does that qualify you to be president? As the colorful, if crude, expression goes: “It’s all right if the town whore joins the church, but they don’t let her lead the choir the first night.”
You have to search far and wide to find a Republican who hasn’t abdicated any claim to future leadership, by virtue of their behavior during the Trump era. The enablers, one suspects, will not win the future. Nor should we soon forget about their contribution to our long national nightmare.
As far as the former first daughter goes, she and her husband might be done with politics, but once you’ve been a party to an administration like Trump’s, it’s going to be a long time before politics is done with them.
So, Ivanka, you want to have a seat at the cool apolitical kids’ table? You want to be once again accepted by the socially liberal billionaires’ children you used to go to the Hamptons with and now have Miami Beach playdates with? You want to enjoy the privileges of being a Trump with none of the shame? Good luck with that.
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