“It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election from one administration to the next.” – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (2-8-22)
By Jack Bernard, contributing columnist
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | Former U.S. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell made the above statement, yet failed to support the removal of Trump, who instigated this insurrection on Jan. 6 , 2021.
In February 2021, a two-thirds majority of senators was needed (67) to convict Trump of the above crime. But 43 GOP Senators, including McConnell, refused to vote “guilty” — resulting in Trump being acquitted.
Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame compared Trump to infamous U.S. Sen. Joe McCarthy. McCarthy was prominent during the Cold War period, when the USA was swept by anti-communist hysteria. McCarthy played on these feelings, appealing to the frightened masses, especially the GOP base.
In 1950, McCarthy attacked the State Department for supposedly being “infested by Communists,” falsely claiming he had a list of over 200 traitors. Over the next few years, he hurled more unfounded charges, yet he never produced that ‘list.’ In 1953, the Republican-controlled Senate made McCarthy chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of Governmental Operations. McCarthy then accused the Democrats of “20 years of treason.”
However, in 1954 televised hearings, he decided to question the patriotism of the U.S. Army. McCarthy was subsequently recognized as an aggressive, demeaning bully and bigot who slandered innocent people. After public sentiment grew very negative, Ike pushed GOP leaders to act. McCarthy was finally called to account for his actions by the Senate, which voted to censure him.
McCarthy’s smear tactics ruined the lives of hundreds of innocent everyday Americans, including civil servants and elected officials. For four years, he was supported by GOP leadership who knew he was totally wrong … but was afraid to anger their base.
McCarthy’s chief counsel and right hand was the despicable but brilliant attorney, Roy Cohn. Years later, Cohn was young Donald Trump’s mentor, teaching him an attack strategy, that of ‘barely legal, unethical, never retreat, take no prisoners.’ The parallels between Trump and McCarthy are obvious.
But McCarthy was only a senator. We now have a president using many of the same tactics. After one State of the Union address, Trump even accused Democrats of being ‘un-American’ and ‘treasonous’ for failing to enthusiastically applaud him.
Trump has designated the ‘deep state’ as one primary foe. The CIA and FBI committed the unpardonable sin of honestly investigating how the Russians influenced our 2016 presidential election … including who within the Trump campaign colluded with that hostile nation against us.
With no GOP opposition to his tactics, Trump is now hitting below the belt with his investigation of former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan, civil servants merely doing their job trying to protect our nation from foreign espionage.
Per Trump: ‘they’re crooked as hell and maybe they have to pay a price for that.’
And, he has gotten his Department of Justice to go after conservative John Bolton, his former national security advisor who is now a critic.
Trump is a totalitarian bully who has little regard for democracy and separation of powers. All of us, Republicans as well as Democrats and independents, must protest Trump’s authoritarian behavior. We must pressure GOP leaders to open their eyes to this overbearing bully.
We Americans are better than this.
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