Someone Check on Don Jr. The Republicans Are Absolutely Losing It.
Donald Trump was found guilty on 34 of 34 felony counts in New York court on Thursday afternoon. That would be an absolute day-ruiner for most people. But don’t worry: He’s hanging in there.
“We didn’t do a thing wrong. I’m a very innocent man—it’s OK,” Trump told the press after the verdict was read. “I’m fighting for our country, I’m fighting for our Constitution. Our whole country is being rigged right now.” The “real verdict,” he said, “is going to be Nov. 5.” (That’s Election Day—he’ll be on the ballot, running for the presidency. Of all things!)
Other Republicans of repute, however, are distinctly not doing OK.
Donald Trump Jr. is not doing OK. He described the verdict as “such bullshit,” posted that “the Democrats have succeeded in their years long attempt to turn America into a third-world shithole,” and said of the sentencing hearing scheduled for July 11, four days before the start of the Republican National Convention, “They’re not even trying to hide the ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!”
Having suitably cleared his throat, he then got down to business by posting a fundraising link and tweeting out his livestream, where he would be “Taking Your Questions Live for as long as it takes.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has finally patched things up with Trump after a bruising primary, performed the ever-so-subtle jab of immediately releasing a lengthy prewritten statement about Trump’s guilty verdict the instant it was read. “It is often said that no one is above the law,” DeSantis wrote, “but it is also true that no one is below the law.” Something to chew over when you can’t fall asleep this evening.
How are the vice presidential hopefuls presenting themselves? New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, a member of House Republican leadership, is presenting herself in italics (luckily not visible in the embedded tweet version here). It’s too painful on the eyes to look at for more than a few seconds at a time, but all of the requisite adjectives and proper nouns appear to be there.
Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance echoed his pal Donald Trump Jr.’s talk of election interference.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott went with a video insta-reaction. That’s why he’s the betting favorite, folks. Since he’s not a guy who raises his voice or gets that visibly angry, watching him feign it is a delight. “Unbelievable!” he says. “Un-fricking-believable!”
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio compared the trial and its outcome with the show trials in Cuba under the Castro regime, which he’d heard about growing up. Show trial isn’t too creative, but we’ll give him a B-minus for the personal touch.
South Dakota Sen. John Thune, meanwhile, is in the running to replace Mitch McConnell as the next Senate Republican leader. And he wanted to make clear, at 6:55 p.m., that he would have been publicly mad much earlier had the dang plane Wi-Fi worked.
Among those few Republicans who actually have interesting calculations to make here is Larry Hogan, the Republican Senate nominee in Maryland. Despite being a strong candidate as Republican Senate candidates in Maryland go, he still has to find a way to win all Republicans in the state while winning over another million or so Biden voters. His reaction, then, was lacking a certain crispness in its plea that we all be nice to one another.
Trump and his campaign have, for the most part, given Hogan some leeway to say what he needs to say to remain competitive in Maryland. But the Trump campaign’s top adviser, Chris LaCivita, didn’t let this one slide. “You just ended your campaign,” he responded to Hogan.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, meanwhile, checked the box.
What else? Here’s one more The REAL verdict is Nov. 5—which, sure!—to send you home.