It’s official: Visiting Donald Trump at his criminal trial in New York is the thing to do in the Republican Party.
Last week, it was his fellow Floridian Sen. Rick Scott who made the pilgrimage. Then Sens. J.D. Vance and Tommy Tuberville. And Rep. Nicole Malliotakis. Then House Speaker Mike Johnson showed up.
And now, well, maybe it would be easier to name the Republicans who aren’t planning to literally stand by their man. According to Politico, a whole mess of House Republicans—approximately 16 members of the Freedom Caucus—are planning a trip to the Big Apple, though most of them don’t want to talk about it.
“You won’t find anybody who will say anything,” South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman said. Maybe they don’t want to talk about it, but CNN’s Annie Grayer reports that the House Oversight Committee is delaying its Thursday hearing about holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt so its members can attend the trial in New York.
So why is it so important for them to journey north to sit in the courtroom—the very cold courtroom, according to Trump—when they ostensibly have day jobs to do?
Tuberville, who is not exactly known as a genius, said the quiet part out loud and on TV when he visited on Monday.
“Hopefully, we have more and more senators and congressmen go up every day to represent him and be able to go out and overcome this gag order,” he said.
That would be the gag order that prohibits Trump from, among other things, attacking witnesses in his trial. Witnesses like, say, former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who has spent several days this week testifying against his old boss. While Trump isn’t allowed to trash the guy, there’s no gag order on Tuberville. Which is why he was able to address reporters outside the courtroom on Monday without fear of being fined or tossed in jail.
“This guy worked for President Trump. How can you be convinced by somebody that is a serial liar? I mean, it should be no reason that anybody should listen to this guy,” Tuberville said.
And while the gag order prevents Trump from trashing Judge Juan Merchan’s family, nothing stops his adoring Republican supporters from doing it. Which is exactly what Reps. Byron Donalds and Cory Mills and several other surrogates did.
Is it sleazy? Sure. Is it “demeaning” and “a little embarrassing”? Sen. Mitt Romney thinks so. Is it actually a violation of the gag order that could get Trump in even further trouble? Maybe!
The gag order specifically prohibits Trump from “making or directing others to make public statements” about witnesses—like Cohen and adult film star Stormy Daniels—or family members of the attorneys or court staff. Whether Trump directed these statements is unknown, although New York Magazine’s Andrew Rice, who has been in the courtroom, said on MSNBC that he could see over Trump’s shoulder and watched him "editing" and "making notations" to quotes Republicans made to the press. It’s not clear whether Trump was editing those comments before or after they were made.
Either way, it’s not a good look for anyone: not for Trump, who’s got his Republican cult doing his dirty work for him, and not for these members of Congress who are kissing the ring of their indicted leader instead of doing their actual jobs.
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