For a brief interval following the Jan. 6 insurrection-palooza, I thought the conscience of our nation—and, by extension, that of the Republican Party—might finally be shocked into dropping the grotesquely irresponsible “this election was stolen from Donald Trump” canard.
I mean, people died as a direct result of this lie, and several government leaders—including the vice president of the United States—were nearly assassinated. But Americans have the memories of chloroformed crickets, so we’re now staring down the barrel of a CPAC conference that fully embraces the myth that the guy whose approval rating never once cleared 50% after the first couple weeks of his presidency, and who brutally insulted pretty much everyone in the world outside of violent white Americans and Vladimir Putin, couldn’t possibly have lost the election. Because boat parades. Or something.
So just weeks after the bloody Capitol coup, not only will Donald Trump be greeted with palm fronds and hosannas as he rides his ass into Orlando, the make-believe capital of the world; he’ll also be gifted with a seven-part series of panels on “protecting elections.”
That’s like Kim Jong Un attending a conference featuring a seven-part series on how all the world’s genitals vibrate at divine, celestial frequencies whenever Dear Leader scratches his balls.
ABC News:
The series will include a presentation by former Congressman and Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz titled "The Left Pulled the Strings, Covered It Up, and Even Admits It," and another titled "Other Culprits: Why Judges & Media Refused to Look at the Evidence," featuring Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), a leading voice in Congress who supported Trump's efforts to overturn the election results and told the crowd at the Jan. 6 rally to "start taking down names and kicking ass."
Wow, that sounds like a lot of fun! I didn’t realize there was a Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Orlando, too!
Over the weekend the conference also announced the addition of featured speaker Cleta Mitchell, a longtime conservative lawyer who, as one of the former president's attorneys, was on the Jan. 2 hour-long phone call when Trump urged Georgia election officials to "find" enough votes to overturn the state's presidential results. Earlier this month, the Georgia Secretary of State's office announced it had formally launched an investigation into Trump's phone calls to state election officials.
Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, is also scheduled as a featured speaker this week. Martin, who attended "Stop the Steal" rallies leading up the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, tweeted, "We will not allow them to steal this election!" and shared images from a Nov. 21 "Stop the Steal" rally in Atlanta.
Angela Stanton-King, a Trump pardon recipient who is scheduled to speak, has frequently promoted QAnon conspiracy theories, according to ABC News—including a theory claiming that the Capitol riot was “staged.”
This is what they’re going with—because it’s pretty much all they have left.
Trump, who’s always been a deeply weird conspiracy crackpot, is now the heart and soul of the Republican Party, and he remains the enormous tire fire the GOP seems determined to die on.
If you happen to think Trump’s flogging of election fraud claims for two months prior to his incitement of a deadly riot was a disgraceful crossing-the-Rubicon moment, well, you have no place in the modern Republican Party. Go read some fake news, snowflake.
This is now Donald Trump’s party, and he’ll cry fraud if he wants to.
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