There are three types of Republicans these days.
There are MAGA loyalists. Think: Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Then, there are MAGA-averse conservatives — often labeled “Never Trump” Republicans — who have declared their opposition to Donald Trump and his illiberal ways by any means necessary. Think: members of The Lincoln Project.
And then, as I see it, there’s a squishier set somewhere in the middle: the “Never Say Never” Trump Republicans.
These are people who have publicly criticized Trump yet don’t seem resolutely opposed. In fact, they may even use credibility they’ve accrued by attacking Trump in the public sphere to defend him from accountability.
In essence, these people think Trump has proved to be a threat to democracy, but they also think he’s fit to operate — or at least try to operate — the very democratic system he sought to destroy while president.
In essence, these people think Trump has proved to be a threat to democracy, but they also think he’s fit to operate — or at least try to operate — the very democratic system he sought to destroy while president. They claim not to want Trump in office. But they don’t really seem to care if he wins again, either.
These Republicans have straddled the fence so hard they might have splinters. And they’ve been very outspoken about voters’ legal challenges to Trump’s ballot eligibility in various states. The list includes folks like former Vice President Mike Pence, former Attorney General Bill Barr and former Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan — all of whom have publicly criticized Trump but also have sought to defend him from the constitutional challenges.
I share the view of former federal Judge Michael Luttig and legal scholar Laurence Tribe — that Trump’s illiberal actions on and around Jan. 6 obviously disqualify him under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause.
The “Never Say Never” bunch? Not so much.
Pence, who has repeatedly said that Trump placed himself over the Constitution, told CNN on Sunday that he has “never called what happened on Jan. 6 an insurrection” — labeling it a “riot” instead. And he then went on to call the 14th Amendment challenges to Trump’s eligibility “antithetical to the very democracy that President Biden and many Democrats talk about wanting to defend.”
Barr, who has described Trump as someone who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office again, recently denounced the 14th Amendment challenges. And Amash, who supported Trump’s first impeachment before leaving the GOP and resigning from Congress, called Trump’s ballot disqualification in Maine “insane” and described the Colorado Supreme Court’s eligibility ruling as an “assault on due process of law.”
I think these Jan. 6-related legal challenges are where the rubber meets the road for staunch Trump critics. The only question is whether Americans and our institutions have the stomach to hold him accountable for the violent assault on democracy.
And it seems like the “Never Say Never” Republicans simply aren’t up to the task.