Port: Republicans must move on from Trump, and Trumpism too

1

MINOT, N.D. — I began to think that the midterm elections, in which Republicans seemingly had all the momentum before Election Day, would go badly for the GOP when the son of disgraced former President Donald Trump was openly mocking an 82-year-old man who was attacked by a hammer-wielding, would-be assassin.

Donald Trump Jr.’s tweet wasn’t even original. He ripped off the image he posted — one showing a pair of underwear and a hammer with the caption “Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready” — from another Twitter user.

But the trouble wasn’t plagiarism so much as the fact that a high-profile figure in Republican politics posted something like that, and drew little in the way of reprobation from other Republicans. Someone tried to bump off the speaker of the House, settled instead for attacking her husband, and the reaction from many Republicans was to make light of a man being put in the hospital with a skull fracture.

Continue reading…