There’s a strange delusion that pervades the Republican party with respect to Donald Trump. I confess to being confounded by it to this day. When Trump first ran, his opponents in the primary saw him for who and what he was. Lindsey Graham saw him as a “kook” and “xenophobe,” Ted Cruz saw him as the liar he is. There was normal perception going on at the time. But somehow, the magic of Trump winning the presidency dissolved all normal thought processes in the Republican party and he became perceived as a legitimate leader. He never was a legitimate leader for five minutes. He was always a freak of political nature, having gotten where he got by means of his high visibility from TV and the fact that he knew how to appeal to the lowest common denominator in American culture, and tap into their rage. I sincerely believe that that is how history is going to ultimately judge him. But maybe the GOP will never figure it out. And history will judge them, too.
Nikki Haley gave an interview to Politico’s Tim Alberta, and it is noteworthy for its distorted thinking and delusional perception of Trump. And the woman defends her delusional perception. She justifies Trump’s behavior by saying, “he believes he was wronged. There is no deception.” So now the standard of behavior in public life is to be, “Did you believe the Martians were invading Hawaii and that’s why you nuked it, to save the rest of the world? Oh, that’s okay, then. Just as long as you believed you were doing the right thing.” And this woman wants to run for the nation’s highest office. Aye, aye, aye. Politico:
“I understand the president. I understand that genuinely, to his core, he believes he was wronged,” Haley told me. “This is not him making it up.”
He had no basis to believe he was wronged. He was making it up, and psychologists can debate for years why he had to do that, make up a conspiracy that what was rightfully his was stolen from him, but the fact will remain forever more that there was no evidence of widespread fraud.
“You have the president of the United States telling everyone that he was cheated, that the voting systems are corrupt, that we’re living in a banana republic where the deep state has rigged this election against him,” I told her. “Isn’t that dangerous?”
“He believes it,” she smiled.
Haley clearly wasn’t prepared to have this conversation. Like so many Republicans, she had expected Trump would either eke out a second term, putting a date-certain on the end of his presidency, or lose so lopsidedly that his career would be toast. Instead, he split the difference, losing by less than one percentage point in each of three decisive states, a result that sent him spiraling into delirium. The resulting paralysis could be seen across the GOP, but Haley was a special case. She knew she could not afford to antagonize the president. But her rationalizations for his behavior were so strained that they called into question her own judgment. This was a test for Haley, an early opportunity to define herself on a question of great national urgency. And she was failing.
“There’s nothing that you’re ever going to do that’s going to make him feel like he legitimately lost the election,” Haley said. “He’s got a big bully pulpit. He should be responsible with it.”
“Is he being responsible with it?” I asked.
“He believes it,” she replied.
That is absolution, apparently, belief, no matter how erroneous or unfounded. Maybe we should play that old Doobie Brothers song, “What A Fool Believes” for Haley. Apparently she never heard it. Or, maybe she sides with the fool in the song, hey, if he believed he had a big thing going with that woman, well then that’s real to him, even if it never actually happened. So now reality doesn’t matter, only the fantasy that someone believes is at issue. And if you act out on your fantasy as opposed to reality, that’s okay. Is this the kind of mind we want in high office? More to the point, is this the kind of mind that you even want running the local PTA? Nah, didn’t think so.
Now this is interesting: even though she defends Trump’s “beliefs” she couldn’t handle January 6.
She took a breath. “Fast forward, I’m watching the television the morning of the 6th and I see Don Junior get up there,” she said, reciting the president’s son’s calls to action against Republican leaders, closing her eyes as if reimagining the scene. “And then I hear the president get up there and go off on Pence. I literally was so triggered, I had to turn it off. I mean, Jon [Lerner] texted me something and I said, ‘I can’t. I can’t watch it. I can’t watch it,’ because I felt the same thing. Somebody is going to hear that, and bad things will happen.”
I asked Haley whether she has spoken to Trump since January 6. She shook her head.
“When I tell you I’m angry, it’s an understatement,” Haley hissed, leaning forward as she spoke. “Mike has been nothing but loyal to that man. He’s been nothing but a good friend of that man. … I am so disappointed in the fact that [despite] the loyalty and friendship he had with Mike Pence, that he would do that to him. Like, I’m disgusted by it.”
That makes her, Pence, and the rest of the world. And here’s her mea culpa on Trump:
“He’s not going to run for federal office again,” Haley said.
But what if he does? Or at least, what if he spends the next four years threatening to? Can the Republican Party heal with Trump in the picture?
“I don’t think he’s going to be in the picture,” she said, matter-of-factly. “I don’t think he can. He’s fallen so far.”
This was the most certainty I’d heard from any Republican in the aftermath of January 6. And Haley wasn’t done.
“We need to acknowledge he let us down,” she said. “He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.”
It will happen again, and very soon, if people like both Haley and Pence wear blinders and pretend that what is taking place isn’t taking place — until things finally spiral out of control.
But how can America “come together” without anyone taking responsibility for the events spanning November 4 to January 6, I asked Haley. Did she regret not talking Trump down when she had the chance? Did she regret not speaking out publicly? Did she regret laughing off my questions about how dangerous this campaign of mass deception might prove to be?
“At the time, I didn’t think that was dangerous,” Haley said. “I didn’t think that there was anything to fear about him. There was nothing to fear about him when I worked for him. I mean, he may have been brash. He may have been blunt. But he was someone who cared about the country. … I still stand by that. I don’t think we should ever apologize for the policies that we fought for and the things that we did during his four years. Since the election—” she stopped herself. “I mean, I’m deeply disturbed by what’s happened to him.”
Haley repeated these sentiments over the course of a two-hour conversation: “Never did I think he would spiral out like this. … I don’t feel like I know who he is anymore. … The person that I worked with is not the person that I have watched since the election.”
Yes, he is. He is exactly the same person. The guy who came down the escalator and the guy who incited a riot at the Capitol are the same guy. The tragedy here for America is that these people refuse to see it. I think that’s the real issue, that they are refusing to see it. They can’t be that stupid. And they’re not. Cruz wasn’t, Graham wasn’t. They’re just terrified of the Trump phenomenon and trying to play both sides of the fence. They’re blinded by the Trump phenomenon and all they know is that it represents power and that’s all they can see, no matter what the cost. This is why democracy is hanging by a thread right now.
If you ever perceived of ‘The Fascist from Queens’ as someone who cared for the country, you are an idiot. Probably you are lying. The Republicans should have impeached Donnie John when Jr’s emails with the Russians came out. Hell, they should have impeached him when he fired Comey.
They are in it for the power and will do or follow what or whomever in order to achieve it.
Now that Mango Mussolini has been neutered, he’s of no use to them anymore.
These same clowns will fall in line behind the next dictator wannabe that comes along.
Have you not noticed how the competence of such would-be dictators keeps degenerating, though? Trump was worse than W, who was worse than his father, who was worse than Reagan, who was worse than Nixon.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda. If only some wise woman were elected; someone who could figure out how to not cut the baby in half a la Solomon. We have a frightened old man who rants and rages because our reality isn’t his reality. His best option is a small house with a caretaker. Susan Collins comes to mind.
Until today, I didn’t see the other view
Because I don’t look for equivalence when it is distinctly not. I see where they can easily see it when they can’t discern the difference between keeping a large group of people from voting from B Clinton’s lack of moral turpitude. Voter prevention is a crime against the United States and its humanity. Lack of morals is a sin against a few.
Watching the impeachment for a few minutes showed me that the defense attorneys either don’t have discernment or are lying through their teeth.
The outdated and un-necessary electoral college failed in two way in 2016. First they allowed the Orange Monster to win even though it lost the popular vote, and then allowed it to be seated, even though they knew that it was totally NOT qualified! I wonder how many people realize that part of the duties of the electoral college is to not let an unqualified candidate be elected/seated?
The people who are twisting themselves into a pretzel (like Haley) to try and come out on the “right side” of all this, are just showing ignorance (and I’m not buying their ignorance, either). She talks about “following” him, that suggests movement or evolution of some kind on his part in the past four years. There was none. He hasn’t changed a bit. He is what he always was. Jan. 6 was just the epitome (so far) of him showing his true colors, but it was not a place he just arrived at; he’s always been there. This was just his latest plan. and getting rid of Pence and Pelosi was just part of it. Was I shaken by it all? Yes. But surprised? Not a bit.
I’ve always considered Nikki Haley to be a calculating, ambitious politician, watching how the winds blow and then playing the game to her advantage. Like taking the UN ambassadorship, but getting out to preserve her own presidential ambitions before she got too dirtied by tRump’s stench. Now it appears that she hopes to cash in on her conservatism with the repuQ’s that are leaving the party and leaving tRump, saying just enough nice things about him so as not to totally alienate the right, but chiding him enough to make people think she’s got a ‘mind of her own’. She doesn’t. She’s still a tRump apologist but she’s going to make some of the right noises to chum in those who are desperate to find someone who has reservations about what happened 1/6, unlike the majority of the repuQ senators and reps, who seem to be just fine with insurrections, traitors, murderers. She may seem like an antidote to the likes of MTG, certainly a more grounded player, but that’s all she is, a player.
Nikki may be realizing she’s never going to get higher in government than she already is.
The time to get off the flaming Trmp barge was over four years ago.
So what she’s saying is that if you have beliefs that disagree with obvious and easily provable FACTS, it’s OK to ignore the uncomfortable reality and act, based on, a fantasy.
That is the definition of insanity.
And, obviously, the current Republican Party.
It’s absolutely the definition of “delusional.”
The technical term, I believe, is “cray-cray.”