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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy have so many Republicans suddenly started crawling toward Trump?
Why have so many Republicans suddenly started crawling toward Trump? I have heard at least one theory:
1. The Russians hacked the RNC as well as the DNC. What happened to that hacked RNC information? Is it now weaponized by Mercer et al, and prepared to be used for blackmail?
2. Several Senators and perhaps others have had their email and computers hacked. CNN (among others) reports Lindsey Graham has stated that his campaign email was hacked by the Russians. Lindsey Graham has also gone from Trump critic to Trump sycophant.
3. Trump has been meeting privately with Putin, who is treating him as an intelligence asset.
4. Murdoch is pulling more than 60 billion out of the US, while keeping Fox News? Is he hedging his bets?
How much of the recent fawning is from fear? Fear of what? Perhaps exposure of sensitive material hacked by the Russians. Perhaps fear of a Fox News with no constraints whatsoever.
Perhaps the Russian help for Trump continues with direct consultation with Putin. There is something very strange going on right now across the Republican elected officials. Are they being blackmailed? Why are they so terrified of Trump?
Republicans have done so many previously unheard-of things in the past year. By this time, seeing them cowering from Trump as if a word from him will cause them to be imprisoned or killed starts to be almost "normal".
Do not speculate on a Constitutional Crisis.
We are in the midst of one right now.
msongs
(67,441 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)They must realize that. He will take them down with him. Ultimately, he will fail miserably. Any idiot can see that. He will have short term gains, but he will never win in the long term.
EL34x4
(2,003 posts)He even managed to spin Roy Moore's loss into a personal win. "Shoulda went with the guy I picked! I pick winners, not losers!"
And I think Roy Moore's loss was a wakeup call to congressional Republicans. If they can lose in Alabama, they can lose anywhere so they'd better unify around their party's leader who just happens to be the President of the United States.
Timmygoat
(779 posts)That he has been digging up dirt to blackmail them, like Little Lindsay Graham who changed after a golf game with Trump, I think he gets them alone and blackmails them into supporting him.
unblock
(52,317 posts)that 30+% of the population that still loves donnie, that foxnews audience, they still represent a majority of the republican primary voters. the first order of business for republican congresspeople is to win the primary, preferably without a crazy trumpnut opponent.
criticizing donnie now is the surest way to attract a primary opponent who claims to love donnie more.
it will be more interesting to see who invites donnie to help them at rallies and who treats him as toxic, especially after the primaries.
RKP5637
(67,112 posts)It is getting F'en scary. The GOP of today IMO functions more as a cult than a political party.
BoneyardDem
(1,202 posts)Just this morning Hatch is reconsidering any sort of retirement. His reasoning is that he has important and unrivaled influence in the Senate and on committees, and he has the President's confidence and his ear. It's like he thinks he's the only Republican asshole that would kiss Trump's butt and set their own value system into a dark corner for a couple of election cycles. There are a ton of those fucking sychophants, who are without any moral character.
CrispyQ
(36,509 posts)This kind of talk makes me think they know the next fix is in. And really, what has been done about our horribly compromised electoral process/system?
captain queeg
(10,242 posts)I imagine most are a bit smarter than him but many of them have finances they want to hide.
DFW
(54,436 posts)If they smell cash in his direction, that's where they'll crawl. If the wind starts blowing the other way, they'll be saying, "Donald Who? Never heard of him."
EllieBC
(3,041 posts)And threats of being primaried.
FM123
(10,054 posts)This crawling on hands and knees back to Trumpy is becoming more apparent
Bradical79
(4,490 posts)To me it seems a big swing started as more news was hitting about Mueller digging into finances.
Ryan shutting up Russia talk among his colleagues shows they know more than they let on, too. Hell, Trump's Russia corruption was publically known among us during election run, and Republicans started that dossier Trump conplains about so much.
pansypoo53219
(20,995 posts)mopinko
(70,215 posts)demonize robert mueller despite video of you defending ken starr.
Fullduplexxx
(7,870 posts)budkin
(6,714 posts)So they need him to be president FOREVER.
C Moon
(12,221 posts)And, I think they don't mind itso long as they don't get caught.
IMO
bucolic_frolic
(43,286 posts)let's not take any prisoners
CanonRay
(14,113 posts)Crawling is far too dignified
world wide wally
(21,754 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,627 posts)seeing them all hanging from a tree (a CHRISTMAS TREE is appropriate too since now we can finally say Christmas after not be allowed to for so long ).
world wide wally
(21,754 posts)elmac
(4,642 posts)and that they only follow one thing in life, the most evil force they know. They will stick with this monster to the very end.
leanforward
(1,077 posts)They've been hacked. What you've noted makes sense to me. The RNC data is setting out there ready for use.
I have noticed members of the GOP seem to be cuddling up to pRezident dRumpf, for no reasonable reason. Do you think in the deep background, the Special Counsel and team are aware of a hack of the RNC? You mean that RPribus had no knowledge? What answer did he give the FBI?
If the not so good anymore Graham said his office had been hacked, then it would seem to me others were too.
Murdoch (sp) is divesting or pulling out what money he can before feces hit the cooling system.
We are in a constitutional crisis. Final note, I am aware that McConnell's super PAC received a $2 million donation from a paruskey oligarch.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)republicans really out to screw over America
CrispyQ
(36,509 posts)1. The upper echelons of GOP leadership are complicit in the Russian mess. As it heats up for the Con, it heats up for them.
2. They can't win without Trump's base.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,836 posts)Im not gonna try to get into the mind of Donald Trump, because I dont think theres a whole lot of space there. I think hes a kook. I think hes crazy. I think hes unfit for office. Even for campaign rhetoric that was pretty harsh.
But now he's blowing 45 as enthusiastically as the rest of them - and the blowjobs started in earnest after the POOO invited Graham to play golf with him. On the golf course, out of the earshot of everybody, what did 45 tell Graham that caused him to do a 180 and implant his lips on Trump's ass like a remora on a shark? Kompromat? Graham said he was hacked. What information of his was hacked? Who got it? What was done with it? How damaging is it? Farm animals? Cub Scouts? Financial crimes?
Ilsa
(61,698 posts)which leads to their destruction in the real world. This social media setup trump has going is very dangerous. It's broad and fact-free, and his followers don't care. If trump says Orrin Hatch shouldn't run for his senate seat, they'll make sure hatch fails.
Ferrets are Cool
(21,110 posts)that Cheny had EVERYONE phone tapped. The PGIC now has those files/records and is scummy enough to use them against anyone that stands in his way. All these repugs have skeletons in their closets.
VOX
(22,976 posts)Its not the kind of genuflecting one expects to see in a representative democracy. The fact that the tonnage of adulation was all dumped at the feet of unquestionably-worst-president tRump makes it even weirder.
The only thing I can think of that makes adults behave in such an infantile manner is fear. (Fear, as in the Stockholm Syndrome, as in, I might be rubbed out.) As to what that fear is specifically about is still in question. How far is Putins reach?
D23MIURG23
(2,850 posts)They bloviate about "principle" when the cameras are around and then quietly fall in line when the party needs them to. Trump detraction is part of a media strategy for them, it isn't rooted in any genuine concern for our country. Cynical crooks and traitors, every single one of them.