By Marion Filler
If former President Trump and his upper echelon are not prosecuted for Jan. 6, the Capitol insurrection will have been merely a “training exercise.”
That was the sobering analysis of two longtime Republican insiders speaking at the virtual Drew Forum on Wednesday.
“When you do not punish the people who conduct an attempted coup, all it was was a training exercise. And if they get away with it once, and are not punished, they will continue to seek to do it again,” said Rick Wilson.
“We cannot underestimate the malevolence, the darkness, and the willingness to do political violence that exists inside of Trump’s cadre,” added Wilson, 59, a veteran ad-maker, author, and controversial strategist who cut his teeth on the George Herbert Walker Bush campaign.
Wilson and Stuart Stevens, 69, author and chief political strategist for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, are members of The Lincoln Project, a political action committee of Republicans and former Republicans founded in 2019 to oppose the re-election of Trump and his supporters.
During a 50-minute livestream moderated by Drew University political science professor Phil Mundo, Wilson and Stevens described what they view as the moral collapse of the GOP, once a party of “tear down that wall, Mr. Gorbachev” that they say now spouts Putin propaganda and threatens American democracy.
“In a democracy, the one essential, unalterable element that has to be there is someone has to be willing to lose. That is the essence of democracy,” said Stevens.
“The Republican party has decided that it’s unwilling to lose. They’re for democracy when they win, and they’re not for it when they lose. Which means they’re not for democracy.”
Stevens called Trump’s attempt to extort Ukrainian President Zelensky to make up political dirt in exchange for weapons that would save Ukrainian lives against the Russians right now–a demand for which Trump was impeached– “the most despicable thing imaginable.”
He also had withering scorn for former Vice President Mike Pence, “one of the more despicable figures in modern American history.”
Had Pence seen things going the other way during the 2020 election certification, Stevens said, “that’s the way he would have gone. You don’t call (former Vice President) Dan Quayle and say, ‘Do I really have to agree with the Constitution?’…unless you were thinking of not doing lt.”
Wilson noted that Trump advisor Steve Bannon, the “intellectual ringleader” of Jan. 6, continues to promise President Biden’s removal from office on his podcast.
If Capitol police and the National Guard had not finally arrived on that day, Wilson believes our democracy would have died.
“We came within heartbeats of losing this country,” he said.
“God forbid, if that crowd had found Nancy Pelosi, or found Mitt Romney, or found AOC, or found Mitch McConnell, or Mike Pence, they would have killed them. Mobs do what mobs do. And they were out for blood,” Wilson said.
“And the President of the United States on that day waited and waited and waited and resisted the calls of everyone around him to say ‘tell them to stop.’ He didn’t want it to stop. He wanted it to succeed.
“And if that crowd had killed Mitt Romney or Mitch McConnell or Nancy Pelosi or anyone, he would have shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘They should have supported me.’ I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that. It is one of the darkest things that’s happened in this country.”
With crucial mid-terms approaching, Wilson expressed concerns that the Justice Department will stick to a policy of avoiding political cases six months before elections. The American Experiment — democracy– is at stake, he contends.
“My concern is so far the DOJ has gone after the cannon fodder, but not after the conspirators and the generals” of Jan. 6.
Stevens described a party whose sole purpose is defeating Democrats, a party with no room for moderates such as Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who he once considered a presidential contender. Republican governors in blue states cannot even choose their state party chairmen without Trump’s blessing, Stevens said.
A party that once strongly opposed totalitarianism has lined up behind a pro-Putin former president, Stevens said. And support for Jan. 6 runs deep in the GOP, he asserted.
“Unless you’ve been in the Republican party, it’s difficult to grasp the fact that all levels of the Republican party were involved in 1/6. Not everybody at each level, but elements of every level of the party were involved in that,” Stevens said.
“The President of the United States, the White House staff, the RNC (Republican National Committee), the Republican Attorney Generals Association, major donors–all of the elements of the party were involved in 1/6.”
Responding to a viewer’s question on Zoom, both analysts were not optimistic about a third party emerging in the United States–unless, perhaps, the Democrats’ progressive/moderate camps splinter into separate parties.
Asked for rays of hope in this gloomy scenario, Wilson pointed to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“There are a lot of Americans and people around the world who have seen the value of principled, passionate leadership during the crisis in Ukraine,” Wilson said.
“Zelensky has inspired people around the world because he’s facing overwhelming odds, he’s facing a degree of threat to his life, his family. And every day he gets up and swings for the fences for his country. It is heartening to see that kind of leadership having an effect.”
Kevin Coughlin contributed to this report.
I deeply appreciate the honesty of the Lincoln Project Republicans, but their reply to the question of a third party disappointed me greatly. I had fully expected them to try to start a third party. After all, it is their party that has thrown our democracy into chaos. In their own words, “The Republican party has decided that it’s unwilling to lose. They’re for democracy when they win, and they’re not for it when they lose. Which means they’re not for democracy.”
To throw the gauntlet to the Democrats to split THEIR party to “save democracy” seems a little disingenuous.