'Outright treason': Rick Wilson scorches Trump's 'suicide cult' of GOP defenders

In a brutally blunt column for the Daily Beast, former GOP strategist Rick Wilson dropped the hammer of some of Donald Trump's most avid defenders -- going so far as to accuse them of treason for repeating Russian talking points.

According to Wilson, "The Trump Republican Party has outdone itself in scoring merit badges for cowardice, betrayal, and corruption in the era of Trump, but the last two weeks have set a new standard for mendacity and outright treason so low it verges on chthonic."

Writing the GOP has "abandoned any philosophical or ideological predicate beyond how fast they can assume the position to kiss Trump’s ample ass and cover for his ever-growing catalog of crimes and lies to the American people," Wilson proceeded to name some of the worst offenders -- beginning with Attorney General Bill Barr.

"First, of course, is the cancerous core of Donald Trump’s defense network, Attorney General Bill Barr," Wilson began. "If I still had the power to be shocked by corruption and the total subornation of the Department of Justice to serve Trump’s personal and political ends, perhaps I could at least fake a sense of surprise. But the clear signals coming from Barr and his fellow Trumpboy Lindsey Graham tell us the real Horowitz Report out next week—which will reportedly almost entirely exonerate the FBI for its conduct during the 2016 election and thus destroy a number of comic-opera Trump conspiracy greatest hits, and generally deflates the Fox News Deep State horror-show playlist—just won’t do."

"Barr is going to recast the Horowitz Report the only way he knows how: in Trump’s favor," he wrote. "Barr is without question the most corrupt and political attorney general in the history of the United States of America ... His almost unbelievable degree of contempt, recklessness, and disregard for the rule of law is the apotheosis of this lawless administration."

Next in his sights was Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) with Wilson writing, "Russia, not Ukraine, hacked our 2016 election. Try to find any member of the Senate who will say that on camera beyond Mitt Romney. They won’t. The new champion of this raging strain of dumbf**kery is Sen. John Kennedy of the great state of Louisiana, who for the last 10 digging-the-hole-deeper days has gamely shoveled out the lie that Ukraine was the culprit in 2016. When Louisiana sent Kennedy to Washington, it wasn’t sending its best. It was sending a babbling, tendentious clown—one who puts the idiot in useful idiot."

"Members of the United States Senate live in such mortal terror of Trump’s horde, his tweets, his uncontrolled fury that they will do and say anything to avoid having his baleful eye rest upon them," Wilson explained. "This speaks so poorly of their character and courage that even in this fallen time, it stands as a memorial to cowardice. The cheerleaders will receive the rich, full f**king of history. That goes without saying."

With that, he excoriated Senate Republicans in general.

"The impeachment decision in the Senate is foregone because the Republicans there have joined the Trump suicide cult. They lack the honor to stand for the truth. They lack the will to resist the threats of Trump’s mob," he wrote. "The other explanation is darker: They’re adapting to the new demands of a post-Republic Republican Party, readying themselves for decades of Imperial Trumps in command of a furious cohort of populist morons fed a steady diet of Fox agitporn."

Wilson then stuck the dagger in with a final brutal pronouncement.

"I’d advise any senator who can’t stand up, own the reality that’s in front of them, and, most importantly, tell their constituents and the American people the facts about the risks and dangers we face in this world, to quit now," he wrote. "Leave the Senate. Leave politics. After all this quality customer service, I’m sure the Trump family can find them a job at his golf courses or hotels, perhaps as a caddy or a concierge. They’re good at that."

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