When conservative pundits Bill Kristol and Charlie Sykes founded The Bulwark in late 2018 following the demise of the Weekly Standard, it quickly became a popular refuge for well-known anti-Trump voices on the right — including Mona Charen, Amanda Carpenter, Tim Miller and Kimberly Wehle. Then-President Donald Trump has since been voted out office, but Sykes — in a Bulwark column published on June 4 — laments that the Republican Party hasn't grown any less unhinged since Trump's departure from the White House.
The 66-year-old Sykes covers a lot of ground in the column, focusing heavily on Trump's claim that he will be "restored" to the White House by August and Trump allies (including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell) who continue to promote the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him through widespread voter fraud. In fact, the 2020 election was quite secure, and now-President Joe Biden enjoyed a decisive victory — picking up 306 electoral votes and defeating Trump by more than 7 million in the popular vote.
"Mike Lindell, as you undoubtedly know, is the MyPillow Guy, who has been spreading lunatic conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and is being sued by the Dominion Voting Systems Company for $1.3 billion," Sykes explains. "His latest dose of insanity is his confident prediction that the Supreme Court will vote unanimously — 9-0 —to overturn the presidential election once they see his evidence…. I regret to inform you that Donald J. Trump, the former and perhaps future president of the United States, appears to be listening to the MyPillow guy."
Mike Lindell is perpetually just six weeks away from filing a lawsuit that will force the Supreme Court to vote 9-0… https://t.co/FnNSWtzVPW— Right Wing Watch (@Right Wing Watch) 1622728884.0
Cooke, in his article, went on to lay out some reasons why Trump, under the U.S. Constitution, can't be "reinstated" as president and why it's "obscene" for him to be claiming that he will.
This is off the charts bonkers. He's a madman and catering to his mania in pursuit of some near-term political gain… https://t.co/fPEETjeS9g— Noah Rothman (@Noah Rothman) 1622742706.0
Sykes, frustrated over what the GOP has turned into, comments, "I know you've heard all this before, but this is deranged stuff…. Here we are talking about an idea that everybody knows is obscenely stupid. Because, Trump. So let me reiterate the question I asked my fellow conservatives late last year: What were you thinking?"
Sykes, in his column, notes a tweet by former FBI special agent and frequent CNN guest Asha Rangappa, who posted:
Trump's claim that he will be "reinstalled" this summer is a repeat of the same playbook that led to January 6. Giv… https://t.co/POqM1bg1fV— Asha Rangappa (@Asha Rangappa) 1622746834.0
