As his party reels from its loss of the White House, House, and Senate -- along with the fact that it's currently being held hostage by a violent extremist conspiracy cult, California GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy posed for a picture at Mar-a-Lago with former President Donald Trump, "like an eager pledge who has no idea what the frat brothers are about to do to him," A.B Stoddard wrote in The Bulwark this Monday.
Last month, McCarthy committed a grievous sin against MAGA world when he acknowledged Trump's role in inciting the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6. He pleaded with Trump to send reinforcements and urge the insurrectionists to stand down -- even trying to dissuade him from the false notion that the attackers were driven by left-wing agitators.
But when Trump lashed out at McCarthy in response, signaling a possible breakup of their friendship, McCarthy fell back in line quick, according to Stoddard.
"He said that not only did Trump not 'provoke' violence on January 6, but that 'Trump continues to have that ability to lead this party and unite,'" Stoddard writes. "The 'unite' part is extra-cute, in that cheeky way McCarthy talks. Like when he told Greta Van Susteren that 'everybody' has 'some responsibility' for the insurrection that killed five Americans."
Now that McCarthy is officially back in the Trump fold, "he's pledging himself for Trump above reality. Even measurable, obvious, reality," Stoddard writes. Sources say that McCarthy was warned he'd look weak if he went groveling back to Trump. But according to Stoddard, McCarthy "looks weak because he is weak."
"And that's all cool with McCarthy because he was perfectly suited to be Trump's Apprentice all along. He knew the game even before he joined the show: To survive in Trump World you have to be purely transactional and devoid of shame."
Read the full op-ed over at The Bulwark.
