In a column dripping with disgust and contempt, a retired conservative judge who advised former vice president Mike Pence how to handle the January 6 election certification vote despite entreaties from the Donald Trump White House, lashed out at members of the Republican Party who refuse to abandon the former president as he makes a third presidential run.
Writing in the New York Times, retired Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Michael Luttig lashed out at GOP lawmakers and claimed they are to blame for the former president believing he could steal sensitive government documents that put the country at risk.
According to the conservative judge, if Republicans don't cast Trump aside they will be due for a "reckoning" —and they will deserve it.
In part he wrote, "The former president’s behavior may have invited charges, but the Republicans’ spineless support for the past two years convinced Mr. Trump of his political immortality, giving him the assurance that he could purloin some of the nation’s most sensitive national security secrets upon leaving the White House — and preposterously insist that they were his to do with as he wished — all without facing political consequences."
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With that in mind, he continued, "In a word, the Republicans are as responsible as Mr. Trump for this month’s indictment — and will be as responsible for any indictment and prosecution of him for Jan. 6. One would think that, for a party that has prided itself for caring about the Constitution and the rule of law, this would stir some measure of self-reflection among party officials and even voters about their abiding support for the former president."
According to Luttig, Trump-supporting Republicans seem oblivious to the fact that a "reckoning is due" should they continue down the "self-immolating'" path they have chosen as they approach the 2024 general election.
Writing, "Building the Republican campaign around the newly indicted front-runner is a colossal political miscalculation, as comedic as it is tragic for the country," he bluntly added, "Republicans have waited in vain for political absolution. It’s finally time for them to put the country before their party and pull back from the brink — for the good of the party, as well as the nation."
"If not now, then they must forever hold their peace," he advised.
You can read the whole scathing piece here.
