Conservative columnist Rich Lowry on Thursday lamented that it's all but impossible for former President Donald Trump's Republican rivals to run against him because GOP primary voters simply will not tolerate any criticisms of him and "don't want to hear the truth."
In his latest column for Politico, Lowry argues that this devoted love of Trump among GOP voters has left rival Republicans unable to make the most compelling case against him being the nominee again in 2024 -- namely, that "Trump’s poisonously stupid conduct in office and afterwards was completely unacceptable and alienated the middle of the electorate, that he creates his own private realities, that he will say anything without regard for the truth and that he is profoundly selfish, easily distracted and vengeful."
Lowry thinks that any other candidate who had done the things that Trump done would be repeatedly hammered on them by their opponents, but that Trump gets a total pass because "criticizing Trump in the GOP is a little like going after the Pope at a meeting of the College of Cardinals."
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As evidence of this, Lowry points to the fate being suffered by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is one of the few Republican rivals to really take on Trump directly instead of dancing around the edges.
"Christie made the correct point about Trump’s indictments during the first Republican debate — that whatever you think of them, the underlying conduct is awful — and got poor ratings for his performance from voters," he notes.
