The spectacle of Senators Tim Scott and J. D. Vance attending Trump’s hush money trial was bad enough, but the presence of Mike Johnson, current Speaker of the House, struck me as sick politics. Second in power to the president, the speaker’s attendance sends the signal that the tawdry and potentially criminal acts of the former president are both acceptable and nothing to be concerned about. As GOP Senator Mitt Romney said “I think it’s a little demeaning to show up in front of a courthouse, particularly one where we’re talking about an allegation of paying a porn star.”
But this is where our politics is today thanks to Trump, the MAGA gang and a minority of the electorate who continue to enable such sordid politics by voting for him. The sycophants who showed up at court are auditioning to become the Republican nominee for vice president in the upcoming 2024 election. The Speaker is doing penance for supporting aid to Ukraine against the right wing of his party. To a person they echoed Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that this trial is a political hit job to prevent his reelection. Johnson called it a sham trial that was being used to keep Trump from campaigning.
So much for hoping that Johnson would sober up and take his job seriously for the good of the nation.