Republicans started the day losing the Senate. They ended it with President Donald Trump’s supporters losing their minds.
Jan. 6, 2021 might have been remembered for an intraparty battle over whether to certify Joe Biden’s election win or who to blame for the Georgia defeats. But instead it will go down as the day that broke the Republican Party as we know it and began the GOP’s ultimate reckoning with Trumpism.
It literally took a riot of Trump supporters in the Capitol for many Republicans to finally confront the defeated president — a moment of bedlam that put those GOP lawmakers’ own lives at risk. After his supporters stormed into the Capitol, vandalized the building and fought with police officers, several typically strong allies turned on Trump.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), one of the most steadfast supporters of the president, said bluntly that “it’s past time for the president to accept the results of the election, quit misleading the American people, and repudiate mob violence.” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said he didn’t want to hear anything more from Trump: “It was a tragic day and he was part of it.”
“I’ve been here a long time,” added Blunt, a former House majority leader. “This might be the day I have the most concern about what America projected to the rest of the world today.”
And House GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who has carefully crafted her criticism of Trump over the past year, did not mince words: “There is no question that the president formed the mob, the president incited the mob, the president addressed the mob. He lit the flame,” Cheney said on Fox News, speaking from a secure location after being evacuated.
Wednesday’s violent episode was the culmination of two months of Trump stoking the flames by making false allegations of widespread voter fraud and refusing to concede the election. While most Senate Republicans did not adopt Trump’s rhetoric, the majority of them waited until the Dec. 14 Electoral College vote to acknowledge Biden as the president-elect, following a string of Trump losses in court.
And even for weeks afterward, most Republicans declined to condemn Trump’s language or call for a peaceful transfer of power. On Wednesday, that finally changed, and even those who had recognized Biden took their criticism of Trump to a new level.
“We witnessed today the damage that can result when men in power and responsibility refuse to acknowledge the truth. We saw bloodshed because the demagogue chose to spread falsehoods and sow distrust of his own fellow Americans,” fumed Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who had supported Trump.
Four years after Trump was elected, Republicans have now lost the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Trump has signaled his plans to remain a force in the GOP, but now the party must decide whether to continue embracing the ousted president or finally move on. Over the course of his presidency, Trump portrayed every issue as a personal loyalty test and few Republicans challenged him that were still seeking to continue their political career.
“I don’t think there’s any question about that,” said Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.), when asked if it was time to move on from Trump. “Our identity for the past several years has been built around an individual and we got to get back to where it’s built around a set of of ideas and principles and policies. And I’m sure those conversations will be held, but it needs to happen pretty soon.”
But the plan to object to the certification of the Electoral College was too much for many in the GOP. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a former chief of staff to Sen. Ted Cruz, acknowledged that his move against Trump “may well sign my political death warrant. So be it.” The speech earned him applause from his Democratic colleagues.
Cotton singled out his colleagues, among them Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Cruz, who had been leading the charge in the Senate to object to the certification of Biden’s wins. He asked that “the senators and representatives who fanned the flames by encouraging the president and leading their supporters to believe that their objections could reverse the election results should withdraw those objections.”