I had an earlier thread on this topic, focusing on the Lincoln Project folks and other Never Trumpers. Recently, several prominent Republicans (besides Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger) and former Trump officials have publicly criticized Trump in a way that would be earth-shattering, prior to 2016. Some of these individuals deserve opprobrium for their actions in the Trump administration (e.g., Bill Barr), others enabled, at least tacitly, also deserve strong criticism (e.g., Chris Christie, and even Liz Cheney)–but their public comments now are really important for the country.
Perhaps some believe their comments are a too late and likely won’t have impact. I disagree. While the comments likely won’t change the minds of hardcore Trump supporters, I think it could significantly impact casual news consumers. If former, high-ranking Trump administration officials and prominent Republicans criticize Trump and call out his lies, that undermines narratives that erode the trust in our elections and the DOJ, FBI, and the mainstream press. I believe this will be sway these casual news consumers and inattentive voters–groups that I believe are a large majority of the voters.
In this thread, I’m going to try and post videos, articles, and statements by these Republicans speaking out against Trump.
No, fellow Republicans, the Justice Department is not biased against us WaPo op-ed by Alberto Gonzales, AG in the Bush43 administration.
8/14/2023
8/15/2023
Some other differences that Christie didn’t mention: Gore was not claiming the election was rigged, not just after the election, but months before–without any proof. And Trump even made claims like this in the 2016 election. (“Millions voted illegally for Clinton.”) This behavior by itself is totally unacceptable.