President Donald Trump made a career out of identifying his political opponents’ weaknesses and trouncing on them. He’s famous for blackmailing and threatening anyone he saw as a threat, which dates all the way back to his lawyers in the 80s.
MSNBC’s Joy Reid recently interviewed Sarah Kendzior, an expert on authoritarian regimes, about why Republicans are suddenly kissing up to Trump.
Her answer was disturbing, to say the least. She asked:
“You wrote about Lindsey Graham explicitly, he is somebody who has admitted he was hacked by the Russians, had strong opinions of Russiagate. What are the not-so-innocent explanations for why he’s changed?”
Kendzior said:
“There’s always the explanation of careerism, opportunism, that’s a typical aspect of politics, we shouldn’t rule that out. That can go hand in hand.
But we do know the RNC was hacked, we don’t know what happened with those emails, we know that Lindsey Graham’s personal emails were also hacked. And Trump has a long track record of blackmailing and threatening who he sees as his political opponents. That goes back throughout his entire career, especially in terms of his lawyers, whether Roy Cohn in the 1980s, Michael Cohen during the election.”
Kendzior believes that some in the GOP are either being greedy and opportunistic (very likely) or that they’re being blackmailed by Trump who believes that the Russian probe goes all the way down the Republican chain. Kendzior knows the GOP has no integrity, but she seriously questions why so many of them (not all) grovel before Trump despite all the abuse and attacks he leveled at them.
Kendzior said:
“What kind of leader are you, what kind of man are you? That’s something that does have me concerned.”
Again, Trump built his entire empire out of blackmailing and threatening his political opponents to get what he wants. But never before did we think that this authoritarian wannabe would actually become president and apply these same mafioso principles to the presidency.
As Robert Mueller’s investigation gains steam, we’re sure to see more and more sycophantic Republicans kiss the rings of our dear leader.
Featured image via screen capture.
