Former GOP congressman Rep. David Jolly (Fla.) slammed the “unique shamefulness” of members of the Republican who have become apologists for Donald Trump after his recent comments about NATO.
“I think there is a unique shamefulness to see Mike Turner, Tim Scott, Lindsey Graham, and others engage in this type of apologism, if you will, for their own political interest,” Jolly said in an interview with MSNBC’s Deadline: White House. “To faceplant on the knee of Donald Trump. They do it very well, from Graham to Scott to Mike Turner to Elise Stefanik — name ’em. There is a unique shamefulness to it.”
Trump has faced strong criticism for comments he made at a rally in South Carolina last week when he told his supporters that he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to any NATO country that is not paying enough.
Allies of the former president have brushed off his comments.
Turner, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said “Donald Trump’s political rallies don’t really translate into Donald Trump’s actual policies.”
But, Jolly sees a deeper worrying sign in the Republican Party’s response to Trump’s recent NATO comments.
“The Republican Party has shifted over the decades,” Jolly said. “I don’t believe the Republican Party today sees Russia as an adversary. I don’t believe they see Vladimir Putin as uniquely evil.”
“Today’s Republican Party has embraced American weakness,” he added. “They are okay looking the other way and giving equity to Vladimir Putin and Russia, and that’s not just a pivot of orthodoxy, that’s a new chapter of republicanism, this chapter of American weakness that they are willing to run on. Hopefully, voters do see a distinction there.”
