Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

I'm not sure how long we're stuck with George Santos, but, unfortunately, I don't think Donald Trump is going anywhere.

I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality of American politics. If you were sent this email or are a free subscriber and would like to subscribe, you can sign up here.

Just a quick reminder that I’ll be Zoom Chatting with Dahlia Scheindlin tomorrow at 12:30 as we talk about the constitutional crisis unfolding in Israel. The link is here … see ya then!

Santos Agonistes

Win McNamee/Getty

In my latest for MSNBC, I wrote about George Santos:

Santos is more than a joke and a national embarrassment; he is one of the more flagrant examples of the Republican Party’s continued assault on our most basic and treasured democratic norms.

The Santos scandal is another noxious example of the Trumpification of the GOP, but in a way that feels even more dangerous and destabilizing. It’s bad enough to lie about policy issues and your political differences with an opponent. But lying to voters about who you are? Where you come from? Your religion, ethnicity, employment history and so on? It’s political fraud on an unimaginably grander scale. I’ve followed American politics for a long time, and there’s nothing even remotely comparable to this situation … Every day that he remains in Congress mocks the once unquestioned notion that politicians have a fundamental obligation to adhere to a baseline level of honesty and truthfulness when they present themselves to voters. 

What is so particularly awful about Santos is that the only reason the House GOP leadership has not forced him from office is that Kevin McCarthy has a 4-seat majority — and he can’t afford to risk cutting Santos loose and the seat turning blue in a special election. It’s beyond cynical. As I note in the piece, “there’s apparently no moral, ethical or civic line that any Republican (even a freshman House member) can cross if acting on it threatens the party’s hold on power.”

For what it’s worth, I suspect this is dumb politics too. There’s a very good chance that with the drip, drip of bad news on Santos — and the federal investigations that are now looking into how he financed his campaign — it’s likely a question of when, not if, Santos is forced to step down. At the very least, Santos’s continued presence in the House is an ongoing embarrassment and distraction. I get that McCarthy doesn’t want to lower his already razor-thin majority, but he’s not doing himself or his caucus any favors by keeping Santos around.

Steel Yourself

Listen, I don’t make the rules here, so don’t kill the messenger, but the latest Morning Consult poll is further evidence of what I’ve been assuming for several weeks … Donald Trump is the clear frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.