Transcript: Trump Press Sec Seethes as Dumb New Epstein Spin Goes Awry

Sargent: Well, Steve, you’ve been covering politics a long time. There was a time at which you would have expected senior leaders of a party whose president is in such a pickle, in such a deep scandal, to go to the White House and say, Mr. President, this isn’t working. We really have to do something else here. We’re going to have to be a little more transparent. We know that you’re in a difficult position, Mr. President, but this isn’t working for us. We’re getting absolutely slaughtered out there. By the way, Republicans are getting absolutely slaughtered out there. The polls are killing them on the Epstein stuff. And so why isn’t that happening here? If you step back, it really feels to me like something different is happening here from what you’d ordinarily expect. There’s a level of cultish devotion to the guy at the top that’s just deeply unnerving and very different from what we’ve seen in the past.

Benen: Yeah, I agree with you. I think that there’s two elements here. I think for some Republicans, there’s genuine fear. From the perspective of some Republicans who are watching these events unfold, they realize that they’d like to do more but they’re afraid of the MAGA base; they’re afraid of conservative media; they’re afraid of what the White House might do in terms of primary rivals and investments in primary rivals and super PACs and so forth. And so they toe the line because they feel like it’s necessary for the advancement of their career. I think that is a risky bet. Given the way the polls are unfolding right now and the prevailing political winds and historical trends as it relates to the midterms, I think that is a risky bet for them. But nevertheless, I understand that that helps explain the motivation for some.

That’s first part. The second part, though, I think is something that you just said a moment ago. It’s cultish behavior. I do think that the Republican Party, to a very real degree, became a cult of personality. I think that Donald Trump, of course, is the strongman at the head of this cult. And for most Republicans, it’s a question of just this blind loyalty, this knee-jerk reaction to every scandal, to every controversy, to every question. So Donald Trump says that he didn’t sign this document that he obviously signed—as far as they’re concerned, that’s just good enough.