trump silhouette
US President Donald Trump looks on as he departs a rally at Toledo Express Airport in Swanton, Ohio on September 21, 2020.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
  • Republicans have been too terrified of the base to defy Trump, until now. With a Trump wipeout increasingly likely, cracks of daylight between Republicans and the president are starting to appear.
  • Mitch McConnell said he avoids the White House because it’s unsafe. Sen. Ben Sasse said Trump is an awful leader and a shame to the party. Rep. Denver Riggleman said Trump has made the GOP into “QAnon after dark.”
  • Win or lose in November, Trump’s legacy has indelibly stained the GOP, and it’s likely that the rush of Republicans for the emergency exits of the Trump train has only just begun. 
  • This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Republicans have marched in lockstep with Donald Trump ever since he ripped out the free market-supporting, limited government-espousing soul of the GOP in 2016, replacing it with a proudly ignorant, willfully sadistic, ultra-nationalist populism. 

With less than three weeks to go until Election Day, a small number of congressional Republicans — who have heretofore been too terrified of “the base” to meaningfully criticize their party’s Dear Leader — are starting to act like they know the Trump train has finally gone off the rails. And these suddenly conscience-filled GOPers don’t want the public to confuse them with Trump dead-enders. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, as cold-blooded a political tactician as he is a loyal Republican, has thrown subtle but substantive shade at Trump, saying he has avoided the White House for months because it’s lax COVID protocols make it an unsafe environment. 

And of course, he’s right. Trump’s White House might be the most dangerous workplace in Washington, DC.

Rep. Denver Riggleman of Virginia — an Air Force veteran who lost his GOP primary bid for reelection to a conservative challenger — told CNN that Trump’s retweet of a QAnon-related account accusing Barack Obama and Joe Biden of assassinating Navy SEALs to cover up the supposedly faked killing of Osama bin Laden is “bats— crazy.” Which of course, it is. 

Riggleman called Trump's retweet "dangerous" and said such preposterous hoax conspiracy theories are part of "the language of radicalization." He added that the party under Trump has become, "QAnon after dark." In another interview, Riggleman said "it's sort of crazy" that he's been called brave for condemning his party's flirtations with QAnon — which include the nomination of QAnon booster Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia, who is guaranteed a congressional seat in a deep-red district. 

But that's just where the GOP is right now, where "bravery" is simply calling madness by its name. 

Thus far, no one has gone further to put daylight between themself and the president than Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse. On a conference call with constituents this week, Sasse positively savaged Trump's leadership during the pandemic, saying he doesn't think "the way he's led through COVID has been reasonable or responsible, or right."

Sasse assailed Trump's foreign policy predilection for "kissing dictator's butts," selling out our allies, and ignoring China's concentration camps filled with Uighur Muslims and the death of democracy in Hong Kong. 

The senator also decried "the way he treats women," that he "spends like a drunken sailor," that "his family has treated the presidency like a business opportunity," that he "flirted with white supremacists," and "mocks evangelicals behind closed doors." 

To reiterate: this wasn't a secret recording. This was a public conference call. Sasse absolutely wanted this message to get out. With his eyes on a possible 2024 presidential run, the one-time critic of Trump who then sought out his endorsement is signaling, "I'm not with him."

McConnell, Riggleman, and Sasse each have different motivations for distancing themselves from Trump before he loses, rather than afterward, when no one will care. They reflect the growing sense — echoed even by long-time Trump ally Rupert Murdoch — that Trump is going to be rejected by the American electorate by a wide margin.  

Trump's presidency and his "stupid political obsessions" stand a very good chance of making an entire generation of young people and a huge swath of women "become permanent Democrats," as Sasse put it on the call. 

Win or lose in November, Trump's legacy has indelibly stained the GOP, and it's likely that the rush of Republicans for the emergency exits of the Trump train has only just begun. 

Read the original article on Business Insider