Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy has no sympathy for the anonymous author of a New York Times op-ed published Wednesday. The Connecticut lawmaker said no one deserves credit for trying to rationalize their work for this immoral president.
While the unnamed writer emphasized their work trying to limit the damage Trump does to America, Murphy said it seems more likely an effort by the author to protect his or her own reputation when the history of this era is written.
Too little, too late, Murphy said.
“History is replete with individuals who after the fact tried to justify working for a regime that they deeply disagreed with,” the Democrat said. “History has not passed kind judgment on them.”
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Video:
.@ChrisMurphyCT has no sympathy for the unnamed author of the New York Times op-ed that has shocked the political world. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/WsiWr2YMdd
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) September 6, 2018
Sen. Murphy said:
This article in the “New York Times” is a little bit hard to understand. I understand that they may be trying to rationalize and justify working with someone that they perceive to be deeply immoral, but history is replete with individuals who after the fact tried to justify working for a regime that they deeply disagreed with. History has not passed kind judgment on them. I am not saying that the Trump administration is Vichy, France, but we know how this goes down after the fact.
The unnamed administration official should show themselves
It’s easy to be pleased that a senior administration official stepped up and called out the president, but as Sen. Murphy pointed out on Wednesday, we have known who Donald Trump was long before he reached the White House.
He didn’t suddenly become a dangerously ignorant, immoral and incompetent man overnight. Whoever wrote this op-ed knew the threat he posed from the start, but he or she still wanted to be part of this administration.
Because Gorsuch, or tax cuts, or deregulation, right?
But now it appears that this senior White House official has made the calculation that Trump’s dangers greatly outweigh any right-wing policy objectives he might help them achieve.
The White House official who wrote this op-ed should come out and show their face, work tirelessly to bring down this dangerous president and restore order to the republic. But they shouldn’t expect any of us to call them a hero for it.
As Chris Murphy said on Wednesday, it’s far too late for that.
Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
