Mark Meadows’ Retirement Is A Sign Republicans Don’t Think They’ll Take Back The House

In spite of the blustering defiance Republicans are displaying in public the day after President Trump made history as only the third president to be officially impeached by the House, it seems likely that they know things are not actually going well for them.

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Chief Washington Correspondent of The New York Times Carl Hulse suggested that that the news that former misnamed “Freedom Caucus” chairman Mark Meadows of North Carolina announced his retirement from Congress the day after Trump is impeached is a “pretty good sign” Republicans don’t expect to take back the House in 2020.

Meadows is a top Trump ally and the 25th Republican to leave the House, although 538 makes the point that he is the 21st “pure retirement this cycle (in other words, excluding those who are leaving Congress to seek another office).”

They did the math: “With Meadows’s exit, roughly 10 percent of the 197 Republicans currently in the chamber are retiring and not running for something else.”

Meadows suggested in his statement that he is leaving to work in a higher capacity for Trump, and so not fleeing the shame and disaster of the House GOP, saying his work “with President Trump and his administration is only beginning.” But that doesn’t change the assessment than his leaving is a good indicator that Republicans don’t think they can take the House back in 2020. As a powerful leader, Meadows would be needed if Republicans thought they were going to take the House back.

Yesterday, after Trump was impeached, Meadows followed the histrionic dramatics of his mostly male Republican colleagues, prostrating himself on Twitter to appease his Lord and Master Trump — the GOP’s newly christened Republican “Jesus” — with this deflated attempt at flair:

The entire Republican Party has been sold out to big money and now Russia and this president. There is nothing left, not a single value they used to represent. They are a hallow, empty core of sycophants parading after their Humpty Dumpty as they spit on their own country.

Donald Trump’s core cult is not going to leave him, but he has been peeling off as many voters as he possibly can with his reflexive, ricochet insults, laziness, and causally relentless undermining of our national security. Trump panders, but only on his terms. He is unable to do so in a productive manner that seeks any kind of unity or respect for anyone other than himself.

Sarah Jones

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