Ohio’s Democratic senator, Sherrod Brown, agreed with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews’ assessment on Thursday that the Republican Party’s fawning over Donald Trump has reached a dangerous point.
In a discussion with the ‘Hardball’ host, Brown said the cult-like behavior of the GOP was on full display during Trump’s State of the Union address this week when Republican lawmakers immediately turned the affair into a full-blown MAGA rally.
“You look across their side of the aisle and the way they stand and cheer for damn near anything that Trump says when he wants them to stand, just in unison,” the Ohio senator said. “I know State of the Union speeches are sometimes like that, but never, never, ever to this degree and I’ve been to 20 of them over the years.”
Video:
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Sherrod Brown slams the cult-like behavior of Republicans whenever they’re in the same room as Donald Trump. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/DNf0MJWcLW
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) February 7, 2020
Transcript:
MATTHEWS: Senator, when we look at pictures from North Korea, just an example of a dictatorship, and you watch everybody wearing those high-peaked hats and everybody smiling in unison or frowning in unison or marching in unison in a goose-step, and you watch the people and their so-called assembly, … They all are so frozen in fear of being seen as somehow out of line, which is a very strict standard in that country. Are Republicans beginning to act like that? Fearful of not showing the right sort of emotion in public? You have to be exuberant in this cult when he stands before them it seems.
SEN. BROWN: As soon as you said that, I started thinking about three nights ago during the State of the Union. My wife, Connie … she was in the gallery and she said, she wrote the next day in her column, I’ve never been to a Trump political rally until the State of the Union. And to watch these – you look across, it’s almost all white men, not entirely – you look across their side of the aisle and the way they stand and cheer for damn near anything that Trump says when he wants them to stand, just in unison. And there’s just — I know State of the Union speeches are sometimes like that, but never, never, ever to this degree and I’ve been to 20 of them over the years, more or less.
History will not be kind to those who blindly stood by Trump
Republicans may think it’s a smart short-term play to stand by this corrupt and dangerous president – publicly stroking his ego and bowing down to him like he’s a king – but history will not be kind to them. Those who appease wannabe dictators always end up in the ash heap of history.
As Utah GOP Sen. Mitt Romney demonstrated this week by voting to remove Donald Trump from office, it’s still possible for Republicans to break loose from this president and put country first.
All it takes is a little courage, which the modern GOP appears to be fresh out of.
Follow Sean Colarossi on Facebook and Twitter
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.
