‘Are they all lying?’ GOP pollster shreds the ‘dead-eyed Trump sycophants’ defending him

Story by Kathleen Culliton. October 23, 2024 11:48AM ET

“When a former Trump official comes out with a story demonstrating Trump’s unfitness for office, nihilistic Trump defenders leap into action, questioning the motives, context, or credibility of the individual making the claim. They want you to forget the cumulative weight of the accusations against Trump coming from a raft of his own former employees.” ‐ The Bulwark’s Sarah Longwell wrote on X/Twitter.

  1. “The American people deserve to know that President Trump asked me to put him over my oath to the Constitution. Anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be president of the United States.” – former Vice President Mike Pence.
  2. “His use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice.” – General Jim Mattis, former Secretary of Defense
  3. “I think he’s unfit for office. He puts himself before country.1 His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well.” – Mark Esper, another former secretary of defense
  4. “Fascist to the core. The most dangerous person to this country.” – Gen. Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
  5. “This will be a retribution presidency. And it will not be just against extreme left wingers, it will be against people who are Republicans and conservatives who stood against Trump.” – John Bolton, former National Security Advisor.
  6. “Someone who engaged in that kind of bullying about a process that is fundamental to our system and to our self-government shouldn’t be anywhere near the Oval Office.” William Barr, former Attorney General.
  7. “The President undermined American democracy baselessly for months. As a result, he’s culpable for this siege, and an utter disgrace.” – Tom Bossert, former Homeland Security Adviser
  8. “He has never cared about America, its citizens, its future or anything but himself. In fact, as history well shows from his divisive lies, as well as from his unrestrained contempt for the rule of law and his related crimes, his conduct and mere existence have hastened the demise of democracy and of the nation.” – Ty Cobb, Trump’s White House lawyer

Sarah Longwell:

  • “Are they all lying?”
  • “Are we supposed to be skeptical that Trump called soldiers ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’ when he said as much out loud about John McCain?”2
  • “Are we supposed to be skeptical that Trump praised Hitlers generals when he dined with white supremacist Nick Fuentes and calls people ‘vermin’ and talks about immigrants ‘poisoning the blood’ of America?”3
  • “Trump is dangerous and unfit and all the responsible people who served in his last term have told us as much.”
  • “The dead-eyed Trump sycophants like [Sen. Lindsey Graham1 (T-SC)] or [Republican strategist Scott Jennings] who gaslight Americans about Trump in the face of a mountain of evidence should be dismissed.”

  1. @RalphHightower: Trumpers choose “Party Over Country”. ↩ ↩2

  2. Trump during a 2015 rally called McCain a “loser” and said that he preferred people who were not captured. ↩

  3. Trump hosted Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago in 2022, called political rivals “vermin” in a Veteran’s Day post in 2023, and claimed immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country” during a rally in March. ↩