If only Trump’s enablers had spoken truth to power instead of repeating his lies

It was like desperate passengers scurrying to abandon a sinking ship. On Jan. 6, 2021, as unruly crowds assembled to besiege the nation’s Capitol, some of President Donald Trump’s foremost enablers finally decided that the costs of backing him exceeded the potential gains.

Vice-President Mike Pence was among the first. After four years of silent obsequiousness, always standing behind the president with that practiced look of obeisance on his face, dutifully doing what he was told no matter how demeaning, Pence affirmed to members of Congress, contrary to Trump’s insistent claims, that Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election was indisputable.

A presumably more skeptical but for four years also quite reliable enabler, Mitch McConnell, even as he was being relegated to the position of Senate Minority Leader by the voters in Georgia, also spoke out. After dithering for weeks about the legitimacy of the presidential vote, he finally affirmed what had been obvious to anyone paying attention: “The voters, the courts, and the states have all spoken. If we overrule them all, it would damage our republic forever.” The speech had a statesmanlike tone. But it should have come long before.

Some “passengers” waited to seek a life raft until after the Capitol had been overrun by MAGA thugs. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham had accurately warned in 2016 that Trump was ill suited for the presidency and would be a “complete and total disaster.” But the lure of power was irresistible, and the senator quickly became one of the president’s most loyal backers and favorite golfing buddies. In a bizarre performance after the Capitol had finally been cleared, the thoroughly agitated Graham admitted that he hated for his “journey” with the president to “end this way. Oh my god, I hate it!” He hailed Trump as a “consequential president”, which can be interpreted in different ways. “I tried to be helpful,” the senator moaned —to applause from his colleagues — as though that statement might somehow exculpate him.

Our own congressman Andy Barr accurately described the day’s events as “tragic, outrageous, and devastating.” “Not who we are as a nation,” he averred, a claim that can certainly be questioned. Perhaps hedging his bets, Barr refused to mention the president’s name or hold him responsible for the horrific events of the day.

Former attorney general and enabler of enablers, the scowling Bill Barr, who outlived his usefulness to Trump when he affirmed the validity of the presidential election, got much closer to the heart of the matter. He properly labeled the president’s “orchestrating a mob” as a “betrayal of his office and supporters”—and “inexcusable.” But this too came after months of doing Trump’s bidding.

Incredibly, even in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection, numerous Congressional Republicans still voted against certifying the vote in several states. Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, perhaps to bolster their case as Trump-backed presidential candidates in 2024 — or out of sheer crankiness — so voted, along with six other senators. Close to one half of the Republicans in the House of Representatives also voted against certification, including Hal Rogers of Kentucky. And only 10 House Republicans would later vote for Trump’s impeachment.

Those men who spoke out on or after Jan. 6 should not be praised as heroes. Pence and McConnell helped forestall further challenges to the presidential vote. But they acted only belatedly and out of expediency. And by their silence, deference, and at times active support, they encouraged this deranged and dangerous president to believe he could get away with anything, even overturning the electoral results and disrupting the work of government. They thus helped make possible an incredible day that severely damaged this nation’s image at home and abroad and delighted its opponents. The essential lesson here, perhaps, is that the best way to be “helpful” to a president is to speak truth to power.

George Herring is a historian who specializes in the study of recent America.