If Republicans could just bring themselves to say that Donald Trump lost in 2020, they would never have to answer the question again.
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Republicans do not like to answer questions about who won the 2020 presidential election. And they really do not like to answer questions about who lost the 2020 election.
While it may seem as though that is the same question, it is not.
You can answer the first one with: “Joe Biden is president” without sounding like a fool.
However, the second one would require Republicans to acknowledge that Donald Trump lost, and that has proven to be a bridge too far for just about all of them.
Earlier this week, we saw the former president’s running mate JD Vance skirt the question during the vice presidential debate.
When Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz challenged him to say whether Trump lost, the Ohio senator gave a classic GOP response.
“Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance said. “Did Kamala Harris censor Americans from speaking their mind in the wake of the 2020 COVID situation?”
Obviously, those things are not related. Also, what Harris did or did not do “in the wake of the 2020 COVID situation” does not at all constitute “focusing on the future.”
On Sunday, two other prominent Republicans faced the same question… and also bungled the response.
On NBC’s Meet the Press, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) went with, “Joe Biden was elected president in 2020,” before launching into a litany of complaints about how the election was run. These are issues that have been litigated extensively and many different courts have almost universally ruled against Trump.
It seems like a very small step from “Joe Biden was elected” to “Donald Trump lost,” but Cotton simply couldn’t get himself to say those words when asked point-blank multiple times.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who appeared on ABC’s This Week, acquitted himself even more poorly.
When asked whether he could say unequivocally that Trump lost, Johnson called this a “gotcha game.”
We are not familiar with the rules of that game, but it seems as though the highest-ranking Republican in the land should know who won an election that took place four years ago.
That’s like asking a first-grader what 2+2 is and them responding, “I’m not playing your gotcha game, Ms. Worthington.”
Hilariously, Republicans could save themselves the trouble of having to answer the question by… answering the question.
It’s not a good look for the GOP when all high-ranking Republicans twist themselves into pretzels simply to avoid stating an obvious fact just because it might make “Dear Leader” sad.
Every time that happens, it reaffirms that the party has become a cult, so they are doing themselves no favors.
You also can’t blame journalists for asking the question over and over… because the answers are often so hilarious.
Of course, if Trump loses again next month, and Republicans again refuse to acknowledge that, it becomes a lot less funny.
In his Navigating the Insanity columns, Klaus Marre provides the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often funny analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
