Here, Crabgrass noted PiPress reporting that Minnesota's four Republican House members unanimously endorsed Trump.
Now Strib's "Editorial Board" does a number judging that action, and not liking it. Perhaps Glen Taylor also might have a low opinion of Trump.
Strib's editors wrote:
Emmer, fellow GOPers bow down to Trump -- Despite being derailed by the vindictive ex-president, the House Majority Whip leads his Minnesota congressional colleagues in lockstep support.
By Editorial Board Star Tribune -- January 4, 2024 — 5:30pm
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"Campaigns matter" is a mantra long heeded by the Star Tribune Editorial Board. We wish elected officials, especially those in a position to know better, would do the same. That's why it was so profoundly disappointing (albeit not surprising) that Minnesota's Republican congressional delegation offered a lockstep endorsement of former President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
That is Strib's headlining and first paragraph, and they write showing their opinion is not in any way consonant with wearing MAGA caps. Quiet the opposite. Yet they write as a traditional-Republican leaning paper's editors. In their second paragraph the editors show it, Crabgrass believing they stretch the truth, given that the also-ran bunch are who they are.
Never mind that there's a dynamic race with viable, conservative alternatives to the chaotic, divisive front-runner. Or that their candidate of choice faces four indictments and 91 criminal charges. Or that he is looking to settle old scores, promising in stump speeches that "I am your retribution."
The editors really do not think much about Trump that you'd call positive, and that is clear from headlining and two paragraphs into a longer item. They pound the point further:
The four GOP representatives were led by House Majority Whip and third-ranking Republican Tom Emmer of the Sixth District, who included in a statement posted to X this sentence: "Democrats have made clear they will use every tool in their arsenal to try and keep Joe Biden and his failed policies in power."
Talk about projection. It was Trump, after all, who used every tool to try to preserve power, including trying to subvert the Constitution and whipping up a MAGA mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol and threatened to kill some U.S. lawmakers — Emmer's colleagues — as well as former Vice President Mike Pence.
Since then, the unrepentant ex-president has lied, loudly, about the disgrace and embraced a message that has led Republicans to be "more sympathetic to those who stormed the U.S. Capitol and more likely to absolve Donald Trump of responsibility for the attacks than they were in 2021," according to a Washington Post poll released Tuesday. And in another troubling development, a Post poll published on Thursday found that 44% of Trump voters believe the FBI instigated the Jan. 6 attack.
This far into reading and quoting, readers, guess - Will this critical item reach to and judge two of those allegedly bunched up stellar GOP options to Trump who are presently running as on record that they'd pardon the man the editors are roasted, if convicted. My money would be bet the don't. But let me read the whole thing. That is just an aside; the gist of Trump frustration shown by Strib's people is a very good and newsworthy thing and Crabgrass does not want to minimize those truths. Continuing -
The Minnesota GOPers in Congress certainly seem to be absolving Trump of responsibility, unlike the handful of their colleagues (tragically, almost all now ousted), like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, true conservatives who put country above party.
Check that highlighting. These four shamed, and should feel guilt as well. Failure clear at not being "true conservatives." Perhaps later the editors use the discriptive word "opportunists." Reading on - singularly one of the four endorsees gains Strib editorial scorn - for not being true conservatives like Cheney and Kinzinger, who are Congressional outsiders at this point -
The character they displayed seems absent in Emmer, who proclaimed he was "proud to endorse" Trump even though he had ample reason to endorse an alternative after the former president derailed his bid to become House speaker by calling Emmer a "globalist RINO" (Republican in name only). Writing on Truth Social at the time, Trump said Emmer was "totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters. I believe he has now learned his lesson, because he is saying that he is Pro-Trump all the way, but who can ever be sure?"
They could have called Emmer a "crypto RINO," but, after all, they already did enough name calling and piling on - while raising the unstated question; given history, what's in it for Emmer, now, to be dancing this endorsement tango with The Lying Donald?
Crabgrass's guess - nothing special in it for Emmer, besides Emmer wanting to keep the paycheck and the honor of being Congressman Emmer, a player at high levels in DC, (never mind the district), with that more important than looking as if asking "How high?" when Trump says, "Jump!"
It looks unseemly, and we could leave it at that. Strib does so in a next-to-last paragraph, instead of saying, "kissing what," Strib instead chooses to cut to the truth that it's not just Emmer co-opted to MAGA mania --
Actually, Wednesday's endorsement confirmed that Emmer and his Republican congressional colleagues from Minnesota have kowtowed "all the way."
Minnesota's Sixth District (where I live) surely deserves better than Emmer, except he is the one they've repeatedly elected, after having repeatedly elected Michele Bachmann, so maybe they simply get what they deserve --- twice --- first an unhinged true believer in office long enough to lock in a pension, and then an opportunist who appears to have cut some kind of an understanding with Trump. Likely no special deal for the district, and more likely simply less Truth Social heat to the feet, feet that yearn for reelection again.
CRABGRASS BOTTOM LINE: Tom Emmer - put a MAGA hat on the man. He's earned it. There are three other MAGA hats on display.
Strib saying more or less the same thing from the outset, by calling the four folding ones' bend to the wind decision "profoundly disappointing (albeit not surprising)."
_________UPDATE________
The question left hanging, Strib editors shed criticism only on the home team.
They made no mention of Ramaswamy and Haley on record saying they'd pardon Trump of any federal crimes of which he may be convicted. That is a sad position taken by these two. One deserving mention and scorn. Yet arguably defensible if premised on a belief that indicting and trying Trump is basically too politically divisive a move.
We await to see who, at Republican primary time, Strib will endorse, if there are still other presidential candidates who have not dropped out by then.
However, again this is a very courageous stand for a paper to make, not bending to poll numbers suggesting the venture could lose a part of their following by taking note of Trump's trainwreck behavior and persona, saying what is true despite poll numbers.