As it began to look as though candidate Donald J. Trump was headed to clinch the 2016 GOP nomination for the presidency, a group of establishment Republicans sharpened their attacks against him.  The group consisted of establishment elected officials, political pundits, journalists, writers, and Cabinet members from former Republican administrations.  The editorial staff at the National Review Online, a highly esteemed and credible publication, went as far as to publish an entire edition attacking Donald Trump's claim of conservatism for the most part as a scam meant to deceive the Republican base.  Despite the efforts of the GOP establishment, the Republican base stuck to their candidate and voted him in as the nominee.  It was a hard won fight that even continued all the way to the Republican National Convention.

After President Trump was sworn in and quickly began fulfilling his campaign promises as well as putting in place conservative policies, many in the Republican base thought the "NeverTrumps" would come around to supporting him.  However, no matter how many conservative policies he put in place, no matter how many conservative judges he put on the bench (including the Supreme Court), no matter how many jobs he created, no matter how well the economy is doing, nor how many peace deals he's brokered, these individuals remain just as much against him as they were during 2016 primaries.  However, few of them have articulated to the Republican base what specific policy reasons they have for opposing President Trump.  They only repeat the same vague liberal talking points about his character, rhetoric and tweets.

Although the majority of the Republican base supports President Trump (96 percent according to the latest Rasmussen's poll), many of the NeverTrumps have gone as far as publicly endorsing Joe Biden, the Democrat party's 2020 presidential candidate nominee.  Some of them even spoke at the Democratic National Convention.  In fact, a few of them have formed a group called the Lincoln Project and are airing campaign ads attacking President Trump in support of candidate Joe Biden.  In addition, Cabinet members from the George W. Bush administration have also publicly endorsed Joe Biden.

In recent days, evidence has emerged on Hunter Biden (Joe Biden's son)'s laptop that supports President Trump's statements that Joe Biden has corrupt ties to Ukraine.  It appears that Joe Biden not only allegedly has corrupt ties to Ukraine, but also has financial ties to China.  According to Hunter Biden's former business partner, the Biden family used Joe Biden's position as vice president to launch business deals.  In December 2019, the Democrat House of Representatives impeached President Trump for making those statements, charging that he was trying to interfere with the election in order to take out his political opponent.  The Democrats claimed that the president was lying.  Senator Mitt Romney (the chief NeverTrump) is the only Republican in the Senate who voted to remove the president from office.  In his speech, Romney claimed, without evidence, that Joe Biden did nothing wrong.

 
Romney's impeachment vote speech. 
YouTube screen grab (cropped).

As more evidence against Joe Biden emerges, I am wondering how the establishment Republican NeverTrumps are going to get themselves out of the dilemma of putting what reputation they have on the line to support a corrupt candidate of another party.  The fact is that these supposed Republicans could hate President Donald Trump to the point that they are willing not only to put America's economy and national security at risk, but also to put their own reputation on the line.  If Joe Biden does not win the presidency and he is somehow held accountable for his corruption, what will these NeverTrumps have to say to the Republican base?

Contact the author at patdickson@earthlink.net.  Follow her on Twitter at @Patrici15767099 and YouTube.