When considering how GOP leadership is avoiding not just a confrontation with Trump but one with its Q-coup caucus members, it’s important to remember that no Republican during the 2016 primary challenged Trump on his birtherism.

It should have been disqualifying ON ITS OWN. But not a single Republican candidate claimed that Trump was unfit because he peddled a racist conspiracy theory with no basis in fact. He even claimed he had a “source” who “knew” Obama’s birth certificate was fake.

Instead, the GOP chose to tell voters not to fuck around with Trump because he was too much of a loner and a rebel.

Seriously, it’s eye-rolling to watch old videos with Bush, Cruz, Rubio, etc thinking it would somehow be fatal for Trump that he wasn’t a lifelong Republican or a true disciple of Reagan. The voters didn’t care.

But they were too afraid to confront Trump on birtherism bc they knew it would seem like they were defending Obama. David Frum had years earlier recounted similar challenges: Simply acknowledging reality (“Obama is not a socialist”) meant you were a RINO.

There is a direct line from Frum’s GOP establishment banishment to Cheney’s current challenges.

So, while Ben Sasse might call Marjorie Taylor Greene “coo-coo for cocoa puffs” *NOW* would he dare challenge her QAnon beliefs in a GOP primary, esp. if it meant having to declare that Hillary Clinton isn’t literally the devil?