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“Competency, courage, and extreme greatness”? @Asteinberg613 must have slept through the last four years, and his portrayal of Chris Smith here is beyond absurd. A thread: https://twitter.com/INSIDER__NJ/status/1357721830803529728
First off, @RepChrisSmith did the right thing with his vote to strip Greene of committee assignments. I’m glad he did it. We should all acknowledge and appreciate this.
Presenting that vote without context however, allows the narrative of @RepChrisSmith as principled bipartisan leader to continue without scrutiny, and the local press to fall back into their habit of assuming said narrative is always true.
This is dangerous. As we leave the Trump era behind, we must remember what brought us here because Trumpism remains. We were a few local GOP officials away from an even greater crisis, or worse, a successful thwarting of our election by Trump.
@RepChrisSmith, with all of his 40 years experience, did nothing to prevent this. @Asteinberg613 proudly claims he left the GOP because of Trump. Smith didn’t follow. Instead, during Trump’s first attack on our democracy, Smith gave him a free pass. https://www.nj.com/opinion/2019/11/congressman-chris-smith-we-need-for-you-to-speak-up-about-trump-and-impeachment-opinion.html
@RepChrisSmith then silently accepted every lie Trump told about elections, COVID, you name it. Hell, I even tried to tell him that some of his own supporters will fuel the coming crisis of confidence in our election. https://www.app.com/story/opinion/columnists/2020/09/27/chris-smith-push-back-against-trumps-lies-deluca/3492006001/
Seriously, every lie Trump told: https://www.tapinto.net/towns/hamilton-slash-robbinsville/categories/guest-column/articles/chris-smith-silent-on-trump-s-lies-insults-to-veterans
It doesn’t get better after the election. @RepChrisSmith thought Trump should continue his quest to find nonexistent fraud. Never tells conservatives to tone it down. https://www.app.com/story/opinion/readers/2020/11/26/column-us-rep-chris-smith-still-silent-trump-abuses-democracy/6391764002/
Smith never condemned the lies that created the inevitable insurrection on Jan. 6th. Then what does @RepChrisSmith do? He suggests the mob may have been Antifa. https://patch.com/new-jersey/freehold/chris-smith-complicit-capitol-chaos-nodx
@RepChrisSmith stands by that statement two weeks later when @MattFriedmanNJ asks, and almost a month later when @mercerspace asks. Of course, he is against Trump’s second impeachment. https://communitynews.org/2021/01/30/rep-chris-smith-the-invisible-man/?fbclid=IwAR2SL1mvssMVvVDk954YuT9jxf6MgpwGmnw-WntwoZ-yWqmqqXRvmWgYrM4
Which brings us to the vote on Greene. Yes, acknowledge and appreciate that he did the right thing, but don’t hold @RepChrisSmith up as some paragon of democratic virtue as @Asteinberg613 does. Smith cleared the lowest of bars at the latest of hours.
At no point has @RepChrisSmith spoken with the authority of his years to lead his party away from their worst inclinations. He made no speech on Greene, he issued no press release.
Would @RepChrisSmith have made that vote if Democrats hadn’t forced him? If Republicans had the majority and push never came to shove, would Smith cry out publicly to punish this loon because she doesn’t represent the GOP? He didn’t say anything for four years.
I believe that @RepChrisSmith felt his vote to remove Greene from committees was the right thing to do. But the true test of principles is acting on them when it is difficult. So far, we’ve only seen Smith do so when it was expedient.
The point was never that @RepChrisSmith was the worst. It’s that he was never good enough. If someone like Smith won’t speak truth to conservative voters, Trumpism will fester and thrive. If he were truly as upright and principled as @Asteinberg613 says, he would have spoken out.
We need better. If we don’t get it, we’ll find ourselves here again and again. While only 11 GOP’s being right on Greene is to @RepChrisSmith’s credit, it also shows what happens when senior members of the party such as himself are too cowardly to lead.
Voting to punish Greene? Good. “Courage, competency, and greatness”? Give it a rest.
