Former Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) is urging the Republican Party to move on from former President Donald Trump, who she claims is a “diminished political figure.”
In an op-ed published in The New York Times on Thursday, Comstock said, “When Donald Trump, the patron saint of sore losers, appeared at a Republican event on Saturday night and compared the 2020 election to a ‘third-world-country election like we’ve never seen before,’ it wasn’t just another false rant from the former president.”
“His words also described his attempted subversion of democracy in the run-up to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol,” she explained.
Comstock recalled Trump’s attempts to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to reject the results of the 2020 presidential election. She also noted the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol when Congress met to certify the election.
The former Congresswoman argued that instead of opposing a commission to investigate the riot, Republicans “need to be at the forefront of seeking answers on the insurrection and diminishing the power of QAnon and the other conspiracy theories that Mr. Trump has fueled.”
She went on to argue that Trump is not as much of a formidable force as he used to be:
“While he is still popular within the party, Mr. Trump is a diminished political figure: 66 percent of Americans now hope he won’t run again in 2024, including 30 percent of Republicans. He is not the future, and Republicans need to stop fearing him. He will continue to damage the party if we don’t face the Jan. 6 facts head-on.”
Comstock said that there are many unanswered questions from the riot and argued that a commission to investigate the violence would not be bad for the party.
And she warned Republicans against ignoring Trump’s rhetoric, “The harm is that the lies have metastasized and could threaten public safety again. The U.S. Capitol Police report that threats against members of Congress have increased 107 percent this year.”
“Republicans would be better advised to fight like Senator Margaret Chase Smith. During the Joseph McCarthy era in 1950, she advised fellow Republicans that the Democrats had already provided Republicans with sufficient campaign issues, and they need not resort to McCarthy’s demagogy,” Comstock said.
She added, “The same is true today. Republicans need to have more faith in their policies and stop being afraid of a dangerous and diminished man who has divided the country and now divides our party. Reconsider the commission, let the investigation go ahead, and run and win in 2022 on the truth.”