This GOP Congressman Compared Donald Trump To Thomas Jefferson. Then Things Got Weird
Louis Gohmert wanted Ted Cruz to get the Republican nomination. Watch his attempt to justify voting for Donald Trump.
At the Republican National Convention, I ran into Rep. Louis Gohmert, a conservative Texan probably best-known for his spending record (pretty good) and suggesting that Clinton aide Huma Abedin was part of the Muslim Brotherhood and that "terror babies" were a thing (obviously, he never met MY children).
In Cleveland, he's got a more difficult task: How to reconcile voting for Donald J. Trump after the billionaire argued that the father of Gohmert's pick, Ted Cruz, was involved in the assassination of the John F. Kennedy. Even if Trump was just trolling by repeating baseless claims made in a tabloid, it shows lack of seriousness at best if not a delusional mind (recall also Trump's deep interest in Barack Obama's birth certificate).
Gohmert was talking to me and XM/Sirius' Michelangelo Signorile. His attempt to fit Trump into a place where he's not just a phony jackass but in fact presidential material is pretty incredible. And by incredible, I mean pretty sad.
For Gohmert, tying Ted Cruz's pa to the killing of JFK was one of a seemingly endless stream of rhetorical Rubicons that Trump has waded through while marching to the GOP presidential ticket. Gohmert's rationale for what that particular calmuny is not a disqualifier perhaps shows how many Republicans who realize Trump is an unqualified clown will come to vote for him anyway.
Gohmert essentially says, I'll tell you what: Jefferson hired a journalist to slander John Adams during the election of 1800 and Jefferson turned out to be a pretty good president. "There are examples out there of people changing and growing."
One more reason that this RNC isn't a nominating convention, it's a wake.
Check out the video below, which in its own, compelling way, helps explain why just 26 percent of voters indentify as Republican.
And of course, after watching above, take a minute to check out Reason TV's "Attack Ads Circa 1800," produced by Meredith Bragg: