A conservative columnist is stunned that the scandal threatening former President Donald Trump is not a criminal conviction, lying rhetoric aimed at Haitian immigrants or a riot at the U.S. Capitol that resulted in federal charges.
The Bulwark's Andrew Egger on Friday professed himself shocked that Trump's Achilles' heel could be porn site comments about Adolf Hitler, slavery and transgender pornography that an explosive CNN report linked to North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.
"It’s a mind-boggling possibility: that after everything that’s happened in the last decade, after all his own intolerable scandals, the thing that ends Trump’s political career could be the grotesque behavior of some other random guy," wrote Egger.
"Not getting the Capitol ransacked, not going gaga for the world’s biggest autocrats, not embracing the worst and most toxic elements in American politics—just elevating a guy who happened to be a comically racist sexual degenerate."
CNN on Thursday reported Robinson, the Republican gubernatorial candidate endorsed by Trump as "Martin Luther King on steroids," described himself on the website Nude Africa as a "black NAZI" who believed some people "need to be slaves."
Robinson denies the reporting and suggested on CNN Thursday evening the comments — which date back to 2008 — were manufactured by political opponent North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein.
Despite reports that local Republicans, fearful the scandal could lose Trump the vital swing state, urged Robinson to withdraw from the race — Eggers reported Friday "the North Carolina GOP is brazening it out."
Eggers argued Friday this reflects a lack of respect the MAGA Republican holds for his own supporters.
"Robinson has offered a nasty appraisal of the voters whose support he is seeking," wrote Eggers. "He thinks he can fashion his history of disturbing, angry behavior into a story in which he is the victim—and that the voters will buy it. He sees those voters as morally malleable dupes, who will cross any serious ethical line in the service of politics."
The conservative commentator concluded that MAGA voters might turn away from Trump to distance themselves from Robinson — a potential act Eggers dubbed poetic justice.
"Robinson is the monster Trump created," Eggers wrote. "Now Trump has to survive him."