Rick Wilson Issues Warning For Slow-Learning GOP Senators

By Aliza Worthington — January 22, 2020

GOP strategist Rick Wilson is, for some reason, still a member of the Republican party, even though he hates the incarnation of it he sees today. (One could argue that today's GOP is exactly who it's always been. It's just that now they're allowed to say the ugly things they think out loud, and act on them. That's an essay for another day, though.)

Anywho, Wilson is an absolutely vicious critic of Trump's, and he appears on MSNBC pretty regularly to trash the Donald and any member of the GOP who has fallen victim to the cult of personality atop of which he sits. Wilson's voice is worthy of attention, if not for the credibility he brings as a GOP-er who hates what the party has become, then for his unparalleled way with words.

Today he went on an impressive tweet storm outlining for the Senate Republicans (who clearly need things explained to them very slowly and in small words) what their complicity in this sham of a trial and cover-up will mean for their careers in the short-run, and legacy in the long-run.

1/ I'll summarize this for the slow learners in the Senate one last time.

Your protestations of independence, integrity, and honor will mean nothing to the voters this Fall. Nothing.

You're going to moo and walk into the chute like cattle, terrified of Trump and Mitch.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 21, 2020

2/ So when you're underwater in the polls, drowning in public anger at becoming accessories to Trump's coverup, here's a handy list of what went wrong. Clip-and-save, because you'll need it later.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 21, 2020

3/ WHAT WENT WRONG, A PARTIAL LIST:

A. The facts of Ukraine will never, ever get better for Trump. You know this.

B. Truth outs. Bolton's book hits. Documents leak. More people come forth.

C. *TRUMP* admits it. You know he will.

D. The polls are not going your way.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 21, 2020

4/ D (cont). Two-thirds of the American people want to see evidence and witnesses. Support for impeachment is steady.

E. The McConnell strategy looks great in the short term as a DC-clever-process story in a few months looks like a massive coverup.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 21, 2020

5/ F. The locked-room, one-camera, dead-of-night game YOU voted for looks more and more like the work of co-conspirators, not judges.

G. Trump won't help you later. His loyalty is to himself. If you're in trouble *even for helping him* you're dead meat.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 21, 2020

6/ H. Even if he *does* help you, does it *help* you? Trump rally fever plays only to the reddest red audiences. You know, like Maine and AZ...oh. Wait.

I. Mitch only has so much money to spread around. Sure, in January he's saying, "I got you" but does he have *enough*?

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 21, 2020

7/ J. Even *Mitch* will flip if the majority is in danger, and how are you gonna walk that back? You won't get a second chance to be strong and do the right thing. You won't get another moment to show you give a damn about something bigger than Trump's rage.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 21, 2020

8/ K. Voters hate corruption (cf, 1974, 1980, 1994, 2006) as just a few examples in recent memory) and they hate its enablers more. It reinforces their existing feelings about politics and politicians.

L. Trump gets passes you never, ever will.

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 21, 2020

9/ M. "I voted against witnesses and evidence and covered up Trump's crimes of obstruction, lying, and abuse of power so he wouldn't tweet mean things about me." is a shit political obituary. So is, "I didn't want a primary."

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) January 21, 2020