Republicans claiming Trump learned from impeachment ‘look like fools’ after ‘crazy-pants’ East Room speech: conservative columnist

Appearing on MSNBC on Sunday morning, Washington Post conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin mocked Republican lawmakers — specifically Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) — for defending her vote to acquit Donald Trump in his impeachment trial by saying the president “learned” from the experience.

Speaking with host Ali Velshi, Rubin said any lawmaker who made such a statement looks like “a fool” now considering the president’s demeanor following his acquittal.

“Jennifer, you have recently tweeted that those who defend the president are ‘as depraved or nuts as he is’ and, ‘hey, Republican senators, proud of defending a lunatic?'” host Velshi began. “The president’s defenders are not prepared to go out on a limb to say that he, virtually none of them, said he did anything wrong.”

“I think it may have been in reference to that really crazy-pants press conference or whatever it was that he gave on Thursday where he really seemed to be seething with rage and revenge and on this kind of stream of consciousness,” Rubin replied. “And it is really the Republicans in the Senate who made up all kinds of excuses to acquit him — in particular, people like Susan Collins, Lamar Alexander who said, I think he learned his lesson. This should be sobering to him.”

"It sounded ridiculous at the time and now they look like fools, frankly,” she continued. “Dangerous fools because this is an unhinged president and, goodness knows what else he is going to do in terms of firing people, prosecuting people. Moving money around in the budget, putting out executive orders — the sky’s the limit now.”

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