'Something’s off with this guy': Republicans sound alarm about potential Trump AG

10 September 2024

If former President Donald Trump wins the November election, he'll likely appoint a staunch loyalist to head the Department of Justice and wage legal warfare against his political opponents. One top contender for the job flipped from one of the ex-president's biggest critics to a loyal lieutenant.

The Atlantic's Tim Alberta recently profiled Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who rose to prominence after being elected in 2010 with the help of the far-right Tea Party movement. As the son of former Reagan administration solicitor general Rex Lee, the Utah Republican grew up in Washington, D.C. in proximity to power. But as Alberta's sources recalled, Lee was unlike his father in his relentless thirst for accolades and his penchant for extreme partisanship.

One of those sources is former Rep. Enid Mickelsen (R-Utah), who eventually became the chair of the Utah Republican Party and witnessed Lee's rise to power. She recalled to Alberta thinking that "something's off with this guy." She said she knew Lee was different from his father, whom she "idolized," after he proposed ending birthright citizenship.

“That’s when the hair on the back of my neck stood up,” Mickelsen said. “He was telling people what they wanted to hear, not what was true.”

Still, Lee was considered more in the libertarian mold than a part of the MAGA faction. In 2016, the Utah senator led a failed attempt to nominate an alternate GOP ticket at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, hoping Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Marco Rubio (R-Florida) would replace Trump. He bemoaned Trump's authoritarian rhetoric and even posted a four-minute video calling for Trump to drop out of the 2016 race after the "Access Hollywood" tape emerged, in which the eventual 45th president of the United States was heard bragging about groping women without their consent.

But after the 2016 election, Lee was one of the many Republicans who made a visit to Trump Tower in New York to make amends with the president-elect, hoping to "clear the air" with the man he adamantly opposed just months prior. Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Illinois), who was part of the 2010 Tea Party wave, told Alberta that he viewed Lee's libertarian bent as authentic and was taken aback when he fully embraced Trump.

“If someone told me back then that Mike Lee would sell his soul to Donald Trump, I would have never believed it,” Walsh said. “I still can’t believe it.”

During Trump's presidency, Lee frequently flew with him on Air Force One, helped strategize his impeachment defenses and was even one of the architects of Trump's failed effort to stay in office after he lost the 2020 election. In 2022 he launched the @BasedMikeLee Twitter (now X) account, which is known for frequently posting far-right memes and even disinformation.

"Once a politician who seemed to be fashioning himself as a modern Daniel Patrick Moynihan of the right, Lee is now a very online MAGA influencer," Alberta wrote. "It’s as if Ned Flanders became a 4chan troll."

Lee is rumored to be one of the leading contenders to become Trump's next attorney general if he retakes the White House. The former president has said on the campaign trail he plans to politicize the DOJ to indict and prosecute his political opponents, and he'll almost certainly instruct his next attorney general to dismiss the two pending federal felony cases against him.

Click here to read Alberta's full article in the Atlantic (subscription required).

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