Bill Kristol flattens GOP for rationalizing 'bad men' to please Trump

U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 7, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Although Democrats were hoping to sink President Donald Trump's Todd Blanche nomination, he was narrowly confirmed as U.S. attorney general in a 50-49 vote after Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) decided to vote "yes." The GOP senator expressed some reservations about Blanche but ultimately voted in favor of him, offering a list of reasons for his decision. And according to Never Trump conservative Bill Kristol, Cassidy's vote is quite typical of Republicans' efforts to "rationalize" their support for Trump's policies and nominees.

Writing for the conservative website The Bulwark, Kristol argues that Republicans repeatedly "rationalize" their obedience to Trump no matter how egregious his actions or nominations are.

Kristol opens his article by quoting author George Orwell: "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command."

The conservative journalist adds, "But we're not yet living in Orwell's totalitarian society. So the members of our ruling party don't quite reject the evidence of our eyes and ears. They simply avert their eyes and ears from the evidence around them. They minimize its importance and rationalize its significance. And above all, they do nothing about it."

Blanche, Kristol argues, is only one example of this pattern.

"Ohio Rep. Max Miller's Republican colleagues are well aware of his behavior," Kristol explains. "They know of what Sen. Bernie Moreno, his ex-father-in-law, calls 'the clear pattern of abuse (Miller) has left in his wake.' They understand why Moreno said that Miller 'should not serve in the House of Representatives.' They could easily have spoken up last week and told Miller to leave. They could have said they wouldn't endorse his reelection. They could have announced they wouldn't help fund his race. But Miller wants to stay in the House and on the ballot, and President Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson have stood by him. And so, House Republicans don't want to deal with the matter ... Meanwhile, over in the Senate, 50 out of 52 Republicans voted early Saturday morning to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general."

Kristol continues, "This probably shouldn't have been a surprise. The GOP-controlled Senate had previously voted to confirm Pam Bondi for that job, along with rubber-stamping other flawed humans like Kristi Noem, Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, and Pete Hegseth for various positions…. Perhaps Cassidy agreed with his colleague, Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the deciding vote in getting Blanche reported out of committee. When Cornyn was asked to respond to (Jeffrey) Epstein survivors who said a yes vote on Blanche would have a chilling effect on survivors of s––assault coming forward, Cornyn replied: 'I don't believe there is anything we could do to assuage them at this point.'"

Kristol laments that the view of many Republicans is "What's the point, if you're a Republican House member, of speaking up against Max Miller?"

"I began with the great social democrat George Orwell," Kristol writes. "I end with the great liberal John Stuart Mill. Mill was concerned about the fate of personal liberty and public spirit in modern democracy. In his 1867 inaugural address at the University of St. Andrews, he remarked that 'Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.' But one has to ask: If they do nothing but look on as bad men compass their ends, are they still good men?"

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