MSNBC host Michael Steele and former Republican National Committee spokesperson Tim Miller on MSNBC on September 9, 2025 (Image: Screengrab via MSNBC / YouTube)
President Donald Trump is forcing Republican members of Congress to undergo a "humiliation ritual" to protect him, according to one former GOP spokesperson.
During a Tuesday segment on MSNBC, Tim Miller — an anti-Trump conservative who was once a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee — said that the Jeffrey Epstein controversy has forced GOP lawmakers to debase themselves for Trump's benefit. The segment began by host Michael Steele asking Miller about whether the most core of the Trump-Epstein issue — his close friendship with a convicted child predator — was being intentionally buried by Republicans.
"Young girls were abused by grown men in a universe curated by Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and — whether directly or indirectly — Donald Trump was in it. He touched it. He was a part of it," Steele said. "And so it's fascinating to me that in the face of all of that, seemingly there is nothing that will apparently separate the lips of certain Republicans from the behind of Donald Trump.
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"They will always find a way to excuse the most outrageous behavior, because they don't want to be on the wrong side," he continued.
Miller responded by wryly observing that Republicans "haven't lost yet by putting their lips on Trump's behind," and viewed it as a necessary strategy to prolong their political careers. But he then observed that Trump himself may actually find it humorous that so many in the GOP are so willing to forgo their dignity in order to appease him.
"I almost think that Trump is laughing at them, right? Like there's a humiliation ritual element to this," Miller said. "That's how you gain power, you know? It's how you ensure that they'll do your bidding to be like: 'You're going to go out and lie for me. You're not just going to lie for me, you're going to tell the most preposterous lie imaginable ... to protect me from my relationship with the country's probably most notorious child sex trafficker.' Like that's what you're going to do. You're going to go have to go out there and humiliate yourself and embarrass yourself in my defense. And that's how I keep you in my good graces."
Watch the segment below, or by clicking this link.
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