Historian Jon Meacham: 45% of Americans Have Suspended Their ‘Patriotic Instincts’ to Support Trump

A large chunk of the country has suspended its critical faculties in order to support President Donald Trump, according to presidential historian Jon Meacham. Speaking on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Meacham was discussing Republicans’ reaction to the emerging Trump/Ukraine scandal and the false accusations against former Vice President Joe Biden.

“Well, and, Jon Meacham, what great illumination we have into the soul, not of America, but the soul of the Republican Party,” host Joe Scarborough said.

“You have one Republican after another trying to brush aside the fact that their president, the commander-in-chief, spoke to a foreign leader eight times and intimidated him eight times to use his personal lawyer to dig up dirt in a foreign country against a domestic rival. Eight times.”

“Mitt Romney even came out. It’s surreal. All of it is so surreal and all of it eventually will damage the Republican Party in next year’s election. But Mitt Romney said, well, if Donald Trump actually did speak to a foreign power to have them dig up dirt, that would be very troubling. The Wall Street Journal reported even before that tweet that it happened eight times. And Donald Trump admitted that he did it. And yet they decide to live in this Never Never Land.”

“That’s a great way to put it, it is Never Never Land,” Meacham said. “And, you know, history ,there’s no once upon a time, there’s not going to be a happily ever after. But there can be actual moments where we face facts.”

“Eleanor Roosevelt said that’s the test of a great government, a great society is can you, in fact, face facts however uncomfortable they are?”

“And what I think is the great story of our time, honestly, is the extent to which 40%, 45% of the country, many of them Republicans, have suspended their critical capacities, have suspended their essential, dare I say it, patriotic instincts to follow this particular leader because of the will to power.”

“So we’re talking you about the party of Eisenhower, Reagan, Bush are comfortable with a president who conspires, who colludes, whatever word you want to use, with foreign leaders to affect our democracy. How do you square that?”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.