“Dance With The One Who Brung Ya”
Republican candidates may be stuck with the wrong partner
BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY
Over the course of American history, we have come to expect a certain level of decorum and civility from the upper chamber of Congress. This week those expectations were dashed after witnessing the behavior of some Senate Republicans.
Republicans have controlled both houses of Congress for the last 20 months. For their closing argument ahead of the midterm election, congressional Republicans held no rallies, no press conferences to crow about their accomplishments, no patting themselves on the back. Because there wasn’t much to crow about.
Instead, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing to scold, berate, and insult former special counsel Jack Smith, the independent prosecutor who brought charges against Donald Trump. This sideshow was not designed to win over undecideds with plans for improving the economy, or lowering gas prices, or mortgage rates, or inflation.
No, Republicans on the committee staged a performance not for the voters, but for the president. They chose to relitigate the 2020 presidential election… again. And to call Smith, a well-respected prosecutor, a “dirtbag,” twice.
Members of the most powerful democratically elected legislative body in the world looked like they were reading from a script written by the White House communications office. Like this example from Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. He said of Smith, “You make me want to throw up in my mouth.”
Let’s pause and let that ugly sentence sink in.
And that was just the warm-up. The hearing contained one of the all-time swing-and-a-miss moments by a sitting senator. More on that in a moment, but one couldn’t help but come away from this thinking, why are Republicans still carrying Trump’s water? He doesn’t really care about them or anyone.
It is reminiscent of an old saying popularized by a Texas football coach when asked why he sticks with the same players through tough times. “You gotta dance with the one who brung ya,” he replied. It means to remain loyal to those who made you successful. Or in the case of Republicans running for office in 2026, staying tied to a president who could pull them all under.
Call it the Trump two-step — one step forward, two steps back. That’s how it feels watching Republicans try to dance their way around a toxic president-cum-cult leader.
This is a case of two things being true at the same time: Republicans need Trump to rally the base and get low-propensity voters to the polls. But he is also so unpopular, increasing numbers of Republican candidates are distancing themselves and choosing not to campaign with him.
While Trump could motivate the MAGA faithful to go vote, he appears likely to alienate moderates and independents, who are widely expected to decide the election. In the 14 national polls conducted over the last two weeks, Trump’s disapproval rating ranges from 55% to 64%. Close to two-thirds of the country believe he is not making their lives better.
What’s a Republican strategist to do if the White House offers to have Trump campaign in a close race? One operative told Politico, “I suspect my candidates would come down with COVID.”
Midterm candidates distancing themselves from a sitting president is not unusual. It happened in 2006 with George W. Bush and in 2014 with Barack Obama. But neither president retaliated for the snubs. Trump makes it his day job, which may explain what happened in Congress this week.
On Tuesday, with the House already adjourned through the midterms, the Senate spent its last session hearing testimony from Jack Smith. As a reminder, Smith was the independent prosecutor who brought multiple indictments against Trump, but the cases were dropped when Trump won the 2024 election.
“I stand by my decisions as special counsel, including my decision to bring charges against President Trump. I made these decisions without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election,” Smith said in his opening statement.
For four hours Senate Republicans raged at Smith, hurled invectives, accused him of perjury, and called for his criminal prosecution. It was behavior unbecoming of anyone, much less a United States senator.
For years, the president has pushed the conspiracy theory that various investigations of him were a coordinated effort crafted by Democrats. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) thought he had finally found evidence to nail Smith. And he had the props to prove it. Or so he thought.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Schmitt asked Smith, “Did you go to an NBA game between the Golden State Warriors and the Atlanta Hawks on February 3, 2024?” Smith looked confused and asked in what city the game took place. “Atlanta,” Schmitt answered. Smith said, no, he had not been at the game.
But it was likely dawning on Smith where this odd line of questioning was going. One of the other cases against Trump was being investigated by Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis. Atlanta is in Fulton County. The case fell apart after Willis admitted to an affair with a staffer.
Schmitt then got to the point. “The day before [the basketball game], Fani Willis came clean with her affair with the prosecutor. You know the Atlanta prosecutor that was also trying to get Trump? The next day were you in Atlanta?” Once again, Smith responded he was not.
Schmitt then went in for what he thought was the kill. “What would you say if I had a series of text messages from your team that said you were in Atlanta at a Warrior-Hawks game on February 3, 2024, the day after Willis and Wade announced their affair? I don’t think you know that we have this stuff. So I’ll give you a second to process it so you don’t perjure yourself,” he said as a large poster board emblazoned with the allegedly incriminating text messages was held up.
Smith then realized the senator was referring to a University of Maryland women’s basketball game against the University of Iowa on the night in question. He said he attended that game to see phenom Caitlin Clark, a then point guard for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Video has since surfaced confirming he was at the game.
So how did Schmitt botch this so badly? Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) figured it out in the middle of the hearing. “Could it then be that University of Iowa’s the Hawkeyes? Could that be it?”
Smith went to a Hawkeyes game in Maryland, not a Hawks game in Atlanta. Suddenly, the “gotcha” moment had turned into an uh-oh. Wrong team. Wrong league. Wrong city.
At the end of what was a disastrous hearing for Republicans, and a waste of time for the American taxpayer, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) had had it.
“This is their closing argument, everybody. Right before an election, this is what they want to spend their time on, perpetrating a lie. This committee’s Republicans are more concerned with Trump than the truth. More concerned with Trump’s crimes than the Constitution. And I’m watching today, people say, ‘Oh, this is an unprecedented investigation. This man did unprecedented things.’ Heck yeah, he did unprecedented things because when has the United States of America seen people storm the Capitol and try to stop the peaceful transfer of power?”
As Americans contend with record-high gas and grocery prices, ballooning home mortgage rates, illegal tariffs, and a forever war we know little about, Senate Republicans chose to participate in political theater that helps no one. And many other Republican candidates must continue to engage in their own bit of theater: whether to embrace the president or reject his help and risk suffering the consequences.
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Stay Steady,
Dan
NYA Thanks Dan Rather and Team Steady!