Donald Trump recently declared that Vladimir Putin’s actions in Ukraine were those of a “genius.”  I know what you may be thinking. A naked unprovoked invasion of a sovereign state. Attacks on nuclear power plants, a maternity hospital, and residential neighborhoods. Starving out large civilian populations. Inviting Syrian “volunteers” to kill and maim countless Ukrainians. Threatening the use of chemical weapons, nuclear weapons, WW III, and Armageddon. Real genius.

I suppose it takes one to know one. Trump has publicly described himself as a “very stable genius” that “always chooses his words very very carefully.” https://globalnews.ca/video/5981593/donald-trump-im-a-very-stable-genius-who-always-chooses-his-words

Let me suggest a different way to characterize Trump. Feckless morons are often wrong but never in doubt, and express ill formed opinions about everything.

Among Trump’s many opinions is that January 6^th never happened. Like the recent claim by the Kremlin that a pregnant woman being led out of a bombed maternity hospital was an actor in a staged role (she gave birth the next day), Trump wants us to accept that what we saw in the Capital in real time with our own eyes was a benign reality show.

And Trump is not alone in this absurd mischaracterization. Kevin McCarthy, who was there on that day, was initially very critical of Trump. Until he wasn’t. Soon after the event, McCarthy apparently figured out that he could not become Speaker of the House (if the Republicans win the midterms) without Trump’s base. So McCarthy embarked on a series of supplications to Trump that rival those of Ted Cruz (who has “forgiven” Trump for, in effect, calling Cruz’s wife ugly, and Cruz’s father part of the conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy). https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/23/9-truly-awful-things-that-were-said-between-ted-cruz-and-the-man-hell-now-support-donald-trump/. Which may have complicated conversations at Cruz family get-togethers after that Senator led the effort to decertify the 2020 vote and disenfranchise some 81,000,000 voters in an election that many down ticket Republicans won. All to mollify Trump – the self-declared “stable genius.”

McCarthy has done everything he can to delegitimize the January 6^th Commission and prevent all of us from learning what happened in the White House that day. Why? To mollify that same “genius.”

When Tom Kean, Jr., announced his candidacy, the featured guest was Kevin McCarthy. Kean invited McCarthy to be there. https://www.insidernj.com/memo-tom-kean-jr-invite-liz-cheney-not-kevin-mccarthy/. Then Kean doubled down on the Big Lie about the 2020 election. https://newjerseyglobe.com/congress/kean-campaign-pledges-to-fight-stolen-election-starts-raising-money-for-legal-defense-fund/. Even though Kean almost certainly received more mail in votes in 2020 then Tom Malinowski did. https://www.nj.com/politics/2020/11/kean-concedes-to-malinowski-in-tight-nj-congressional-race.html

Fundamentally, Kean stands with Trump. Leadership? Lockstep?

As a real (and not a reality show) Republican, I don’t claim to know Kean’s mind.  But I do know what this isn’t. It isn’t anything Kean – or his father, whose personal integrity is sorely missed – can be proud of.