Dan McLaughlin OWNS both Tom Nichols and Rick Wilson in BRUTAL back and forth about Never Trump

Thinking Dan McLaughlin hit a little too close to home with his tweet about Never Trump, and how it was originally about not supporting Donald Trump for president. It wasn’t about crapping on the entire Republican Party OR losing your mind so completely that you’d vote for someone like Joe Biden. And it sure as Hell wasn’t about creating a brand or a PAC … or an organization where you can bilk stupid people out of millions of dollars.

Ahem.

McLaughlin said it far better, of course.

"Never Trump" was a statement of non-support for a candidate for election. The mounting odor of hysteria from people who turned it into their whole public & professional identity reeks of fear that he will go away some time soon & can't be replaced.

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 28, 2022

This is so damn good … The mounting odor of hysteria from people who turned it into their whole public and professional identity reeks of fear that he will go away.

We’ve said it before, nobody needs Trump more than our pals in Never Trump. Not even the media.

McLaughlin’s tweet got The Expert™ Tom Nichols’ attention:

Pretty sure that I don't need a lesson from you about what "Never Trump" meant, Dan. Since you were never a part of that movement, perhaps leave it to the people who began it to define it. https://t.co/8JRB4D3z1k

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 28, 2022

Ruh-roh, somebody’s pissy.

McLaughlin fired back:

It says a lot – none good – that you see your movement as one that requires people to renounce everything they ever believed in & every principle they ever held; to don moral blinders as to every ally vs one man, & to bury one's qualms as to means, tactics, laws, norms & truth. https://t.co/Mys0MGJlM3

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 29, 2022

If you're with the party that's been at war with the Constitution for a century & sees it as a musty relic of old white dudes, you're not actually interested in the Constitution as anything but a slogan with no content & no constraint on raw power. https://t.co/ZhvALE3odu

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 29, 2022

What he said.

I mean, when I say I am with the Constitution, I mean the actual written document ratified by the American people, unalterable without a further authentic act of the whole people.

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 29, 2022

*fist-pump*

If you say "the Constitution!" but you actually just mean "the bureaucracy!" you don't actually care about the Constitution, or for that matter, democratic elections.

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 29, 2022

Flash: Apparently, FDR, Truman, JFK, and (for a while) Reagan, among other criminals, have been at war with the Constitution.

Even when I was a young GOPer, I didn’t believe anything this crazy. But then, I wasn’t a bitter anti-anti-Trumper trying to sooth my own conscience. https://t.co/ekQCSpDjVX

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 29, 2022

Holy Hell. You can tell Tom is losing because he’s really digging deep into his inner smugness.

McLaughlin wasn’t at all phased.

You wanna side with Woodrow Wilson, go ahead. FDR did. But hey, perhaps we can compare our respective expertise in constitutional law. Wilson's doctrine of a "living constitution" unmoored from the democratically-enacted text is anti-law & anti-American. https://t.co/MPZRGQiSRW

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 29, 2022

Then this broad chimed in.

Haven't we just conducted a test about fidelity to the Constitution and didn't the GOP fail or was I thinking of some other planet? https://t.co/dGssIMDaEh

— Mona Charen (@monacharen) November 29, 2022

These people.

We’d expect nothing less from someone coming to Tom’s defense.

So, you side against the stance taken by Pence, McConnell, Kemp, & the conservative Justices on the 2020 election? And thereby endorse the progressive notion that the text of the Constitution is irrelevant to constitutional law? https://t.co/u8fHd8quJT

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 29, 2022

Sure sounds like it.

But hey! Never Trump!

For those of us who want a strong, united, substantively conservative, competently led, effective Republican party, there is a clear path forward. The choice will be with the voters, but it's our duty to do what we can to point in that direction.

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 29, 2022

And that prospect – a Republican party that pursues conservative policy effectively without wrenching internal schisms or self-inflicted wounds, & can't be held back by Trump – truly scares a lot of people who only claimed to be scared of Trump but turned him into a meal ticket.

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 29, 2022

Turned him into a meal ticket.

Bingo.

Oh, and speaking of people who turned Trump into a meal ticket …

Good God, the projection is strong here. https://t.co/CP7AHv9n3n

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) November 29, 2022

Suppose we should just be glad Rick didn’t find a way to make a dick joke … he often brags about his ability to do so.

You know as well as I do, Rick, that when Trump is finally gone from the scene, I will be right where I was before – same principles, same party, same policy goals, same audience. I haven't let Trump change any of that. Only one of us can say that. https://t.co/EU2v5BuAAr

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 29, 2022

DAMN THAT’S GOOD.

Ten years ago, @TheRickWilson & I both thought & said that Joe Biden was a ridiculous buffoon of low character with no business anywhere near power. Which of us is still free to say that today?

— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) November 29, 2022