Great Republican Men of Principle, An Ongoing Series

Trump-endorsing-and-supporting Representative Jason Chaffetz has, despite a showy rescinding of his endorsement of Donald Trump, announced that he is endorsing and supporting Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy:

Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz is openly excited for Hillary Clinton to get elected, because he plans to spend years badgering her with bullshit congressional hearings. But he also wants you to know that he plans to vote for Donald Trump, despite showily unendorsing him over Trump’s plain and explicitly stated fondness for grabbing women by their pussies. Values are overrated.

 This has become a fun trend among Republican lawmakers, like Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer, who joined many other female Republican Senators in saying she would vote for VP candidate Mike Pence but not for Trump and then just kinda took the whole thing back.

Similarly, Chaffetz said on October 8 “I’m out,” meaning that he previously planned to vote for a dangerous lunatic who described Mexican people as rapists and criminals and who called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, but that pussygrabbing is a step too far.

“I can no longer in good conscience endorse this person for president. It is some of the most abhorrent and offensive comments that you can possibly imagine,” Chaffetz told Utah’s Fox 13 News before deciding, you know what, who cares?

Here’s Chaffetz on Wednesday:

I will not defend or endorse @realDonaldTrump, but I am voting for him. HRC is that bad. HRC is bad for the USA.

— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) October 27, 2016

To address one argument in defense of drawing what is in fact an entirely meaningless distinction between a politician “voting for” and “endorsing” a candidate, “endorsing” a candidate no more implies that you agree with everything a candidate does than voting for her does. It reflects a judgment that the candidate is, on balance, better than the alternatives. This is the judgment Chaffetz had made about Trump. He endorses Trump, he supports Trump, he’s in, and his moral grandstanding is pathetic.