Cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 57F. Winds light and variable..
Cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 57F. Winds light and variable.
Updated: December 3, 2022 @ 11:37 pm
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Steve Bailey
Then-President Donald Trump appeared with Gov. Henry McMaster at a 2018 campaign event in Cayce. Andrew J. Whitaker/Staff
Steve Bailey
Then-President Donald Trump appeared with Gov. Henry McMaster at a 2018 campaign event in Cayce. Andrew J. Whitaker/Staff
Donald Trump is running for president again, even if most of the Republican Party establishment would rather him just go away, please. Not so Our Henry.
Henry McMaster, then South Carolina’s lieutenant governor, famously became the nation’s highest-ranking elected official to endorse Trump after he came down that golden escalator in Trump Tower on June 16, 2015. Now, seven years later, Gov. McMaster is still all in, announcing his support hours after Trump declared he was running for president in 2024.
No matter that Trump could become the first presidential candidate to be indicted for inspiring an insurrection. Or for absconding with top secret documents. Or tax evasion. Or that he dines with antisemites and racists.
McMaster is nobody’s fool: He is, after all, on track to become the longest-serving governor in the state’s history, even if he sometimes seems better suited for 1922 than 2022. (Them were the days when capital punishment was easy and gay marriage unthinkable.) The man has his reasons; let us count the ways.
• No. 10: Henry’s loyal.
It was Trump who put McMaster in the governor’s office by naming Nikki Haley as ambassador to the United Nations. McMaster then endorsed Trump’s reelection in 2020, and Trump supported McMaster in 2018 and again this year. McMaster has returned the favor by being the first governor to endorse him for 2024.
• No. 9: The GOP (Grand Old People) stick together.
The median age is the U.S. is 38½. Trump is 76; McMaster is 75. But Joe Biden is 80, you say? They all need to go, I say. Enough already. Time moves on; so should they all. But they won’t.
• No. 8: Jan. 6 and the patriots.
Trump is under investigation for his role in one of the darkest days in American history, the attempt to block the transfer of power at the U.S. Capitol. Hang Mike Pence! In addition, Trump says as president he would pardon the rioters charged in that deadly riot. “They are being treated so unfairly,” he said. Who cares?
• No. 7: The other investigations, yada, yada, yada.
Stop the Steal? Trump asked the Georgia secretary of state to “find” 11,780 votes. The FBI recovered hundreds of classified documents from Mar-a-Lago, including on the nuclear capabilities of America’s enemies. Trump is being investigated in New York on whether he fraudulently misstated his business assets and evaded taxes. Repeat: Who cares?
• No. 6: Doubling down on Trump
Trump promised “we will have so much winning if I get elected that you may get bored with the winning.” He then proceeded to lose the House, the Senate and the presidency and then turned the Red Tide of 2022 into a weak trickle. He’s like an overdue slot machine — isn’t he?
• No. 5: Playing to the base.
This is South Carolina. Trump carried the state by 14 points in 2016 and 12 points in 2020. McMaster was just reelected by 16 points and every statewide office is held by a Republican. What are they going to do? Vote Democratic?
• No. 4: All politics is local.
You know endorsing Trump has to annoy Nikki Haley and Tim Scott, who are watching and waiting. That’s worth something. And McMaster looks decisive while Lindsey Graham waffles. As usual.
• No. 3: Nullification redux.
McMaster promised to fight Biden “to the gates of hell” over vaccine mandates. Why change now?
• No. 2: Mar-a-Lago & Me
A gutsy early endorsement has to be good for supper on the back porch of Mar-a-Lago, which is always chockablock with famous Trump fans like Kanye West and Nick Fuentes. Never mind one is an antisemite and the other one of the nation’s most prominent white supremacists and Holocaust deniers. There are very fine people on both sides.
This particular dinner with Ye and Fuentes sparked enormous blowback, even among usually silent Republicans. Trump’s explanation: He didn’t realize the antisemite he invited was bringing along a neo-Nazi. And McMaster sloughed it off: He reaffirmed his support for Trump and blamed the media, not the former president. “He isn’t going to comment on every single storyline the national media happens to be focused on at any given time,” a McMaster spokesman told me. Loyal the man is.
• No. 1: Imagine the possibilities.
“Secretary of State Henry D. McMaster” has a special ring to it, does it not? Henry has every bit the foreign-policy chops Nikki Haley had. They both know Denmark and Norway (S.C.), not to mention the proud communities of Switzerland (pop. 4,000) and La France (pop. 476) and the Republic of BMW.
Make America Great Again! Elect Donald Trump in 2024, y’all!
Steve Bailey can be reached at sjbailey1060@yahoo.com. Follow on Twitter @sjbailey1060.com
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