CMR won’t speak up

Serving in Congress is not like other jobs. It’s an immense responsibility. Congressional representatives should be held to high standards. That includes speaking up when something is wrong.

We knew that candidate Trump bragged about committing sexual assault. We knew that he mocked a disabled reporter and encouraged racists at his rallies to beat up black protesters. We knew that he made fun of U.S. POWs when he said he “like(s) people who weren’t captured.”

We saw the signs. They were all there. As a member of Congress, Cathy McMorris Rodgers not only stood silently by as this man unfit for office rose to power, she propped him up, calling him a “positive disruptor.”

In a closed door House GOP meeting (there are tapes), McMorris Rodgers chats as House GOP chair McCarthy floats the idea that Trump was “paid by Putin.” Though the party line is that it was all a joke, Speaker Ryan swore the group to secrecy, Cathy sat complicit. That feels wrong.

We can put the pieces together and see where McMorris Rodgers’ loyalties lie. Over and over, it is with her Party and the interests of her campaign contributors instead of with the people of Eastern Washington and the Constitution she swore to uphold. Cathy’s gotta go.

James Ochiltre

Spokane