Chris Smith’s Cowardice Brought Us Here

Two weeks into Donald Trump’s baseless attack on our election, Jeff Edelstein of the Trentonian reached out to Chris Smith and asked him if he supported Trump’s actions. Smith replied with an irrelevant comparison to Al Gore, and paid lip-service to Trump’s conspiracy theories by saying Trump could “exhaust every legal avenue” to reach “definitive conclusions” about the 2020 election. If he didn’t, Smith worried political divisions in our county would worsen.

Immediately after we learned that Trump had asked Georgia’s Secretary of State to “find 11,780 votes,” Dustin Racioppi of USA Today asked Smith for comment. Smith didn’t say a word.

How pathetic, cowardly, and ignorant do Smith’s statements and complicit silence appear in light of what happened in the Capitol on January 6th? Smith, along with most of his party, failed to understand a basic principle of the Trump era - that it doesn’t matter if the scheme succeeds, the real damage is done by letting absurd narratives take hold amongst millions of Republican voters.

Whether it was cheating in an election, denying foreign election interference, or sowing doubt about election security, Smith stood with Trump every step of the way. Not once was he willing to speak truth to conservative voters. Not once did he have the courage to do the right thing.

I don’t care what Smith says now. I don’t care what general condemnation of violence he issues to try and insulate himself from this mess. In fact, I don’t want to hear a single word. This was the inevitable ending we all saw coming and he owns every bit of it.

I hope Smith enjoyed the shameful day he helped make for us all.