Eyes On Sen. Kapenga: “A Valuable Master Class In The Art Of Trump Sycophancy"

By Melanie Conklin, The Wisconsin Examiner

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July 1, 2021

Wisconsin Senate President Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) may be on his way to becoming a household name. Few outside Wisconsin — or even inside — had heard much about him even after he took the leadership position presiding over the state Senate this session.

Kapenga has also acknowledged openly that he is considering a run for governor, after having made a decision not to run for Congress for the seat now held by Rep. Scott Fitzgerald.

But Wednesday, the New York Times had an article and an opinion column dedicated to the Wisconsin senator. None were meant to be favorable — quite the opposite, in fact. He was also the subject of analysis in The Washington Post, commentary on MSNBC and a scathing takedown in the infamous Wonkette.

“Dear Leader: A Near-Perfect Letter From a Trump Sycophant, Annotated,” was the headline atop New York Times editorial board member Michelle Cottle’s opinion column.

“This Wisconsin Republican’s letter to Trump is high art,” read The Washington Post headline.

“Wisconsin G.O.P. Wrestles With Just How Much to Indulge Trump,” was the headline on the New York Times article.

“Wisconsin GOP Leader Chris Kapenga Believes In Trump The Father Almighty, Maker Of Heaven And Earth,” Wonkette put atop its snarky piece that opined, “It is the most embarrassing thing we have ever seen from a person who is ostensibly a grown man. It is more embarrassing than Tom Cotton trying to do push-ups …”

And, naturally, Wisconsin Examiner tied it in with the full GOP political state convention scene Ruth Conniff’s commentary titled, “How low can Wisconsin Republicans go?”

Conniff wrote: “The top news out of the Wisconsin Republican convention last weekend was Trump’s attack on our state GOP leaders and their groveling response. Like Voldemort’s followers in the Harry Potter series, they continue to abase themselves even as the object of their adoration rewards them with torture. It’s creepy to watch. … [Speaker Robin] Vos and Kapenga scurried to soothe Trump’s ruffled feathers, assuring him that they had, in fact, supported an audit of the 2020 presidential results. … Kapenga is just plain craven.”

Cottle’s short take on it in the Times was this: “It is tempting to dismiss Mr. Kapenga’s missive as a desperate plea for Mr. Trump to stop picking on him — which it is. But it also provides a valuable master class in the art of Trump sycophancy.”

And once-GOP-stalwart-rightwing-talk-radio host turned Never Trumper Charlie Sykes was appauled in his Morning Shots column on the topic, titled “Scenes from the Endless Grovel.”

State Senator Chris Kapenga, one of the targets of Trump’s screed, wrote a fawning 2-page letter to the ex-president telling him (I’m not making this up) that he wore “Trump socks,” and planned to wear a “Trump/Pence mask” when he got on an airplane.https://t.co/xeu4uMP1a4
— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) June 27, 2021

It’s not like Kapenga didn’t seek out the attention of both Donald Trump and the Wisconsin electorate. When he sent the letter on June 26, he tweeted it out right away and posted it on his government Facebook page, defending his devotion to the former president and promoting the Republican audits of the election in various forms that are still ongoing. He also noted that he was wearing Trump socks and a Trump-Pence mask and told Trump that he owed him a round of golf.

Today I wrote a letter to President Trump. His claim that I am blocking an election audit couldn’t be further from the truth. Read my letter about how I requested an audit that is still ongoing. https://t.co/B6WsNyEr9U
— Sen. Chris Kapenga (@SenatorKapenga) June 26, 2021

“Today I wrote a letter to President Trump. His claim that I am blocking an election audit couldn’t be further from the truth. Read my letter about how I requested an audit that is still ongoing,” he tweeted.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes, on his June 29 “All in with Chris Hayes” show shared not only his thoughts on Kapenga but also some of the highlights of the now-famous letter. If you haven’t seen the full letter, Kapenga proudly posted it on his website and Hayes slammed Wisconsin legislative leaders who should to assure Trump they were indeed auditing and investigating the election, while highlight on the juicer tidbits:

“And so, some of his more slavishly devoted toadies in Wisconsin have been taking steps to challenge the election results to please their former president. This is what he’s ordered. In February, Republicans in that state did order an audit of the election results by a non-partisan group. State Republicans visited the Arizona audit to observe the process. The State Assembly speaker hired a retired police officer and a lawyer to investigate the 2020 results.”

(Side note: Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has now also hired former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman to oversee the investigation.)

“But they haven`t quite been able to pull off a full Arizona-style debacle in which they, you know, take possession of all these ballots and give them to some random entity,” continued Hayes. “And for that, well, Donald Trump is not happy. On Friday, he issued this statement accusing Wisconsin Republican leaders of working hard to cover up election corruption and actively trying to prevent a forensic audit. … the response from one of the Wisconsin Republican officials Trump called out by name, the president of the State Senate Chris Kapenga is an incredible example of Trump-era Republicans and generally democratic decline, not to mention absurd levels of humiliation.

“OK, Chris Kapenga, this guy, just got chewed out by probably the most famous sociopath in the country, maybe the world. A guy who had a 29% approval rating upon leaving office… And yet, here`s Chris Kapenga, the target of this man`s ire. This is Chris Kapenga`s response. And you need to hear this. I`m going to read it, the large portions of it because nothing else would do it justice.

Hayes then read Kapenga’s letter to Trump, adding that “the level of Stalinist groveling that is required by the Republican Party right now is on display. …this behavior, the cultivating the most noxious fringe ideas, bringing them to the center of American life is the modus operandi of the party, increasingly.”

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The Wisconsin Examiner, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site, offers a fresh perspective on state politics and policy through investigative reporting and daily coverage dedicated to the public interest. The Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers.