He praises the former president's tax cuts, pugnacious stand against China and steps his administration took to help speed development of the COVID-19 vaccine. He believes Trump in many ways changed the Republican Party for the better, broadening its appeal among blue-collar and less-privileged voters.
Further, Roe defends the Trump-inspired move
to tighten election laws, which has become all the rage among GOP state lawmakers, claiming that much of the effort amounts to simply rolling back allowances made to accommodate voting amid the pandemic.
All that said, Roe's unforgivable sin was acknowledging Trump's loss and refusing to parrot his lies about widespread election larceny. Even 99.44% purity — that's Ivory soap pure — isn't enough for Trump and his blind followers.
“It wasn’t the people surrounding Donald Trump who screwed it up,” Roe said of the 2020 election. “Donald Trump screwed it up. People pissed off about 2020 should focus their anger on the person who screwed it up.”
And he suggested if Republicans were going to take back the House and Senate in 2022 and reclaim the White House in 2024, they’re going to have to get past worship of their mendacious idol.
"The reality is, if we don't start moving forward," Roe said, "we will be a permanent minority and the gains we made at the state level, positions we're holding at the federal level in the House and Senate, will fritter away if we don't get our act together."
It's one thing to indulge in fantasy. It's another to try to win elections. (Much less govern.) Those Republicans who would deny the truth also ignore basic political math: Parties and political candidates that succeed do so by addition, not subtraction.
This is a true blue Republican who supported everything Trump did. His one sin was he admitted the truth. Trump lost. He is also saying Republicans must move on to be successful in 2022. That is why Democrats could defy the odds in 2022.