Charlie Sykes: ‘Republican Party Now Has a Large Constituency of Extremists, Including Extremists Who Are Violent’

EXCERPT:

SYKES: “But now they have decided they are going to look the other way to sedition, violence, anti-democratic authoritarianism. And I think that this party is — you know, I think that the impeachment damaged both Donald Trump and the Republican Party, but also changed Donald Trump — I’m sorry, it changed the Republican Party. The Republican Party now has a large constituency of extremists, including extremists who are violent. We talked a lot about cowardly Republicans. Well, one of the reasons they are cowardly is because fear is a major factor now in right-wing politics and Republican politics. And I don’t think that’s going to go away. I think that many of the right-wing extremists who invaded the Capitol are going to feel emboldened by the vote over the weekend and I think you will see the Republican Party continue to unfortunately appease those factions. So it is Donald Trump’s party, which is not new. But I think it is in some ways worse.”