Lost Soul? Concerned Conservatives Worry About Trump

Bob Inglis

“Donald Trump is reshaping the heart of the GOP into something that is very dark and very diseased. My nightmare scenario is a Republican Party that loses its soul. It’s one thing to lose an election. It’s another to lose your soul.”

--Bob Inglis, former Republican Congressman, S.C.

Former Congressman Bob Inglis is part of a growing movement of conservative Republicans who view "Trumpism" with more than just alarm. The group's leaders include Evan McMullin, who ran in 2016 as the “Never Trump” presidential candidate, and Bill Kristol, co-founder of the Weekly Standard, and conservative columnists Mona Charen and Max Boot.

They have issued a statement calling on House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell "to make clear, both publicly and privately, that they support the Mueller investigation and regard any interference with that investigation, including dismissal of the special counsel or preemptive pardons of investigation targets, as completely unacceptable."

They have become especially concerned that months of attacks on Mueller’s integrity in the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News, Wall Street Journal, and New York Post might goad or inspire Trump to fire Mueller and thus spark a constitutional crisis.

“The infotainment side of the conservative media [Fox News], they’ve been completely Trumpified for some time,” Mona Charen said. “The Wall Street Journal was another story. That was surprising to me. I didn’t regard them as part of the Trump right. When they wrote an editorial suggesting that Mueller resign, I felt that needed a response.”

And respond they did, taking the high moral ground against Trump: "It is morally imperative that the Republican Party and the conservative movement stand as bulwarks of the rule of law, not enablers of its erosion and violation. Now is the time for choosing."