Some Republican lawmakers are reportedly scared to stand up to President Trump because they fear potentially violent reprisals, according to a report.
The report in Vanity Fair quotes a former member of Trump's first administration saying that GOP lawmakers are "They're scared s***less about death threats and Gestapo-like stuff" from MAGA followers if they dare defy Trump.
Although some lawmakers are concerned about the erosion of congressional power and the government's checks and balances, they are too scared to do anything about it, Vanity Fair reported.
For example, according to Vanity Fair, "credible death threats" might have influenced North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis to vote to confirm Pete Hegseth for defense secretary. The article cites a source who said that Tillis had told people the FBI informed him of the threat when he was considering voting no.
The article also quotes Mitt Romney's biographer McKay Coppins, stating that Romney told Coppins that anxiety played a role in preventing Republicans from punishing Trump for the Jan. 6 riots. "One Republican congressman confided to Romney that he wanted to vote for Trump's second impeachment, but chose not to out of fear for his family's safety," Coppins wrote in the book.
Republican lawmakers have faced the political costs of being seen as disloyal to Trump. Illinois Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger ran afoul of Trump and the party when he participated in the House committee investigating Jan. 6. Kinzinger also voted for Trump's second impeachment.
Kinzinger was later censured, along with other former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, by the Republican Party, NPR reported. "They chose to join Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol," RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said at the time.
Kinzinger left Congress in 2022 saying, "The once great party of Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Reagan has turned its back on the ideals of liberty and self-governance. Instead, it has embraced lies and deceit."
Cheney lost in the Republican primary in 2022.
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