If you’ve been following George Conway’s long-shot congressional campaign in New York’s 12th district, you know that the former Wachtell litigator and Lincoln Project co-founder has exactly zero fucks to give about whether his rhetoric is considered too much. As we noted, Conway’s campaign pitch is essentially: I have nothing to lose, no political future to protect, and I will be an absolute nightmare for this administration every single day. His appearance on Molly Jong-Fast’s Fast Politics podcast this week was a sampling of what that nightmare looks like.
Conway’s framework for the current moment draws on Downfall, the 2004 German film about the last days of Hitler’s bunker that became one of the most memed movies in internet history — and which, in its original, un-subtitled form, depicts a narcissistic leader becoming increasingly unhinged as the walls close in. Conway’s application of that framework to the current moment was not subtle.
“This is what happens when a narcissistic sociopath is cornered,” Conway said of Trump. “They become more desperate, more delusional, and more dangerous.”
He didn’t stop there. “He’s only going to get worse, not better. And the most important thing to remember for our current circumstance is that we cannot survive 32 months more of what we’ve seen over the last 16.”
The math he’s doing is straightforward: if the last 16 months have produced what they’ve produced — the economic damage, the erosion of America’s global standing, the assault on democratic institutions — then doubling that timeline at the same rate, let alone an accelerating one, is not survivable. “Not only because what we’ve seen over the last 16, if you keep adding on to it at the same rate, is terrible and dangerous,” Conway continued. “I mean, he’s done enormous damage to the country, enormous damage to its economy, enormous damage to its standing in the world. But he’s going to accelerate in his bizarre delusion.”
The endpoint Conway is arguing toward is impeachment and removal — not as a fantasy or a talking point, but as a practical political necessity. “And it’s going to get much worse, which is why I’m talking about impeachment and removal. We can’t survive, and he’s going to get worse.” He’s betting, or at least arguing, that Republican members of Congress will eventually face a reckoning: “And even the Republicans are going to have no choice but to face up to the fact that for the sake of the country — if not for their own sake, depending on how many of them are left after November, if there’s a free and fair election — they have to join with us to get rid of him too.”
None of this is surprising coming from Conway. This is the man who spent years as one of Trump’s most relentless public critics, who helped E. Jean Carroll sue Trump, who got heckled at a Federalist Society event just for mentioning Trump is a convicted felon and did not appear rattled in the slightest, and who bought a “Vote For Joe Not The Psycho” billboard and placed it as close to Mar-a-Lago as geographically possible. The Downfall comparison and the impeachment talk are not a departure from his brand. They are his brand.
What’s interesting is how cleanly this maps onto his campaign argument. Conway’s pitch to NY-12 voters — and it is an unusual one for a district that typically wants a more conventional progressive — is that this is not a normal political moment and therefore does not call for a normal political candidate. And he’s doing the work by comparing the sitting president to Hitler’s last days in the bunker, calling for his impeachment and removal, and predicting the situation is going to get materially worse.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Bluesky @Kathryn1
The post George Conway’s Campaign Platform, In Full: Trump Is Hitler In The Bunker And Must Be Impeached Before He Destroys The Country appeared first on Above the Law.
If you’ve been following George Conway’s long-shot congressional campaign in New York’s 12th district, you know that the former Wachtell litigator and Lincoln Project co-founder has exactly zero fucks to give about whether his rhetoric is considered too much. As we noted, Conway’s campaign pitch is essentially: I have nothing to lose, no political future to protect, and I will be an absolute nightmare for this administration every single day. His appearance on Molly Jong-Fast’s Fast Politics podcast this week was a sampling of what that nightmare looks like.
Conway’s framework for the current moment draws on Downfall, the 2004 German film about the last days of Hitler’s bunker that became one of the most memed movies in internet history — and which, in its original, un-subtitled form, depicts a narcissistic leader becoming increasingly unhinged as the walls close in. Conway’s application of that framework to the current moment was not subtle.
“This is what happens when a narcissistic sociopath is cornered,” Conway said of Trump. “They become more desperate, more delusional, and more dangerous.”
He didn’t stop there. “He’s only going to get worse, not better. And the most important thing to remember for our current circumstance is that we cannot survive 32 months more of what we’ve seen over the last 16.”
The math he’s doing is straightforward: if the last 16 months have produced what they’ve produced — the economic damage, the erosion of America’s global standing, the assault on democratic institutions — then doubling that timeline at the same rate, let alone an accelerating one, is not survivable. “Not only because what we’ve seen over the last 16, if you keep adding on to it at the same rate, is terrible and dangerous,” Conway continued. “I mean, he’s done enormous damage to the country, enormous damage to its economy, enormous damage to its standing in the world. But he’s going to accelerate in his bizarre delusion.”
The endpoint Conway is arguing toward is impeachment and removal — not as a fantasy or a talking point, but as a practical political necessity. “And it’s going to get much worse, which is why I’m talking about impeachment and removal. We can’t survive, and he’s going to get worse.” He’s betting, or at least arguing, that Republican members of Congress will eventually face a reckoning: “And even the Republicans are going to have no choice but to face up to the fact that for the sake of the country — if not for their own sake, depending on how many of them are left after November, if there’s a free and fair election — they have to join with us to get rid of him too.”
None of this is surprising coming from Conway. This is the man who spent years as one of Trump’s most relentless public critics, who helped E. Jean Carroll sue Trump, who got heckled at a Federalist Society event just for mentioning Trump is a convicted felon and did not appear rattled in the slightest, and who bought a “Vote For Joe Not The Psycho” billboard and placed it as close to Mar-a-Lago as geographically possible. The Downfall comparison and the impeachment talk are not a departure from his brand. They are his brand.
What’s interesting is how cleanly this maps onto his campaign argument. Conway’s pitch to NY-12 voters — and it is an unusual one for a district that typically wants a more conventional progressive — is that this is not a normal political moment and therefore does not call for a normal political candidate. And he’s doing the work by comparing the sitting president to Hitler’s last days in the bunker, calling for his impeachment and removal, and predicting the situation is going to get materially worse.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Bluesky @Kathryn1
The post George Conway’s Campaign Platform, In Full: Trump Is Hitler In The Bunker And Must Be Impeached Before He Destroys The Country appeared first on Above the Law.
