The Bulwark

Mark Robinson is barely even trying to beat the allegations. He thinks his voters won’t notice.

But the political fallout is only one part of the story. The other part is the autopsy that this entire episode will provide us about the state of the Republican electorate. In pledging to plow through, in suggesting it may all be AI, in choosing to run in the first place—knowing this stuff was all out there—Robinson has offered a nasty appraisal of the voters whose support he is seeking. He thinks he can fashion his history of disturbing, angry behavior into a story in which he is the victim—and that the voters will buy it. He sees those voters as morally malleable dupes, who will cross any serious ethical line in the service of politics.
Andrew Egger

Of course no one should be distracted from the threat posed by a second term of Trump himself as president. But Trumpism more broadly is also a threat. As are the Trumpists whom Trump has brought to prominence in the Republican party he so thoroughly dominates.
William Kristol