Conservative radio host Erick Erickson has finally ended his two-year flirtation with the pro-Trump movement, declaring in a blog post on his website Monday that he will support the President’s reelection bid.
“In 2020, we’ll be asked to choose between a set of sinners and must decide which direction we want to go as a nation,” Erickson wrote, adding later: “I will vote for Donald Trump and Mike Pence. And, to be clear, it will not be just because of what the other side offers, but also because of what the Trump-Pence team has done. They’ve earned my vote.”
The shift toward Trump didn’t happen overnight. For months, Erickson has signaled, essentially, that the response on the left and in the media to the Trump administration was forcing his hand.
“I’m having an internal conversation with myself if I’m going to wind up voting for the President in 2020—given everything that’s happening,” Erickson told the Daily Beast in September as sexual assault allegations roiled then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation process. “And I don’t like the guy… but the left seems very intent in pushing me into his corner.”
Days after the 2016 election, Erickson ate crow about his prediction that Trump would lose.
“If I was wrong about the election, I am willing to admit I can be wrong about Donald Trump,” Erickson wrote in The New York Times, though he added in a warning: “Justifying sin in the acquisition of power is the very thing the Old Testament shows will lead to the downfall of faith communities.”
On Monday, while he twice acknowledged Trump’s “character issue,” Erickson largely brushed aside concerns about Trump’s actions as President.
“At this point I can head into 2020 knowing several things,” he wrote. “First, the behaviors this President routinely engages in are not going to change.” And second, Democrats “think children can be killed at birth, Christians should be removed from policy making positions, and the economy should be bankrupted to implement environmental policies that will not actually mitigate climate change.”
Much of the blog post — after a paragraph praising Trump’s contrasts with former President Barack Obama — focused on Democrats and the media, and included more than a few untruths.
Democrats, Erickson said, are “deeply, deeply hostile to large families, small businesses, strong work ethics, gun ownership, and traditional values.” And the media, he falsely said, unfairly criticized Trump for “continuing … the Obama policy of separating children from adults.” (In reality, Trump’s systematic separation of families via his “no tolerance” policy was unprecedented.)
“I am not looking for a messiah in politics and don’t have some religious sentiment tied to my vote,” Erickson wrote. “While I understand and accept the sincere conviction of some of my friends who have decided they will just sit out the process, I have decided otherwise.”
