Donald Trump’s former rivals in the GOP are now firmly on his side because “the trappings of power are very attractive,” The View co-host Ana Navarro says.
Navarro, appearing on The Daily Beast Podcast, detailed the transformation of Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, and, in particular, Marco Rubio.
All three had challenged Trump during the 2016 Republican primary. Cruz called him a “coward” and a “rat,” while Rubio said he was a “con artist” and that people who supported him were falling into a “trap.” Graham called Trump “a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” on national television.
Rubio, 54, and Graham, 70, are among those Navarro knows who have since done “180s,” she said.
“I have seen person after person who I personally knew and admired and thought were different, do complete 180s,” the former Jeb Bush adviser told co-host Joanna Coles. “I have known Marco Rubio since he was very young. We’re the same age. We grew up in Republican politics in South Florida. I’ve known Pam Bondi for decades, since she was attorney general of the state of Florida.”
Navarro said she knew Graham “when he was John McCain’s wingman, not Donald Trump’s.” She added, “He’s a completely different person than he was.”
The reason, she said, was simple: power.
“So many people in Congress, so many people that are serving in this administration, so many people that I see on TV [are] defending the indefensible and the unjustifiable because it means they have access to power,” she said.
“Let’s be clear, the trappings of power are very attractive,” Navarro, 54, continued. “It’s great to be invited to the White House. It’s great to be able to go to the Christmas parties. It’s great to be able to ride on Air Force One and be able to call up the White House and talk to whomever you want. All of those things are heady things. I know; I’ve done them.”
In Rubio’s case, Navarro said the fact that the secretary of state grew up “a poor kid from West Miami” has meant that having his own plane, attending state dinners, and being generally “in the center of things” is especially appealing.
“But the question is: are you willing to compromise every principle you supposedly stood for, every conviction you supposedly had, every belief you supposedly held in order to stay in that circle of power?” Navarro asked.
Rubio, she said, has to convince himself that by essentially “selling his soul” to Trump, he has been able to do good things.
“I think he believes getting rid of [Venezuelan President Nicolas] Maduro is a good thing,” she said. “I think he believes a dead ayatollah is a good thing. I think he believes that the possibility of regime change in Cuba is a good thing.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the State Department, Graham’s office, and Cruz’s office for comment.
A White House spokesperson said in a statement: “Ana Navarro is a dingbat moron whose pea-sized brain has been warped by a debilitating, yet very serious, condition called Trump Derangement Syndrome. Sadly, she has to live out the rest of her days on The View and CNN, away from the public.”
Navarro concluded by saying that the career paths of anti-Trump Republicans like Bush, her former boss, and former Sen. Mitt Romney are increasingly restricted.
“There are two ways to exist in the Republican Party right now,” she said. “Either you are a Trumper and you approve and...defend everything he says and does, and that benefits your political career, or you’re not, and you’re probably going to lose your primary, or you’re going to retire, or or you’re just not going to be part of it.”
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