A New York Times and Siena College poll in April found that nearly half of American voters agreed with the statement: “People angry with Donald Trump are taking his words too seriously.”

So when he promised to use the Justice Department to prosecute the “enemy within” and targeted several prominent Democrats, many people didn’t care.

“The normal rules don’t apply to Donald Trump, and you’ve seen that over and over again,” Republican pollster Neil Newhouse told the Times. “People think he says things and makes a fuss for effect because that’s part of what he does, his bullshit. “They don’t believe it will actually happen.”

Maybe this past week changed some minds.

With the nomination of Matt Gaetz, a morally corrupt performance artist, as attorney general, Trump has found a man ready to prosecute these phantom enemies. With the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard, a Vladimir Putin defender with zero experience in intelligence work, as director of national intelligence, he showed that he was serious when he said he believed Putin’s word on election interference over the CIA and FBI.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who as secretary of Health and Human Services ordered to “go crazy” on health care. What can we say about it? This shows that Trump is as reckless and crazy as he says he is at his rallies.

The line of defense against all this is the Senate, and the question is whether a handful of Republicans will jump ship and help Democrats block these nominations.

“These nominations will be the biggest moral test for the U.S. Senate since Joe McCarthy was impeached in 1954,” says Ross Baker, a professor emeritus at Rutgers who has written several books about the Senate and lived with its members for several years in Washington. .

This is Republican Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin, populist crusade against communism He seemed to find an American collaborator under every bed. He used his seat as chairman of an investigative subcommittee to falsely accuse hundreds of people of being Soviet spies and spies in the State Department, the U.S. Army, universities, and the film industry. People lost their jobs and were pressured to testify against their friends.

Eventually his excesses brought him down, and in December 1954 the Senate voted 67-22 to censure him, and his public support collapsed.

“The most important votes came from Republicans who condemned him,” Baker says. “This was a bipartisan vote.”

Do today’s Republicans have the courage to do this? In 1954, Eisenhower had no objection to the condemnation of McCarthy, whom he considered a drifter. But today, at least a handful of Republicans will need to challenge Trump to block those nominations, or at least the worst ones, starting with Gaetz. Will they?

“It’s a coin toss,” Baker says.

To me, this seems more like a long shot thanks to the cult influence. Many Republicans, after opposing Trump, capitulated to him. Senator Lindsey Graham described him as a “race-hater, xenophobe, religious bigot” before he became a blind fan and golf buddy. Nikki Haley called him “unstable and unstable” before supporting him. Sen. Mitch McConnell called him “a disgrace” and blamed him for the Jan. 6 riots before falling in line.

Will Gaetz’s candidacy break this spell? Let’s face it, Gaetz is so far out of bounds that it’s possible.

Gaetz is a conspiracy theorist who blames Antifa for the January 6 riots. He resigned two days before the Ethics Committee released a damning report into accusations that he had sex with an underage girl, used drugs and accepted inappropriate gifts. (On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said the report would be suppressed.)

Last year, GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma described the depraved fraternity behavior that made Gaetz the most criticized character on Capitol Hill. “We’ve all seen the videos he showed on the House floor of the girls he was sleeping with, where we all walked away,” Mullin told CNN. “He would brag about how he would crush the meds (erectile dysfunction) and chase it with an energy drink so Keep it up all night.”

Can you talk about the cult influence? Mullin contradicted Gaetz, saying, “I have complete confidence in President Trump’s decision-making on this matter.”

There’s one thing all parties agree on: Gaetz will do exactly what Trump wants. If that means turning the Justice Department into a partisan weapon, so be it. This time, I agree with Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, who called this “the worst cabinet nomination in American history.”

The fate of Gaetz’s candidacy likely depends on: a handful of moderate Republicans In the Senate, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska both expressed skepticism this week. “I don’t think it’s a serious candidacy.” Here’s what Murkowski said:

But even if they stand up, Trump has options. He could make a “recess appointment” while the Senate is out of session, and the new GOP leader, South Dakota Sen. John Thune, said this week he could support the move. This means no senator will have to leave their fingerprints at the scene of a crime. I guess this is how it will go.

One thing we know for sure: These nominations confirm Trump’s disrespect for the administration and his reckless judgment. He didn’t hide it during the campaign. It’s sad that so many voters ignore this.

More: Tom Moran columns

Tom Moran can be reached at: [email protected] or (973) 986-6951. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. To find NJ.com Idea on Facebook.

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