{"id":2381524,"date":"2024-12-18T15:20:02","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T20:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bret-stephens-is-ready-to-leave-never-trump-its-too-late\/"},"modified":"2024-12-18T15:22:33","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T20:22:33","slug":"bret-stephens-is-ready-to-leave-never-trump-its-too-late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bret-stephens-is-ready-to-leave-never-trump-its-too-late\/","title":{"rendered":"Bret Stephens Is Ready To Leave &#8216;Never Trump.&#8217; It&#8217;s Too Late."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbret-stephens-is-ready-to-leave-never-trump-its-too-late%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2381524&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-soars-up-billionaire-wealth-list-to-his-highest-ranking-ever-incredibly-honored\/\" title=\"Trump achieves his highest ranking ever on the billionaire wealth list: feels incredibly honored\">excerpt discusses<\/a> the phenomenon of media figures publicly shifting their \u2064political stance after an election, emphasizing the\u2063 apparent opportunism in their newfound perspectives.It\u2062 highlights MSNBC&#8217;s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, who, despite their previous strong anti-Trump \u200csentiments, attempted \u2062to engage with Trump by\u200d visiting Mar-A-Lago, claiming it was &#8220;time to do somthing different.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Stephen A. \u200dSmith from ESPN is also mentioned, \u200dnotably focusing on his reaction to a Department of Justice report concerning the January 6 protests, \u2064where it was revealed\u2062 that there were several FBI informants present. Smith expressed frustration over what he \u2062perceives as lies from Democrats \u200dregarding the events of\u200d that day. However, the article criticizes \u2063the timing of his comments,\u2062 suggesting that he should have been \u200baware of these issues\u200c earlier had he been genuinely interested.<\/p>\n<p>The piece argues that Smith\u200b is recalibrating his political viewpoint \u2063to stay relevant\u200d in a <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">shifting media landscape<\/a>, despite previous\u200d alliances with \u200bDemocratic \u200bfigures such as Kamala Harris. It reflects on the broader trend \u200cof <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-house-cocaine-story-wont-go-away-despite-best-efforts\/\" title=\"White House struggles to shake off persistent cocaine story.\">media \u200cpersonalities<\/a> trying\u2063 to adapt\u2062 their narratives considering political developments, especially when \u2062elections are over and the stakes seemingly lower.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In hopes of remaining relevant to the political discourse, some big-name people in the media are professing a change of heart or newfound enlightenment that, coincidentally, only arrived after the election, when it no longer matters.<\/p>\n<p>The prime example of media members attempting to keep their prominent status was MSNBC&rsquo;s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, rabid Trump haters, <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/11\/19\/msnbcs-morning-joe-hosts-keep-up-media-charade-of-faking-accountability\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">crawling to Mar-A-Lago<\/a> because, they said, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s time to do something different.&rdquo; In recent days there were a couple more cases, one less severe than the other.<\/p>\n<p>ESPN&rsquo;s Stephen A. Smith got loud on his podcast on Sunday after reading the Department of Justice inspector general <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/12\/12\/fbi-had-26-confidential-human-sources-at-jan-6-events-in-washington-d-c\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a> reconfirming what was already known (if not to such an extent) &mdash;&nbsp;that there were numerous FBI informants trolling through the Jan. 6 protest crowds (though supposedly only three of them were formally tasked with attending the event). &ldquo;My big issue,&rdquo; Smith said, &ldquo;is that I&rsquo;m really, really sick and tired of, every time I turn around, finding something else that the Democrats have lied about or downplayed or misrepresented along the way.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p><span><\/p>\n<blockquote data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<div lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<p>Stephen A. Smith on the news that the FBI had 26 informants on the ground on J6:<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Here we are yet again finding even more evidence to Donald Trump&#8217;s claims&hellip;I&#8217;m really, really sick and tired of&hellip;finding something else that the Democrats have lied about&rdquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ipPNLdgT4U\">pic.twitter.com\/ipPNLdgT4U<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&mdash; johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_johnnymaga\/status\/1868361785956512167?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 15, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/span> <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>It&rsquo;s welcome news that the deafening sports talker is &ldquo;really, really sick and tired&rdquo; of being lied to by Democrats, but the timing isn&rsquo;t so hot. He would have known about this months ago if he had listened to what anyone truly curious about Jan. 6 was saying &mdash; that something was off, that there was clear evidence of a setup (if even only by negligence), and that people in charge were <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/06\/13\/the-biggest-revisionist-history-about-jan-6-2021-comes-from-democrats-like-nancy-pelosi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lying about what actually took place that day<\/a>. That DOJ report filled in some blank spaces but otherwise only lent greater authority to what had already been demonstrated many times.<\/p>\n<p>What Smith is doing is recalibrating his political position so as to maintain the favor he has among some right-wing commentators, despite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/sports\/2024\/10\/25\/stephen-a-smith-leaves-sean-hannity-stunned-after-hinting-he-will-vote-kamala-harris-despite-admitting-she-has-lied\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">insisting<\/a> prior to the election that he wouldn&rsquo;t vote for Donald Trump. He committed his support to Kamala Harris, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment-arts\/business\/story\/2024-09-06\/is-espns-stephen-a-smith-headed-for-a-career-as-a-political-commentator\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according to<\/a> the Los Angeles Times, and <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/politics\/stephen-a-smith-kamala-harris-beat-donald-trump.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said in September<\/a>, &ldquo;The way the streets of America was when [Trump] departed from office in 2020, I don&rsquo;t think a lot of people are going to want to relive that. They&rsquo;re going to remember that, and by that virtue, it&rsquo;s going to compel her to the presidency.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Things didn&rsquo;t quite work out that way. Trump was elected to a non-consecutive term in an Electoral College landslide, shifting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2024\/11\/06\/us\/politics\/presidential-election-2024-red-shift.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">90 percent<\/a> of counties across the nation to the right and securing a majority of the so-called &ldquo;popular vote.&rdquo; Such a victory is nearly unheard of.<\/p>\n<p>Now Smith wants to act like this little report is what&rsquo;s making him rethink some things. I can promise you if the election had gone the opposite way there would have been no epiphany, even with the same report. Instead, Smith would have said he was right, that voters like himself would have been comfortable voting for any Republican but Trump and that Kamala was simply a more appealing candidate who earned the trust of independents to govern as a centrist.<\/p>\n<p>But whatever. Smith is mostly in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-joe-rogan-lia-thomas-an-assault-on-womens-sports\/\" title=\"WATCH: Joe Rogan: Lia Thomas an &#039;Assault on Women\u2019s Sports&#039;\">sports realm<\/a>, so his political insight is often entertaining but, as we just saw, not really much else.<\/p>\n<p>Of greater interest is someone like New York Times columnist Bret Stephens, the self-identified conservative who has rooted against Republicans in virtually every nationwide election <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/11\/21\/losing-is-not-winning-no-matter-what-the-medias-favorite-conservatives-keep-saying\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">since at least 2012<\/a>. Stephens <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/17\/opinion\/never-trump-republicans.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a> on Tuesday as a once proud <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sltrib.com\/opinion\/commentary\/2020\/08\/18\/bret-stephens-being-biden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&ldquo;Biden conservative&rdquo;<\/a> that it&rsquo;s &ldquo;time to drop the heavy moralizing and incessant doomsaying that typified so much of the Never Trump movement.&rdquo; He wrote of a newfound understanding that Trump&rsquo;s voters are largely animated by resentment for a &ldquo;self-satisfied elite that thinks it knows better but often doesn&rsquo;t, whether the subject is Covid restrictions, immigration policy or how to get our allies to pay more for their defense.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Stephens concluded by pledging to &ldquo;enter the new year by wishing the new administration well, by giving some of Trump&rsquo;s cabinet picks the benefit of the doubt, by dropping the lurid historical comparisons to past dictators, by not sounding paranoid about the ever-looming end of democracy, by hoping for the best and knowing that we need to fight the wrongs that are real and not merely what we fear, that whatever happens, this too shall pass.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>That&rsquo;s a pleasant sentiment, but it also comes just a few days too late. Which is to say, weeks after a decisive election. Before that election would have been the opportune time for adopting a more charitable view of your fellow citizens who are concerned less with Jan. 6 and more with their dwindling savings and a southern border overrun by destitute foreigners requiring care courtesy of the rundown American taxpayer.<\/p>\n<p>Stephens, Smith, Scarborough, Brzezinski, and all the rest &mdash;&nbsp;they lost. Despite their best efforts &mdash;&nbsp;and boy did they put their backs into it &mdash;&nbsp;they were defeated. They don&rsquo;t get to merrily bounce back into the conversation and expect to be taken seriously by suggesting they&rsquo;ve learned something meaningful, as if learning and understanding calls for new kinds of courage or intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>If they want to keep professionally talking about politics, they&rsquo;re out of options. They have to pivot. But that doesn&rsquo;t earn them credit. They deserve no grace now that the stakes are no longer in play.<\/p>\n<p>Their status is diminished. That&rsquo;s the price they have to pay. Their audiences should ensure they pay it for a long time to come.<\/p>\n<hr><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some media figures are claiming new insights post-election to stay relevant<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":493,"featured_media":2381525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Bret-Stephens.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[47062,47063,33457,35853,32171],"class_list":["post-2381524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bret-stephens","tag-conservative-views","tag-media-analysis","tag-never-trump","tag-political-commentary"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Bret-Stephens.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/493"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2381524"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2381532,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381524\/revisions\/2381532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2381525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2381524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2381524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2381524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}