GOP senator: Trump paid off a porn star because he 'loves his family'

Yes, he actually said this.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said Trump paid hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels because he “loves his family” and wanted to protect them.

“I honestly think this president loves his family,” Rounds told CNN’s John Berman Wednesday morning. “I think it has as much to do with trying not to have public discussions about something that is, for him, a private matter that he didn’t want to have discussed with his family. I think that’s a lot of it.”

Rounds added, “I think he really does care about his family. I think he loves his family and I don’t think he wanted his family to go through this.”

Let’s back up for a second here.

Trump cheated on Melania Trump shortly after she gave birth to the couple’s son, Barron, with a porn actress. That doesn’t sound like someone who loves or respects their family.

Then, when it became clear that the porn actress, Stormy Daniels, might go public with the story and damage his presidential ambitions, he secretly paid Daniels $130,000 in an illegal scheme to keep her quiet. That sounds way more like self-preservation than love for one’s family.

And on top of all that, a U.S. senator tried to play off an extramarital affair and illegal hush-money scheme by trying to build sympathy for the man who had the affair and engaged in illegal acts?

This is just the latest ridiculous example of Republican senators trying to avoid criticizing Trump.

On Tuesday, two Republican senators claimed to not know about the Daniels hush-money scheme at all, despite the fact that it’s been in the news for more than a year and that Trump’s longtime lawyer Michael Cohen testified about it extensively just last week.

Their playing dumb allowed the senators to avoid criticizing Trump’s actions, or saying they warranted a congressional investigation. Of course, there really is no sound defense for Trump’s actions.

But Republicans seem hell-bent on coming up with bad excuses anyway. Because for them, fear of Trump’s wrath trumps sticking to your own morals and values every time.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.