On Friday’s episode of PBS’s “NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks argued that Republican support for President Donald Trump in the wake of his comments regarding the acceptance of “dirt” from foreign powers and the GOP’s reasoning for the backing was more disturbing than Trump’s remarks.

Brooks argued Republican saw the battle between them and their ideological opposites as a “death match.”

Well, it’s a great moment in moral philosophy when you’re asked if you’re going to cheat, and you say, of course, everyone cheats. I salute him for not pretending to be better than he really is. He’s pretty candid about it. But I do think that’s a bit of his mindset, that the rules — everybody breaks the rules. And maybe he conducted his business life that way, and he certainly wants to do that. It’s just his natural reaction is, of course. Everybody breaks the rules.

What’s disturbing to me is not so much him. We sort of know him already — is how many Republicans are now walking themselves up to the position, well, we’re in a death match, and so we need a leader like that. And I think, in order to justify their support for President Trump, they have talked themselves — or many people have — into the position that this is a life-or-death struggle, the left is out to destroy us, and so breaking the rules is what you got to do. And so that, to me, is almost a scarier prospect than the heart and soul of Donald Trump.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor