Aghast at Republican responses to an ‘out of control’ president, the ethics specialist is mounting a quixotic Minnesota bid. Is he tilting at windmills?

A feature of the Donald Trump era is a punditocracy that seems reassuringly above the fray. Richard Painter, for example, a now familiar voice of wisdom to cable news junkies, is a former chief ethics lawyer in George W Bush’s White House who does not hesitate to skewer the current Republican president.

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So many were surprised this week when Painter threw off his cloak of neutrality and announced a quixotic campaign for the Senate – as a Democrat. The 56-year-old law professor plans to challenge Tina Smith, appointed to Al Franken’s seat in Minnesota after the former comedian’s controversial resignation, in a Democratic primary in August.

“I think it actually enhances my bipartisan reputation,” Painter, who has never run for office before, told the Guardian. “I do not focus on party labels. I have certain views on issues and cleaning up the government is the number one priority.

“I do believe strongly that we need to get money out of politics in the United States and we need to stand up to President Trump. He’s way out of control and the Republican party will not stand up to him. They will not do anything about corruption in this administration. I think I need to jump in there and point this out and go to the Senate and do everything I can to clean it up.”

John Kasich, the governor of Ohio, remarked last week that he did not leave the Republican party, but rather the Republican party left him. The same might be said of Painter – a party member for three decades – and a host of other moderates. The party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan now appears to be firmly the party of Trump.

We need to stand up to President Trump. He’s way out of control and the Republican party will not stand up to him Richard Painter

Despite a host of misleading statements by the president, a new NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll found that three in four Republicans think Trump is truthful most of the time. Even among the 22% of Republicans who believe Trump often does not tell the truth, more than half approve of the job he is doing.

And Republican candidates for this November’s midterm elections appear to be falling over themselves to swear allegiance to the president. Painter, an unflagging critic of his kleptocratic tendencies, was never going to do that.

“They made it very clear that I was not welcome in the Republican party to run for national office if I would not support President Trump,” he said. “Two sitting United States senators have been pushed out of the Republican party because they would not support President Trump.

“I think this is the end of the Republican party within the democratic system. I mean it’s going to be a Trump front organisation but I don’t think it’s going to last so we may have a split into two parties. I don’t know what will happen but it’s not going to happen this year. So I think anybody running for Senate who wants to do anything about President Trump is going to have to run as an independent or as a Democrat. I don’t think parties matter at this point. I think what matters is preserving our democracy.”

The special election for Minnesota’s Senate seat was set in motion in January when Franken was forced to resign, more than a month after several women came forward with accusations of sexual misconduct. There was a subsequent backlash among supporters of Franken who claimed that his colleagues, led by New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand, jumped the gun in demanding that he step down.

Painter shares the misgivings. “They should have had an investigation to find out the facts,” he said. “Al Franken had never had any problems ever in his workplace at Saturday Night Live or in the United States Senate or with campaign workers. So I don’t get it. I don’t know what happened. I can’t judge the facts.

“I don’t like the fact that Roger Stone, who’s a friend of Trump and was a Nixon operative, knew about [allegations against Franken] before everybody else. I don’t like it and I think it should have been investigated by the Senate. They should have gotten the facts before they pressured him to resign.”

This is just one reason why Painter can expect a lukewarm reception from the Democratic establishment. He says he parts company with Smith over her support for tariffs, which he claims will start a trade war, and proposed copper-nickel mining projects in north-eastern Minnesota, which he warns will have serious environmental consequences.

Another divisive issue is whether to push for Trump’s impeachment. Painter, who is vice-chair of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, stops short of saying it should happen but has called for a convening of the House and Senate judiciary committee hearings on abuse of power and obstruction of justice.

I don’t think parties matter at this point. I think what matters is preserving our democracy Richard Painter

“That is exactly what was done in 1973 with the Nixon scandal and we are now well past the point we were in 1973 where there is the evidence of abuse of power, obstruction of justice by the president, and Congress will do nothing.”

Potential offences, he said, include alleged collusion with Russia, receipts of foreign government money, profits and benefits in violation of the constitution and attacks on the freedom of the press. “When he tweets about the lying press, we’ve never seen anything like that the United States. The constant public berating of the free press makes it very clear that he wishes he could crack down on the free press.

“We’ve seen attacks on specific media outlets – CNN, the New York Times - over and over again. We have not seen rhetoric like that in any presidential election or by any president and the only time I have any record of seeing that kind of rhetoric was the 1932 election in Germany. You don’t talk about the press that way in the United States.”

Minnesota elected a former comedian. But despite his celebrity status for addicts of CNN, MSNBC and other cable TV networks, Painter, who will not accept donations from any political action committee, stands little chance in the primary against Smith. State senator Karin Housley is running unopposed for Republicans.

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Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: “Mr Painter is an admirable person who’s been speaking up in a bold way about the lack of ethics in the Trump White House and that was courageous because he worked in the Bush White House.”

But, Jacobs added, he will be “a man without an army”. He warned: “Simply being against Donald Trump is not enough for the Democrats. I think he’s got practically no shot at winning the nomination.”

And Painter will never be able to regain the veneer of impartiality, according to Jacobs. “He’s given up his credibility as an independent voice. Any time the media goes to him now commentary on Trump, they’re going to have to diminish his standing by acknowledging he is now a political animal. So I think he’s sacrificed the credibility he had.”