Wait, what?

They actually have the gall to say they stood behind Obama?

Obama's presidency was the exact point at which toxicity and hate became the overt centerpieces of Republican identity - when they stopped even pretending to be motivated by "fiscal conservatism" and instead gave themselves up entirely to just sowing division and spewing hatred.

Hell - virtually the first thing they did was co-opt the formerly libertarian Tea Party movement, which started out, under Bush, as a series of protests against the Wall Street bailouts - and converted it into a traveling right- wing carnival of hate. That became the entire point of it - after the Republicans took it over, the bailouts were never even mentioned again - all it was was an opportunity for right-wingers to congratulate themselves on how much they hated the left, and especially how much they hated Obama.

It's not too much of a stretch to say that everything MAGA has become - all of the division and all of the hatred and all of the lies - traces back specifically to how the hateful bigots among the Republicans reacted to Obama's presidency and the influence they came to hold over the rest of the party.