Briggs: Mike Braun was awful before his interracial marriage comments

Sen. Mike Braun could be enjoying his wealth in retirement. Instead, he’s a national embarrassment.

Braun’s expressed ambivalence toward the legality of interracial marriage is not the first time he has made a fool of himself, although this instance is likely to leave a lasting impression on the public consciousness. Only Braun knows why he is subjecting himself to a political game that is chewing him up, one degrading bite after another, and spitting him out. He’s like a semi-pro race car driver who can’t stop crashing into walls, yet keeps on going because he has the money to feed his hobby.

The question Braun needs to ask is when enough will be enough.

Braun started out Tuesday thinking he had gotten over on his fellow Republican, Eric Holcomb, by criticizing the Indiana governor’s veto of legislation that would ban transgender girls from playing on girls teams in schools. By the end of the day, though, Holcomb was out of the news and Braun’s team suffered through several painstaking hours spent drafting a statement to clarify that the right to interracial marriage is, in fact, guaranteed under the constitution.

It was a simple question

How did we get here? If you accept Braun’s after-the-fact statement, the answer is that Braun “misunderstood a line of questioning that ended up being about interracial marriage.”

But Dan Carden, a reporter for The Times of Northwest Indiana, was extremely clear in his questions that elicited Braun’s witless remarks. Carden asked Braun about the 1967 Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia, which struck down state laws banning interracial marriage, and Carden specified that he was asking about interracial marriage.

After Braun suggested interracial marriage should be left to the states, as he was also arguing with regard to other matters, Carden further simplified the question:

Carden: “So you would be OK with the Supreme Court leaving the issue of interracial marriage to the states?”

Braun: "Yes, I think that that's something that, if you're not wanting the Supreme Court to weigh in on issues like that, you're not going to be able to have your cake and eat it, too. I think that's hypocritical."

And that’s how Braun overshadowed a Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

Giving Braun the benefit of the doubt, sort of

I want to be fair to Braun here. As clear as the questions were, and as strong as the case is for taking his answers at face value, I think it is very unlikely that Braun wants states to have the authority to prevent people of different races from marrying.

To me, this exchange reveals Braun’s lack of substance. His political persona is so untethered from personal principles that the only thing we can be confident in is his sincere desire to hold power. He’s a Republican with a track record of voting as a Democrat; he was a rich guy running for Senate in a blue-collar shirt; he’s a MAGA guy who reportedly feels disdain for Donald Trump; he promoted the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election until he understood the consequences and slinked away; he sought to change qualified immunity until he learned it was bad politics; he says people should get a COVID-19 vaccine, but won’t tell you whether he’s done so; he bought his way to a Senate seat, which, by all accounts, he’s ready to give up in order to run for governor in 2024.

Briggs: Todd Rokita will never be governor (or senator)

Briggs: Unserious Mike Braun has a serious problem

Braun ceased to command the respect due to a senator on Jan. 6, 2021, when he revealed his support of Trump’s election fraud claims had always been pure theater without consideration for potential harm. After the fun and games of humoring Trump turned into to a deadly insurrection, Braun showed a human side that he normally suppresses and took the responsible vote to certify election results.

"I think today changed things drastically," Braun said of Jan. 6 while speaking with NBC White House pool reporter Frank Thorp at the time. "Whatever point you made before, that should suffice ... and get this ugly day behind us."

Unlike Attorney General Todd Rokita, who storms the political stage with unapologetic, amoral abandon, Braun exhibits a conscience just often enough to remind us it's there. It’s hard to say which method is worse.

Braun just blew up 2024 expectations

There is no thread to follow with Braun, no evidence that he is doing any of this for reasons other than that he gets a rush out of being an important person. He does few things that matter and says little of substance, often filling the air with vaguely conservative-sounding chatter, just like he was doing Tuesday.

Braun short-circuited on the interracial marriage questions because he has programmed his brain to process inputs and outputs as a means of performing for his target audience ⁠— “states' rights … ⁠beep … bop … boop …” — and couldn’t adjust to an inquiry that demanded even surface-level consideration.

Is he really going to run for office again after this? That's an open question.

Braun’s gaffe or blunder or whatever you want to call it has sweeping implications for Indiana politics. The generally accepted narrative within the Republican Party has been that Braun is planning to run for governor in 2024 while term-limited Holcomb will slide to the Senate ballot and run for Braun’s seat.

The consensus analysis in recent weeks, which I buy, is that Braun is among three top contenders for the Republican nomination for governor, also including Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and U.S. Rep. Trey Hollingsworth, who opted not to run for re-election in the 9th District.

I was skeptical of Braun’s prospects even before his preposterous answers to interracial marriage questions, for all the reasons I’ve offered up until now. I wouldn't have counted out a U.S. senator who also happens to be very wealthy, but I also was not as bullish on him as some other political observers. Wherever things stood a few days ago, though, it's much harder to guess what happens next. Braun has blown up expectations for 2024.

That’s … that’s ‘Tennessee Trey’s’ music!

Braun could — should, I would argue — consider checking out when his Senate term ends. If, for some reason, Braun still wants to show everyone how bad at politics he is, he could take a safer route and run for re-election to the Senate. What then? Would Holcomb still run for Senate? Would anyone else? Those are some of the questions floating around.

I’ve argued lately that Hollingsworth, another rich guy, is the (very) early front-runner to win the Republican nomination for governor. He has some obvious downsides, such as the nickname “Tennessee Trey,” which comes from having moved to Indiana in 2015 to run for Congress. But you know what he doesn’t have? A track record of picking ill-advised fights with Holcomb and suggesting interracial marriage should be left up to the states.

Hollingsworth has kept his head down, impressed a lot of people and avoided making enemies or committing dumb mistakes. Crouch also would be a formidable candidate. They might soon gain new competitors or see renewed strength from prospective candidates who have already been in the mix.

Braun has tough choices to make. He should have already known that. Braun’s problems didn’t just start this week.

Braun reached the Senate through an irreplaceable combination of financial advantage, good marketing and fortunate timing. He is unmoored in the post-Trump era, meandering in search of an identity. I don’t think Braun is the kind of person who doubts interracial couples have the right to marry. I just can’t tell you what kind of person he actually is.

Contact IndyStar metro columnist James Briggs at 317-444-6307. Follow him on Twitter: @JamesEBriggs.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Mike Braun's interracial marriage comments reveal lack of substance