Gerth: Donald Trump's name oddly goes unspoken at Kentucky's Fancy Farm political picnic

The notable thing about Saturday’s Fancy Farm Picnic wasn’t who was there. It’s who wasn’t.

Donald Trump was nowhere to be found.

Now, I know, the defendant-in-chief was never going to be in West Kentucky for Fancy Farm – he didn’t have a court appearance there.

But I expected someone – of all the ho-hum speakers who took the stage – would have mentioned old what's his name.

Either a Democrat who didn’t understand exactly how popular the thrice-indicted, insurrectionist ex-president is in that part of the state, or Attorney General Daniel Cameron who spent the entire Republican primary bragging about the fact that Trump endorsed him.

But nope.

On Saturday, he became like Lord Voldemort, of "Harry Potter" fame: He who must not be named.

The closest anyone came to mentioning Trump was former U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman, the Republican candidate for attorney general, who at one point in his speech said, “I have been the chief federal prosecutor appointed by the president of the United States.”

Thing is, Coleman didn’t mention who that president was.

I don’t blame him.

As a former federal prosecutor, you’d hope the indictments would make Coleman uncomfortable with the former president. Coleman is no dummy and can surely see, based on the detailed federal indictments and scads of Republican witnesses set to testify against Trump, there was plenty of reason for Special Counsel Jack Smith to charge Trump.

Somewhere along the way you would hope Cameron would figure that out too – but for too long, that didn’t seem like it was in the offing from the state’s top prosecutor.

It’s not a secret that Cameron doesn’t take his role as a prosecutor seriously. He refused to allow the Jefferson County grand jury investigating the death of Breonna Taylor to consider charges against police officers who obtained the search warrant of her apartment and then lied and then blamed it on the grand jurors.

So, it shouldn’t come as any surprise Cameron continued to name drop Trump despite the ex-president's first and second indictments. Was the third one too much?

Perhaps.

Cameron steered clear of Trump on Saturday.

It is heartening to think that Republican office holders and those seeking the top offices in the state may have seen enough.

Last year Cameron mentioned Trump when he spoke at Fancy Farm and joked that to get the endorsement, all he needed to do was promise Trump that his wife, Makenze Cameron, was not Mitch McConnell’s granddaughter.

Four years ago, six of the Republican speakers at Fancy Farm mentioned Trump at least 11 times – with Sen. Mitch McConnell name-dropping him three times and Cameron noting Trump had endorsed him for attorney general. U.S. Rep. Jamie Comer called him “great.”

That was before Jan. 6, 2021, and Trump’s encouragement of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol and tried to violently overthrow the incoming, duly-elected president.

And it was before the three indictments of the insurrectionist ex-president.

Trump still enjoys almost cultish support from a huge swath of the Republican rank and file. With any luck, the fact that no one mentioned his name at Fancy Farm on Saturday means we’re seeing an end to some of the slavish devotion to Trump, who so casually lied about election fraud and schemed to steal the office of president.

More: Takeaways from Fancy Farm: Beshear and Cameron face off and more transgender attacks

Joseph Gerth can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courierjournal.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Donald Trump's name unspoken at Kentucky's annual political picnic