Donald Trump begs key House Republican to save him from ouster
Donald Trump spent the entire second half of Friday without tweeting anything, even as his whistleblower scandal expanded to include Russia, and everything kept finding new ways to get even worse for him. Then around midnight he finally woke up and decided to try to find a way to save himself.
Trump started by taking a hilariously clueless stab at weighing in on the new revelations that he told the Russians in early 2017 that he didn’t mind their interference in U.S. elections. Then Trump moved on to the business of addressing the fact that two House Republicans have now broken ranks and come out in support of the House impeachment inquiry. Trump didn’t bother to attack them for it. Instead he tried to make a thinly veiled plea to a key House Republican who is still on his side for the moment.
Republican Congressman Doug Collins has a crucial role in Trump’s impeachment because he’s the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee. Thus far Collins has been publicly standing by Trump – not by defending him, but by posting weird tweets about how this is a “fake impeachment” and that Pelosi isn’t even really doing anything.
Just now, Donald Trump quoted a tweet in which Doug Collins pushed one of his own initiatives, and added “Go for it Doug!” It’s not difficult to parse what Trump is doing here. He (or whatever handlers might be tweeting for him this late at night) can see that he’s starting to lose the House Republicans, who are afraid of standing too close to him when he implodes, and they’re afraid it might cost them their own reelection chances. Trump is publicly begging Collins to stick with him and save him from ouster. Good luck with that.
