Senate Republicans go into hiding as Donald Trump melts down

| 3:08 am EDT August 30, 2017
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With Donald Trump’s popularity sinking to new all time lows this week and his Russia scandal exploding in all directions, even as he botches his response to Hurricane Harvey and the nation is once again reminded that climate change is very real, Senate Republicans have embarked on a new strategy: hide!

The Senate is in recess this week, although it’s technically not in recess because the Democrats and Republicans agreed on the need to prevent giving Trump the opportunity to fire and appoint people while they’re out of town, which tells you something in and of itself. But nonetheless the Senators are all back home right now, and they’re supposed to be holding town halls and speaking with constituents. Anyone care to guess how many of the Republican Senators are actually holding those town halls? Turns out there’s only one.

It was Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of all people who, wittingly or unwittingly, outed his fellow GOP Senators when he announced on his Instagram page that “I’m the only senate republican holding town mtgs this wk” (link). The other fifty-one Republican Senators are apparently hiding in a cave, or perhaps hiding under assumed identities in the witness protection program. And the reason couldn’t be more obvious.

The Republicans in the Senate have reached the point where they’re scared to death of having to answer questions about Donald Trump, because they have no answers. So instead they’re just hiding. That is, of course, except for Chuck Grassley. Now in his eighties and almost certainly serving in his last term, Grassley no longer seems to care about such things. He used a town hall this week to announce that he’ll let his committee vote on whether to release the transcripts of the testimony from the guy behind the Trump-Russia dossier. If you find Palmer Report valuable, make a donation.