One of Donald Trump’s House GOP allies just loudly jumped off the Trump train
Most House Republicans have either been defending Donald Trump in his Ukraine scandal or remaining quiet about it, displaying no courage or patriotism whatsoever in the process. Now that Trump is sending America’s Kurdish allies to their deaths for inexplicable and deranged reasons, it’s changing the playing field – slightly – in what could end up being an important trend.
Republican Congressman John Shimkus went on his local radio station and said “take my name off the I support Donald Trump list” while going on to condemn Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds as being “terrible and despicable.”
What’s notable here is that Shimkus is one of several Republican members of Congress who have announced over the past month that they’re not running for reelection in 2020. Palmer Report has pointed out that because House Republicans are all going to have to end up voting on articles of impeachment, they’re either going to screw themselves with mainstream voters by trying to save Trump, or they’re going to screw themselves with Trump’s base by voting to impeach Trump. They’re quitting because they know they can’t win either way.
Because John Shimkus is quitting, he’s now free to take whatever position on Donald Trump he wants. While Shimkus isn’t yet going so far as to support the impeachment inquiry (which is currently focused on the Ukraine whistleblower scandal), the door is now open for him to eventually support the inevitable article of impeachment over the Kurds. We expect more of the retiring House Republicans to come out against Trump as this gets even uglier for him.
