GOP Senators hit the panic button over impeachment “disaster”
On Thursday we saw Republican Senator Mitt Romney take a swing at Donald Trump, prompting Trump to curse at Romney, and incoherently call for Romney’s impeachment. This morning we saw Republican Senator Ron Johnson set himself on fire in the name of trying to protect Trump. Even as a handful of GOP Senators are publicly taking sides in Trump’s downfall, behind the scenes it’s pandemonium.
Donald Trump’s whistleblower scandal, his impeachment, and his maniacal response to his impeachment are all a “disaster” for Republican Senators, according to someone close to several of them who spoke to the Washington Post. Some of them would like to publicly call Trump out, but they fear Trump’s inevitable retaliation, and backlash from Trump’s base. As afraid as they may be of attacking Trump, they’re even more afraid of defending Trump.
The Republicans know Donald Trump’s scandal is likely to get worse, and they fear that he’s not being honest with them about just how ugly it is, so they’re afraid to stick their necks out and defend him on any level. That’s left Trump relying on the Republicans who are dumb enough to publicly stand by him, and that hasn’t gone well. It turns out it wasn’t just us laughing at Kevin McCarthy’s disastrous 60 Minutes performance – the WaPo says that people within the GOP House are rolling their eyes at McCarthy as well.
The bottom line is that except for Romney, who is probably untouchable in Utah, no one in the Republican Senate wants to be the first to stick their neck out by publicly attacking Donald Trump. But the WaPo article points to Republican insiders who envision a group of GOP Senators coming out against Trump in tandem, making it harder for Trump to single any one of them out for punishment.
The bottom line here is that this WaPo article helps confirm what we already knew: this Donald Trump scandal, and his impeachment, are a bad thing for House and Senate Republicans. They’re not sure what to do. They have no secret master plan. Mitch McConnell isn’t sitting on a magic wand. The GOP is facing a no-win situation that’ll only get worse if pro-impeachment poll numbers keep rising.
