GOP Senators cut and run as Donald Trump circles the drain
It might seem like Trump’s greedy cabinet is falling apart at the seams, with Sarah Huckabee Sanders finally announcing her departure and the likelihood that Kellyanne Conway could end up losing her job for her repeated violations of the Hatch Act. It’s hardly any wonder then that Senate Republicans are trying to distance themselves from Donald Trump by voting on 22 resolutions of disapproval, blocking Trump’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
It’s not just a handful of rogue Senators opposing the arms sales either – joining Mike Lee of Utah, Todd Young of Indiana, and Rand Paul of Kentucky is Lindsey Graham – giving all 47 Senate Democrats the simple majority they need to pass the resolutions.
There is every likelihood that Donald Trump will veto the resolutions after they pass in the House, and potentially there won’t be enough votes in the Senate to override his veto, but the point is he can’t rely on Senate Republicans to rubber stamp his blatant corruption anymore – a fact that will likely irritate him further as the senators up for re-election quickly move to protect their own careers.
What’s also interesting is that unlike Graham, who’s up for re-election next year, both Lee and Young aren’t up for re-election until 2022 – strongly suggesting that however things go in 2020, they don’t want this administration’s shadow over their careers, and are likely to vote against Trump again in the near future. There is the likelihood that Trump may be too toxic a year from now to be seen onstage with fellow Republicans on the campaign trail.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making