Really? This is the best a Republican Congressman can do in rebuking Donald Trump’s Russian treason?

| 5:19 pm EDT July 11, 2017
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I’ve long said that no matter what evidence might surface against Donald Trump in his Russia scandal, the Republican Congress won’t move against him unless his approval rating drops below thirty percent, at which point the ones in the more moderate districts will hit the panic button. The treason of Donald Trump Jr. has caused one moderate Republican to put out feelers today, but it’s weak sauce all around.

Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin‏ comes from New York’s 1st District, which is moderate enough that it voted slightly in President Obama’s favor in both 2008 and 2012, before voting slightly in Donald Trump’s favor in 2016. So it’s not a shock to see that Zeldin was among the first to speak up against Trump’s Russia treason scandal toady. But this is the best that he could come up with:

“I voted for @POTUS last Nov. & want him & USA to succeed, but that meeting, given that email chain just released, is a big no-no.” (link). So felony treason in the name of rigging a presidential election is just a “no-no”? What is this, kindergarten? Note that Zeldin‏ used this empty phrase so he could avoid having to frame the scandal as being any specific type of crime. But it matters, greatly, that he spoke up at all – no matter how tepidly.

This sort of thing is a gauge for measuring how Republicans in moderate districts are testing the waters for what they now expect will be the eventual public stand they’ll have to take against Donald Trump. They’re the ones who will end up leading the charge and pressuring the Republican Party leadership to throw Trump overboard before the midterms. It’s still going to come down to Trump’s approval rating, and there are no numbers yet that factor in Junior’s treason confession. But the Republicans in Congress will be nervously watching those numbers drop this week, knowing what’s inevitable. If you’re a regular reader, feel free to support Palmer Report