Congressional Republicans are “floored” and “alarmed” by Donald Trump and Stephen Miller’s purge of the top ranks of the Department of Homeland Security, Politico reports. In their usual way, though, Republicans are all talk and no action when it comes to being alarmed by Trump, and even their talk is mostly focused on absolving now-resigned Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen of responsibility rather than being directly critical of Trump.
This sentence will stand as a classic of description of Republican efforts to express discomfort without directly challenging Trump: “Republicans note that the president has the right to fire whoever he wants, but few offered an explicit defense of his decisions to oust DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, pull the top Immigration and Customs Enforcement pick, remove the Secret Service director and threaten more terminations.” That’s where we are: The failure to offer an explicit defense of a growing purge is seen as significant … and maybe it is, in this cowardly new world. But if it’s significant, it’s significant only in that it shows the Republican internal struggle over going along with Trump, because in their actions and every other way that counts, they’re going to stick with him and reliably do the wrong thing.
“Strikes me as just a frustration of not being able to solve a problem,” said Sen. John Cornyn. “Honestly, it wasn’t Secretary Nielsen’s fault. It wasn’t for lack of effort on her part. I don’t know if there’s anybody who’s going to be able to do more.” Sen. Joni Ernst sounded a similar note, saying, “I thought that Nielsen was doing a fantastic job,” but only going so far as to gently hint that Trump shouldn’t veer off in a wildly different direction—because “I would love to see some continuity. I think that’s important.”
So, you know, Republicans are floored and alarmed. But not enough to directly criticize Donald Trump. A Homeland Security purge is just business as usual, in other words.