Republican lawmakers have been weighing in on the outcome of Trump's bizarre "summit" with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. So far the reactions have been, ahem, somewhat subdued. Sen. Mitch McConnell, who has been Trump's most reliable Senate toady and protector, was quick to heap praise on Trump for his "major step" that, had the last president done it, Mitch would have needed twelve separate fainting couches to recover from. But Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst was considerably more skeptical, especially of Trump's unilateral decision to suspend joint military exercises with South Korea in exchange for zero concessions from the North Korean dictatorship.
“I don’t think that’s wise because we have done these exercises for years,” Ernst said Tuesday. “I would just ask the president, ‘Why do we need to suspend them? They are legal.’”
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime hawk who has advocated military action in nearly every major world hotspot, was nonplussed, noting that North Korea has given up "nothing yet" in exchange for these new overtures from Trump, while still carefully bending to Trump's spin that it is a "historic opportunity" nonetheless.
Sen. John Cornyn, as could be expected, is all over the map. He noted the North Korean regime's many atrocities on Twitter, but when questioned directly tried to downplay Trump's public statements and promises, saying "I wouldn't give it too much significance."
“The president is negotiating in the press,” he said of Trump’s offer to suspend joint exercises. “My interpretation is he saw that as a demonstration of good faith but certainly this is just the beginning and not the end."
And Sen. Marco Rubio? Oh, Marco Rubio. He tries so hard to show a spine.
If you're a Marco Rubio fan you're going to want to cherish that momentary show of pique against a dictator, because by next week he'll be drafting new Senate resolutions heralding Kim Jong Un as a great leader. There may be no man in Washington more consistent in his ability to proclaim outrage about things he will never, ever follow up on.