Republicans see Trump as the only one who can save them ALL from the Russian investigation.
The Republican crazy dialed up to eleven when the mid-January story on Russia money being funneled to the National Rifle Association broke. This ties Russia to a prominent GOP organization that benefits many Republican members of Congress, and puts the Russia problem in their court.
There has been a river of money from Russia that has flowed through the extended Republican coffers of PACS and think tanks under the Putin regime. Citizens United, as Obama pointed out in his State of the Union address, made it easier to do. Most Republican Congress members have benefited in some way from this largess. Some more than others. Some with more knowledge of the connection than others.
When you look at Mueller’s team chock full of experts on criminal conspiracies, financial fraud, money laundering, counterterrorism and the like, you are looking at people who don’t really care much for what Hope Hicks knew about Don Jr.’s emails. These people are casting nets elsewhere. Why else indict Manafort-the international money-laundering political consultant who drafted a plan for Putin in 2005 to influence America?
The only way for a large swath of the Republicans in Congress to avoid netting is to help Trump tear apart the credibility of the FBI and anyone associated with any investigation. Trump did the impossible and got elected. He’s the counter-puncher. He’s the man who could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and keep voters. He’s the only one who can save us, the Republicans hope.
Trump’s willingness to disregard law and tradition in a savage attempt to derail the investigation against him they hope may save them all. The Republican willingness to go against their party’s century of hard law and order to support Trump and attack the FBI is done to save their own collective hides, not his.