There have been several stories lately about how disgusted Congressional Republicans have become over Trump. The latest is a CNN report this morning on Charlie Dent, former R-PA: Ex-GOP House Member Reveals What Republican Lawmakers Say About Donald Trump In Private
Ex-Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) acknowledged in an interview on “CNN Newsroom” that Republicans are in public “standing with the president for the moment,” despite the impeachment inquiry prompted by the Ukraine scandal. . . .
“But there’s no question, having spoken to many of them privately, they’re absolutely disgusted and exhausted by the president’s behavior,” said Dent, who stepped down from Congress in 2018. “They resent being put in this position all the time.”
(The same story was reported by The Hill: Ex GOP Rep: Republicans Disgusted With Trump but Won’t Bolt Yet, and by the Washington Examiner: Ex-GOP lawmaker: Republicans 'wrestling' with whether to turn on Trump.)
This is nothing new. Here’s a story from WaPo that ran less than 10 days after Trump was sworn in: How Trump’s disgusting behavior will make Republican disunity more likely. Obviously, the writer didn’t count on Trump’s ability to make everyone get down into the mud with him.
And just after the 2018 midterms, Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), who is still in the House, announced he was disgusted with Trump: GOP lawmaker 'disgusted' by Trump for mocking House reps. And two months ago, Kinzinger called Trump’s threat of a civil war if he is removed “beyond repugnant.” Nonetheless, Kinzinger has no intention of supporting Trump’s impeachment.
Two weeks ago Cindy McCain said her late husband would be “disgusted” by Trump. And last month the New York Times ran an article saying Mormons are largely disgusted with Trump.
All this while Trump’s latest misuse of the military is still a new story. The military themselves are clearly furious — Trump and the Military — A Significant Problem — and that picture of Trump in Afghanistan with some apparently unhappy soldiers forced to pose behind him suggests the rank-and-file are also pissed off. But we’ll have to see whether the traditionally conservative military starts to abandon Trump and the GOP over it.
How likely is even that possibility to move the GOP to dump Trump? Not much:
Republican lawmakers aren’t yet feeling pressure to turn against Trump because “the base has not yet bolted from the president,” former Rep. Charlie Dent told CNN.
If there’s one thing Trump is good at, it’s bamboozling his base.
Besides that base, the other block on removing Trump is Moscow Mitch — but only so long as he calculates Trump is not enough of a liability to threaten his position. I’m not sanguine about getting either block to move, but it seems that if we are to get Trump out before he does even more damage, those are the factors that have to be moved.