The week Donald Trump's presidency crashed and burned -- and Republicans have noticed

What Digby said ........



The week Donald Trump's presidency crashed and burned — and Republicans have noticed

We've said this before: But this disastrous week drove some Republicans away from Trump. Beginning of the end?


https://www.salon.com/2019/10/18/the-week-donald-trumps-presidency-crashed-and-burned-and-republicans-have-noticed/


It feels as though every week during the Trump administration is a year and every year a decade. Every day there is a crisis or an outrage or a revelation that takes your breath away. But the underlying dynamics always seem to be the same no matter what. The press reports the story, the Democrats get outraged, the pundits analyze it, the president rages and then Fox and the Republicans all line up like a bunch of robots and salute smartly and we reset until the next crisis, outrage or revelation. It's an exhausting cycle that never seems to get anywhere and it's bred a fatalistic response in many of us: "nothing matters."

But this past week is the first time I've thought that we might have seen something truly fundamental shift. A cascade of recent and current National Security Counsel and State Department officials have now defied White House orders and given sworn testimony to congressional investigators which charge that Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani were running a shadow foreign policy that was at odds with the stated administration policy and US interests and aimed solely at securing personal political benefit for Trump. The whistleblower was right.

On Thursday, Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney held a rare press briefing in the White House and admitted that the president had, in fact, demanded a quid pro quo for military aid to Ukraine, astonishing everyone including the White House which quickly had him run out and declare that he didn't actually say what he said. (Hey, it's worked for Trump so far.)

-snip-

Meanwhile, even congressional Republicans have been agitated by the president's seemingly abrupt decision to greenlight a Turkish invasion of northern Syria last Friday night, paving the way for ethnic cleansing of US allies and creating an opportunity for ISIS to regenerate. The normally enthusiastic Trump bootlicker Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC, was beside himself as the week wore on even claiming that Trump would have blood on his hands and proclaiming it the worst decision of his presidency. Mitt Romney, R-Ut, spoke out as well as did Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Others tip-toed around the issue by tepidly voicing some concern rather than their usual full-throated endorsement of Donald Trump's genius, obviously waiting to see which way the wind was blowing. Nonetheless, the Senate prepared to pass a sanctions bill against Turkey on a bipartisan basis and the House passed a resolution condemning the abrupt withdrawal of US troops, 354 to 60, with the full support of Democrats and 129 Republicans. That's right, two-thirds of House Republicans joined that vote.

Much more on the link--

https://www.salon.com/2019/10/18/the-week-donald-trumps-presidency-crashed-and-burned-and-republicans-have-noticed/


.