Republicans reach tipping point
BY TINA NGUYEN
AUGUST 7, 2017 5:37 PM
Donald Trump .. is as unpopular as ever, even among his own supporters. After 200 days in office, the president has little to boast about, and a major F.B.I. investigation hanging over his head. And Republican lawmakers, back in their home districts for the August recess, are facing tough questions about why, with complete control of Congress, they have mostly failed to pass any meaningful legislation ...
...for the White House, the honeymoon is .. over. Senate Republicans — many .. not up for reelection until 2020, or even 2022 — are growing more defiant .. every .. week, with at least a half-dozen lawmakers actively thwarting his agenda. Last month, Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski both defied the administration’s numerous attempts to pass a health-care bill through Congress ... "I didn’t come here to represent the Republican Party. I am representing my constituents and the state of Alaska," Murkowski reportedly said to Trump’s face. In the final minutes of Mitch McConnell’s dramatic, last-ditch attempt to pass a “skinny” repeal bill, Senator John McCain joined them ...
... ebraska’s Ben Sasse, a longtime Trump critic since before the election, frequently denounces Trump’s Twitter habits and once, when asked to describe Trump in a word, could only manage “current president.” Jeff Flake has gone further, publishing a book calling Trump’s platform “free of significant thought” and condemning his politics as xenophobic. Much of the grandstanding can be chalked up to early 2020 jockeying ...
enator Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has already signaled his growing impatience with the Trump White House’s frequent delays in handing over pertinent information. (Special counsel Robert Mueller’s own investigation, which is running parallel to Burr’s, recently impaneled a grand jury.) And then there is Senator Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a three-decade veteran of Congress, who surprised his colleagues by ramping up his own committee’s efforts to investigate and subpoena the Trumpworld denizens involved in the Russia investigation, as well as the firing of former F.B.I. director James Comey. Grassley has already gone after high-profile members of Trump’s inner circle, promising to summon Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort to probe their connections to Russian agents ...
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/08/senate-republicans-vs-donald-trump
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