They are beginning to look at their abd their parties long term political well being…..
Trump leads the field in Senate GOP endorsements, with 10 officially on board and potentially more on the way. But some Republican senators are quietly making moves: Four have endorsed non-Trump candidates, a couple more say they want a different nominee, several others grimace when asked about his electoral prospects and even some staunch defenders are staying formally neutral so far.
That includes Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), a longtime Trump ally who — as of now — will only say that “I’ve endorsed his policies.”
“An official endorsement, I have not. I’ve been pretty clear I’d like to see someone articulate for the Republican Party what we’re going to do policy-wise,” added Braun, who’s running for governor of his bright-red state. He said he wouldn’t endorse one of Trump’s rivals and is waiting for the former president’s approach to “crystallize.”
In total, the number of senators who say they want someone other than Trump or who voted to bar him from office is equal to the number endorsing him. And while the primary won’t be won in the Senate GOP, Trump’s critics there represent a considerable swath of the party base, including donors, that want a different standard-bearer to take on President Joe Biden….
…
And the two North Dakota senators, Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven, are supporting Gov. Doug Burgum (R-N.D.). Hoeven didn’t explicitly connect that to worries about Trump’s electability, saying instead that Burgum is “a success at everything he does.”
“Our conference consists of smart people who realize that any nominee other than Trump is likely to win. And Trump is at best a 50/50 shot and most likely, less than 50/50. So, in their heart of hearts, they would love to see someone besides Trump be our nominee,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), the only GOP senator who voted to convict Trump in both impeachment trials….
…
Yet no Republican senator who voted to convict Trump at his impeachment trials is offering an endorsement yet either, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Romney said that at some point he “may endorse someone, but at this stage it would be the kiss of death.”
Describing his ideal candidate, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said simply: “One who can beat Biden.” And Trump, he added, cannot.
“He loses in four of the five swing states. His endorsed candidates all lost, and plausibly they lose because of his endorsement,” Cassidy said. “I’ve been trained as a physician to see things as they are, not as I wish them to be. And that seems to be as they are….
…
Senate Republicans are worried former President Trump’s legal troubles will create a major headwind for GOP candidates in 2024.
They say the battle between the Justice Department and Trump, who pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he violated the Espionage Act and obstructed justice with his handling of classified documents, will become a primary litmus test — just as his unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen became a prominent point of debate in last year’s GOP primaries.
They also worry Trump’s dominance of the media spotlight will turn off swing voters — especially suburban women — and hurt their chances of taking back the Senate or protecting their small House majority.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who has endorsed Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) for president, told reporters on Tuesday there’s “no question” the “serious” allegations against Trump will hurt the GOP if he is the nominee.
Rounds said voters will ultimately decide whether the charges disqualify Trump from holding office, but he predicted they will create a headwind.
“Voters are going to make that determination, but most certainly for a lot of us as you look at that, it’s not going to help,” he said. “This is not good for our party, clearly not good for our party.”
Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) also warned Republicans will pay the price if Trump and his various legal battles dominate the political debate next year.
“I think if you look at the record, in ’18, ’20, and ’22, when he’s the issue, we lose,” Thune said, referring to Republicans’ loss of the House in the 2018 midterm election, their loss of the White House and Senate in the 2020 election and Senate Republicans’ failure to take back the upper chamber in 2022….
More of the Same
The Wall Street Journal offered a warning to Republicans:
“GOP primary voters can benefit from reading the latest Trump indictment and asking what it means for a second Trump term. The facts alleged show that Mr. Trump has again played into the hands of his enemies. His actions were reckless, arrogant and remarkably self-destructive. This is the same Donald Trump they will get if they nominate him for a third time.”
Meanwhile Trumps lead has increased among “Republican primary voters.“
We’ve heard this line before.This is it.Republicans are going to desert Trump.Hes toast,blah ,blah,blah.
Straw poll i knew u’d mention…..
Sure he jumps up in GOPer poll’s
Those people can’t read
Certainly NOT the word’s of the charges
Again?
Lots of stupid people
Smart GOPer stories i have posted
They ARE THERE.,,,
Yeah that’s right!
Polls that you like are good .Polls you don’t? Why they are no good!
So damn dumb.
As I’ve said before,you are the proverbial monkey banging away at the keyboard.And you’ve been wrong,wrong,wrong for seven years now.
Please.for those of us who are SERIOUS?Predict Trump will win ok?Since you are always Wrong?
He is guaranteed to lose!
Just love defending these Republicans who have been enabling Trump for the past seven Years eh?
Unsurprising of course.
Your obsession with “ proving “ Republicans “Really ” don’t want Trump Is well known.
Who gives a damn about these Republican Cowards?
You of course.
Such a tool you are.
‘The Emperor Has No Clothes’
Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) said of former President Donald Trump’s indictment that “the emperor has no clothes” and that Republicans should say so, The Hill reports.
Said Bacon: “We need to have Republicans stand up and say that because, come around after the primary, I guarantee you the other party is going to be saying this.”
Political Wire….
Bacon is an anomaly. He was barely reelected in 2022 and will certainly be a top target for Democrats to flip in 2024.
The vast majority of elected Republicans in safe seats are clinging tighter to Trump to avoid a primary challenge.
That’s if of course he survives a challenge in his primary. If he keeps talking he won’t.
Trump’s strength in Congress is in the House GOP Wingnuts…..and safe Red districts
Senate Republicans and moderate Republicans ARE voting against Trump directives EVERY TIME…..
How big was the Trump crowd’s in NYC and Miami?
As i HAVE pointed out here and U guys do NOT want to acknowledge
Trump is NOT able to beat Biden
This is repeated time and again
I hope U guys ARE RIGHT and the 50% or so of GOPer’s nominate a convicted felon to get his ass ran over in next November’s Presidential election….
This is turning into a Kool Aid cult thing….
I have seen no significant, reliable evidence that
“Trump’s strength in Congress is in the House GOP Wingnuts…..and safe Red districts
Senate Republicans and moderate Republicans ARE voting against Trump directives EVERY TIME…..”
And you won’t because of course there isn’t any.
James just makes these things up in his head(see his absurd declaration that Trump was “toning it down”) ,repeats them over and over, and then they become real ,at least to him.
He is a perfect example of the old adage about politicians…”A good politician is one who can tell a Lie over and over until he finally believes it himself.”
If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride.
Oh Wait????
Trump said do NOT vote FOR the Debt!Budget deal?
Rhe wingnuts did NOT
But WTF DID?
REPUBLICANS IN THE HOUSE AND SENATE…..
I love this But Jack ?
You REALLY have Ur mind set in one way…..
Thr Republican are NOT. On monolithic party that Trump ‘owns’ THAT simply is a media image that Trump peddles and that helps the companies stock prices….
Again?
The guy shit’s like everyone else
He said he didn’t want to be indicted
He HAS BEEN ARRESTED twice….
Will be 2 or 3 times MORE!
Few Rich or even poor 77 year old ex-presidents have managed to do this….
Again?
The smart GOPer’s KNOW Trump IS going in the toilet….
They have and will keep quiet or point out the indictments are serious…..
I look forward to ur continued efforts to convince me that Donald Trump IS the ‘second coming’ and will somehow get slammed danced and come out clean…..
I’m NOT buying it….
Not even for the party u think he ‘owns’
Wingnuts were UNABLE to derail the deal McCarthy made fir the Debt/Budget so far…….
As shown here?
Republicans in the Senate are not happy with House wingnuts antics
Schiff NOT censured…..
MOST House members pissed at being held up by a tiny group
But U haven’t seen any of this?
Yup DSD……
It ain’t……..
For the members pf Congress?
Some may entertain Trump and his minions
But they vote mostly to keep things working
Trump doesn’t give a Damn……
Never Did…..
Again
Over a thousand idiots listened to him for January 6
AGAIN?
THAT shit is NOT happening again
The system Trump wants to fuck over is taking pieces of his ass and will take MORE…..
He ain’t a happy camper
He’s crying
Smith looked him dead in the eye i hear in the Miami court room whike he signed the arrest papers…..
‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’
WASHINGTON (AP) — Moments after Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he hoarded classified documents and then conspired to obstruct an investigation about it, the Republicans in Congress had his back.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy dashed off a fundraising email decrying the “witch hunt” against the former president and urging donors to sign up and “stand with Trump.”
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell steered clear of criticizing the former president, refusing to engage in questions about the unprecedented indictment.
And at a public meeting in the Capitol basement, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene compared the case against Trump to the federal prosecution of people at the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, suggesting in both instances it was the Justice Department, not the defendants, under scrutiny.
The mounting legal jeopardy Trump finds himself in has quickly become a political rallying cry for the Republicans, many of whom acknowledged they had not fully read the 49-page federal indictment but stood by the indicted former president, adopting his grievances against the federal justice system as their own.
It’s an unparalleled example of how Trump has transformed the Republican Party that once embraced “law and order” but is now defending, justifying and explaining away the grave charges he faces with multiple counts of violating the Espionage Act by hoarding classified documents containing some of the country’s most sensitive national security secrets.
At the same time, Trump is rewriting the job description of what it means to lead a major American political party. Making another run for the White House, Trump is attacking the U.S. justice system that is foundational to democracy and emboldening Republican lawmakers to follow along.
“Stand with Trump,” tweeted Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the fourth-ranking House GOP leader.
“I will be standing right next to President Trump tonight in total support,” tweeted Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama before he dashed to join the former president at his private Bedminster golf club for a campaign event after the federal court hearing.
“I stand by him right now,” said Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., outside the Capitol. “Ten toes down.”
Despite two impeachment trials, New York state charges of hush money payments to porn star, a pair of probes into Trump’s efforts to undo the 2020 election and now the federal case over his classified documents, Trump has shown an ability to not just withstand legal scrutiny but to thrive off it.
As Trump’s defenders in Congress see it, he will rise politically, precisely because of all the investigations against him. Republicans in Congress are reframing the historic indictment of a former president as an unfair political persecution.
“I’ve been pretty clear on this all the way through: I think the country is very frustrated, when you don’t feel like there’s equal justice.” McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol.
“This president hasn’t even been out of office for four years, but you’re holding him to a standard you’ve never held anybody else to.”
Republican Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida said the case smacks of a “two-tier” justice system, adding that constituents tell her they “never in a million years would have voted for Trump, but this is insane.”
“A bogus investigation,” said Donalds.
“Political hit job,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri, who said he did read the whole indictment.
Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio said Trump is merely the “latest victim” of the Justice Department. He announced he would be blocking all DOJ nominees unless the attorney general changes course.
“If Merrick Garland wants to use these officials to harass Joe Biden’s political opponents, we will grind his department to a halt,” Vance said in a statement.
Republicans also see the federal case against Trump as a winning political strategy to motivate aggrieved voters to the polls in 2024 elections, when the House and one-third of the Senate will be up for another term alongside the presidential nominees.
House Republicans are fundraising off the indictment, and the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Rep. Richard Hudson, joined Trump on the plane from a campaign rally in Georgia to one in North Carolina where the congressman introduced the former president on stage….
LISA MASCARO
Thu, June 15, 2023 at 12:03 AM EDT
And the Republican base agrees fervently with accused felon DJT. No wonder that few Republican leaders, officials or officeholders want to speak too explicitly against him.
From Wednesday’s PBS NewHour. [Sara Longwell, the roundtable’s convenot is associated with The Bulwark, a right-wing conservative Republican organ that is clearly anti-Trump.]
Amna Nawaz:
The news of former President Trump’s federal indictment comes as the Republican primary field is very much still taking shape, and its potential impact on the 2024 race and Republican voters remains unclear.
Judy Woodruff was in Des Moines, Iowa, yesterday for her America at a Crossroads reporting project to listen in on a couple of voter discussions led by conservative pollster Sarah Longwell. Since it was the day of the Trump arraignment, she made that the focus of the first of two reports on what Iowa Republicans are thinking.
This was produced with our friends at Iowa PBS.
Sarah Longwell, Longwell Partners:
How many of that Donald Trump was indicted last week? Raise your hand.
How many of you have heard that Donald Trump was indicted for a second time recently? Everybody knows. OK
Judy Woodruff:
From the 16 Republican voters we gathered yesterday evening, there were strong reactions to the second indictment of former President Donald Trump.
Ramona Fiscus, Republican Voter:
I think he’s being set up.
Woman:
Oh, yes. Yes.
Sarah Longwell:
Tell me why.
Ramona Fiscus:
Well, it’s just too arranged. Everything is just too arranged.
And when the FBI went in and raided his property at Mar-a-Lago, how do we know what they did and what they didn’t do?
Judy Woodruff:
We had asked pollster Sarah Longwell, who also publishes the center-right Web site The Bulwark, to assemble two panels of GOP voters in the studio of Iowa PBS.
I observed from the control room as she asked how they’re thinking about politics, policy, and current events at this moment, when candidates are already descending upon their state ahead of next year’s caucuses, and as the news of the second Trump indictment had been breaking.
Sophia Detlefsen, Republican Voter:
It’s baloney.
(LAUGHTER)
Sophia Detlefsen:
I think, I mean, just why isn’t Biden indicted? Just because he gave them back at an appropriate time? I mean, really? He did exactly the same thing.
Matt Thompson, Republican Voter:
You have a current president who is siccing all of the DOJ on a potential candidate, that’s never happened.
Sarah Longwell:
They really feel like the country is going in the wrong direction.
Judy Woodruff:
Afterwards, Longwell, who has conducted hundreds of hours of sessions like these across the country, helped guide me through the discussion.
What most struck you in these two conversations with Iowa voters who have supported Donald Trump for the last two presidential elections?
Sarah Longwell:
I was actually struck mainly by how much they sound like every other focus group I do with two-time Trump voters. They were very clear that the indictments actually made them want to support Trump more, which is really consistent.
I mean, we have been asking people for several months, how are you — how does it make you feel when you hear that Trump’s indicted? Does it make you want to support him more, support him less? Out of the 58 people that we have asked, 26 of them said it makes them want to support Donald Trump more. Only two said less.
They’re a little bit mixed on whether Trump is exactly the right person to be the person who comes back, but, still, after January 6, after the indictments, after everything, still a lot of support for Donald Trump.
How many of you distrust the FBI?
Matt Thompson:
The three-letter agencies, the DOJ, the CIA, the FBI, I think when the country was formulated, the best of intent was to put some of these organizations or governing bodies in place. But how they’re being manipulated now and they’re being weaponized is the bigger concern.
Keven Arrowsmith, Republican Voter:
I’m kind of frustrated by it, because, on one side, it seems like were all going all out on President Trump. And, on the other side, the wheels of justice are going very slow, doesn’t seem to be like equal amount of resources being devoted to looking into Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Peter Crabbs, Republican Voter:
And what about Hillary Clinton?
(CROSSTALK)
Peter Crabbs:
I mean, Hillary Clinton had all this stuff, and she was never indicted.
Brent Bean, Republican Voter:
You have got the DOJ, you have got the FBI reporting up to Biden. Ultimately, this goes up to Biden.
So why wouldn’t you want to take out your toughest political opponent? And this is election interference like we have never seen before, and its disguised as, Trump’s a bad guy….
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-iowa-republicans-are-thinking-after-trumps-federal-indictment