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US-POLITICS-RUSSIA-TRUMP-REPUBLICANS
Summit disaster or no, most Republicans dare not trash Trump
WASHINGTON, July 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Some Republicans spoke out
forcefully against President Donald Trump’s handling of this week’s summit
with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. But most GOP lawmakers held their
tongue on account of one person: Trump himself.
Privately, Republican lawmakers say they tend to agree with the widely held
assessment that the US leader blew it in Helsinki, where critics say he
betrayed his intelligence chiefs and took a submissive posture before
Russia’s KGB-agent-turned-president.
But many of those same Republicans, particularly those facing re-election
fights in November’s mid-terms, fear that speaking out forcefully against
Trump now would amount to political suicide, according to strategists and
experts who engage with them.
Even as bipartisan backlash forced Trump and the White House into a series
of embarrassing reversals and clarifications, the majority in the party that
controls Congress appeared unwilling to deviate publicly from their leader.
Such is Trump’s stranglehold on the Republican Party, and his loyal
grassroots base, that many members find themselves in a political
straightjacket — bound by support for a populist president regardless of his
displays of weakness or foreign policy naivete.
“They just don’t want to be in his sights and at the end of his wrath,”
Rick Tyler, a Republican strategist firmly in the “never Trump” camp, told
AFP.
“They all understand who Trump is and they don’t like it, they wish it were
different. But they’re winning on certain policy issues like tax cuts,” he
said.
Trump’s propensity to tweet rage against lawmakers who defy him can swiftly
end political careers, including Republican ones, as it did last month with
South Carolina congressman and Trump critic Mark Sanford.
Staying in the president’s good graces can ensure the campaign money spigot
keeps flowing. Ganging up on Trump would drag Republican lawmakers down
across the board.
Meanwhile, no antidote to Trump’s insult politics has emerged.
“Nobody knows how to counteract this reality show act,” Tyler went on.
Trump “drags you down into the mud, and that’s not a place that many
politicians are used to going.”
– Outrage over Trump? –
Republicans not seeking re-election — including senators John McCain, Bob
Corker and Jeff Flake, and congressmen Ryan Costello — felt liberated enough
to offer stinging criticism of Trump this week.
But most others held their brickbats.
“I think the president clarified his statement and confirmed” that Russia
meddled in the US election, number two Senate Republican John Cornyn said
when asked if Republicans were speaking out enough about Trump’s performance.
Were Republicans refusing to defy Trump because they feared losing seats in
November? “No, we’re not,” Cornyn insisted.
Mike Allen, a co-founder of Axios, offered a clear rationale for
Republicans eagerly embracing Trump’s multiple reversals in the wake of
Helsinki.
“They need a fig leaf so they can justify quickly returning to support
their president, who is vastly more popular with Republican voters than any
of them are,” Allen wrote.
Indeed, recent polls show Trump’s disastrous week made no dent in his
popularity among Republicans.
While just one third of Americans — and eight percent of Democrats —
approve of Trump’s handling of the Putin summit, 68 percent of Republicans
approve, according to a CBS News poll released Thursday.
Another survey showed even stronger Republican support — 79 percent — for
how Trump handled his joint press conference with Putin.
“I’ve never seen this before,” admitted Robert Shapiro, a professor of
political science at Columbia University.
Shapiro, who has long studied trends in American politics and public
opinion, said it was notable that it was not just Republicans facing tough
re-election fights this year who were sticking with Trump.
“Those who are not up for re-election just don’t want to upset the apple
cart in terms of keeping power in the House and Senate,” Shapiro said.
Non-presidential elections routinely feature low turnout, and what matters
will be whether Trump can get his engaged grassroots base to the polls in
significant numbers.
BSS/AFP/MRI/0833 hrs