Straight Up Complicit: Every Republican in Congress

Exactly three months ago I wrote a post with the title “Republicans, You Now Own the Cover-Up.” I just re-read it, and it could have been written today. Amazingly, the accumulation of revelations and stunning events like Sally Yates’ testimony, the Comey firing, and now Trump’s casually chummy disclosure of classified information obtained from a US ally to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in an Oval Office meeting where Russian reporters were present but US journalists were not [deep breath!], none of that has changed congressional Republicans’ determination to look the other way.

When it comes to Trump, they see no evil and hear no evil. A few may mumble a little evil into their sleeves, but not one of them has had the cojones to say flat out that what Trump is doing is dangerous and wrong, much less call for the appointment of a special prosecutor.

The odious Mitch McConnell has already declared that there will be no special prosecutor. When asked about the latest scandal, he said that McMaster had refuted all of that, and added “I think we could do with a little less drama from the White House on a lot of things so we could focus on our agenda, which is deregulations, tax reform, repealing and replacing Obamacare.”

Never mind that Trump’s own tweets had left McMaster looking like a total fool and toady by completely undercutting the message that the National Security Adviser had been sent out to deliver. And all that business about giving codeword intelligence to the Russians? Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that, sugar! We’ve got more important things to be concerned about, like how can we give more tax breaks to the rich–if only that rambunctious kid in the White House could settle down a little.

There you have it in a nutshell. Republicans absolutely don’t give a shit about national security if it gets in the way of their agenda, which McConnell set out quite neatly. As for the “heroic” John McCain–well, even heroes get comfortable and complacent. He found the “reports” about Trump’s actions “troubling” and “disturbing”, but neither he nor any other of his Republican colleagues is yet ready to call for actual consequences.

This leaves one wondering what it would take. Maybe they’re waiting to see if Trump makes good on his claim that he could shoot someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue and no one would care. From what we’ve seen, Republicans really wouldn’t.