Republicans in Congress are being forced to articulate their own defence of the president’s actions
CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS are practiced apologists for President Donald Trump’s norm-breaking behaviour. They generally refuse to condemn or otherwise comment on it, leaving the president and his acolytes to say what they will. But the revelations that Mr Trump tried to enlist a foreign leader to undermine a political rival, with hundreds of millions in military aid to his country as a possible inducement, are harder to ignore. Faced with an impeachment inquiry, launched by the Democrats, .
Currently, that looks extremely unlikely, although it is early days. During the Watergate scandal, when Democrats controlled the Senate, congressional Republicans who had once defended Richard Nixon equally staunchly turned against him. He resigned when it became clear that members of his own party would vote against him in a Senate trial. But the current depths of partisanship are unprecedented in recent times. That is reflected in wider political polarisation among voters.
Two senators—Susan Collins in Maine and Cory Gardner in Colorado—are up for re-election in states that were won by Hillary Clinton in 2016. A handful of other Senate seats are up for grabs in states Mr Trump won narrowly. Even if he is not impeached the silence of senators in these states could help the Democrats flip the Senate, where they need to win back three or four seats.
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