There is an ill wind blowing in Washington DC right now, and the staff in the west wing had better make sure that all of the windows are closed, or before too long, His Lowness could end up catching a cold that could be the presidential end of him.
The winds have subtly shifted in Washington in the last couple of weeks, and are now blowing directly into Trump’s face. And no, I am not talking about the impending Democratic takeover of the US House in about 3 weeks. I’m talking about something much more perilous to Trump personally. He may have run out of time.
When you hear reporting on both CNN and MSNBC about congressional reporters starting to hear from actual GOP lawmakers, off the record, about what it could take to turn them against Trump. Up until now, whenever you were fortunate enough to trap a GOP lawmaker up against a fire door at the bottom of a stairwell, their response to the steady drip of information coming out on the investigations has been rather opaque, things like, “Well, we’ll have to see what Mueller’s report shows,” or something like “I don’t want to really comment on anything like that until all of the facts are in.”
But not today, Hill beat reporters have reported that GOP congress critters, without going on record, are saying things like “Well, if the government can show actual corroboration of Trump coordinating or ordering specific crimes, it would be hard to continue to support the President.” At least one other lawmaker told reporters that Trump pardoning Manafort would be a game changer, he or she couldn’t condone a president using his power for a corrupt purpose like that.
This is important. Because, for the first time, regardless of whether or not they currently possess the courage to go on the record, Republican lawmakers are willing to state publicly that there are limits to how far they will go in their support of Trump. Whether they have the cojones to follow through or not is open to debate, but this is yet one more red warning light going off in the Trump cockpit.
And even if it’s all House members, the Senate is showing cracks too. Whether he’s heading out the door or not, Jeff Flake actually stood up to Trump and McConnell and shut down the judicial confirmation process for apparently the rest of the term. And the gutless wonder, Lindsey Graham, is up on his hind legs about the death of Jamal Khashoggi, and the necessity of holding the crown Prince accountable. Add in Ben Sasse making King Kong pounding-on-his-chest noises, and there is trouble brewing for Trump in the Senate as well.
Right or wrong, this tells me something. So far, the smart money was that no GOP incumbents would dare to buck Trump until either they, he, or both went down in flames. Maybe Trump can turn a manure spreader catalog into a centerfold about the 2018 midterms, but surviving GOP incumbents can see the danger a mile off. But more importantly, it tells me that at least some GOP incumbents are starting to at least think that they see some softening in Trump’s support. Otherwise, there would be no logical reason to them to even potentially expose themselves as apostates to the pure faith.
We’re nowhere near there yet, but the corner has been turned. It was easy for GOP slugs to shrug off the assertions about Trump while it was all a theoretical concept. But now, both Mueller, as well as the SDNY, are starting to show actual facts to back up the supposition. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. But already it’s enough to have at least some GOP incumbents starting to make their reservations for the lifeboats. And as more info comes out in various court filings, the noise is only going to grow louder. From the GOP side of the Trumptanic, of all places. Don’t touch that dial.
Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35
