The G.O.P.’s Choice — America or Trump

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/17/opinion/republican-party-trump-putin-russia.html

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A few Republicans, like Senator John McCain, offered strong rebukes to President Trump’s anti-American, pro-Russian ramblings yesterday. More Republicans, unfortunately, offered weak excuses. (My vote for the single weakest statement goes to either Senators Cory Gardner of Colorado or Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — both of whom complained about previous presidents.)

But whatever Trump’s fellow Republicans did or didn’t say yesterday, the big question is what — if anything — they will do. Trump is engaged in a shameful campaign to weaken the United States for some mysterious mix of self-interested reasons. Mere words aren’t enough of a response. This is an emergency.

And so far, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, and other top Republicans have shown no willingness to take action to defend the country. “McConnell will deploy every tool at his disposal to refocus on business as usual,” Adam Jentleson, a former Democratic Senate staffer, predicted on Twitter. “A smattering of critical statements from GOP senators is step one because that will get reporters to stop hounding senators for reactions. No action will follow, and soon we’ll be back to normal.”

What might a real response look like? Molly Reynolds, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies Congress, offered three categories when my colleague Ian Prasad Philbrick spoke to her yesterday.

1. Pass legislation. Congress could pass a bill to protect Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation; or a bill with stronger sanctions on Russia; or a bill to protect the country for future election attacks by Russians.

2. Conduct oversight. Congress could call Trump administration officials to explain the president’s Russia policy and his own financial ties to the country.

3. Withhold votes on the administration’s top priorities, like the recent Supreme Court nomination, until the president explains and changes his behavior.

All of these steps depend on Republicans, who have a majority in both the Senate and House. Democrats have little power to act on their own.

“There’s very little, procedurally, that the minority can do by itself,” Reynolds says. “The clearest path to trying to do more to stand up to what President Trump has been doing is to win control of one or both houses of Congress in November.”

In The Times, Tom Friedman, Michelle Goldberg, Elena Chernenko, Gail Collins and Bret Stephens and the editorial board all comment on the disaster that is Trump and Russia.