Are Republicans sowing the seeds of Trump 's demise?
When  Donald Trump  became  his  party's nominee for president in 2016  the many Republicans who had reservations about  him  convinced themselves that the bargain they made could be fruitful for everyone. They'd stand by  him  despite the kind of person  he  is  and in return they'd get the policy results they were after.
Sure  from time to time they'd have to evade uncomfortable questions about  his  latest idiotic tweet or another woman (or five or ten) accusing  him  of sexual assault  but it would be worth it.
But it has turned out that  Trump  demands more than they thought. They've signed on with a cult of personality  in which one goal supersedes all others: Protect the president no matter what. In Congress  as CNN's Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb report  they're doing their part:
"Top Republicans on Capitol Hill have made a concerted decision in their Russia inquiries: They are staying away from digging into the finances of President Donald Trump and his family.
"Six Republican leaders of key committees told CNN they see little reason to pursue those lines of inquiry or made no commitments to do so â even as Democrats say determining whether there was a financial link between  Trump   his family  his business and Russians is essential to understanding whether there was any collusion in the 2016 elections.
"Republicans have resisted calls to issue subpoenas for bank records  seeking  Trump 's tax returns or sending letters to witnesses to determine whether there were any  Trump  financial links to Russian actors â calling the push nothing more than a Democratic fishing expedition."
They aren't saying that they've looked into the possibility of these ties and found there's nothing to them; they're saying they don't even want to look. This is a party that launched seven separate congressional investigations of Benghazi. It's enough to make you think they're afraid that if they started poking around in  Trump 's financial connections to Russia  they'd find that he's guilty of something. While it was always going to be tricky for this Congress to investigate the Russia scandal  the "investigations" are rapidly turning into a joke.
One of the odd things about the way Republicans have approached the entire Russia scandal is that there's a halfway plausible story they could tell about the 2016 election which wouldn't implicate  Trump  but would still be at least somewhat consistent with what we know so far. It would say that Russia was trying not to help  Trump  so much as just to cause chaos in our election  and while the Russians certainly reached out to members of  Trump 's family and  his  campaign to engineer some kind of cooperation  it never amounted to much.
That account of events is extremely generous to everyone around  Trump . But at least it has a remote connection to some of the facts  enough to make it seem like the one telling that story would almost be acting in good faith. And it's a position some in the GOP have taken. The party as a whole  however  has adopted the "nothing to see  move along" position instead  which is likely a tactical mistake. If you're really clever  what you want to do is pretend that you're eager to get to the bottom of the scandal while quietly sabotaging the investigation. But Republicans aren't even bothering to pretend. They've all but announced that for them there is no higher priority than protecting  Trump   not even the national security of the United States.
Let's take  for example  the question of the president's tax returns  which he has insisted on keeping hidden despite the fact that there has never been a president in American history whose tax returns the public had a more pressing interest in seeing. The CNN piece notes that Sen. Ron Wyden has been asking to see those returns and "to obtain records about a lucrative 2008 real estate deal between  Trump  and a Russian billionaire that raised questions among Democrats about potential money laundering and suspect business dealings." Sen. Orrin Hatch  who chairs the Senate Finance Committee  has refused. "He doesn't want to give up his tax returns  and I believe he's right " Hatch says.
Now imagine that Democrats take the House. They would be able to release  Trump 's returns by use of a little-used provision in the law  which allows the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee  the Senate Finance Committee  or the Joint Committee on Taxation to request from the IRS any American's tax returns  including the president's. The chair could then share it with the rest of his or her committee  which could then vote to release the returns to all members of the chamber. Once 435 members of the House have  Trump 's returns  they'd be public in about 12 seconds.
If Republicans had been making a good-faith effort to fully investigate the Russia scandal  they might be able to say in January 2019 to their newly empowered Democratic colleagues that releasing  Trump 's returns against  his  wishes is a radical move that would set a bad precedent. It's possible they could win over a few Democratic members of the Ways and Means Committee with that argument  just enough to stop the release  since Democrats are far more open to arguments about precedents and the long-term health of institutions. But after Republicans spent the first two years of the  Trump  presidency running roughshod over every norm in sight and making clear that they only want to protect  Trump   an appeal to norms and precedents will surely fall on deaf ears.
When   [TGT] became   [TGT]   party's nominee for president in 2016  the many Republicans who had reservations about   [TGT]   convinced themselves that the bargain they made could be fruitful for everyone. They'd stand by  him  despite the kind of person  he  is  and in return they'd get the policy results they were after.
Sure  from time to time they'd have to evade uncomfortable questions about  his  latest idiotic tweet or another woman (or five or ten) accusing  him  of sexual assault  but it would be worth it.
But it has turned out that   [TGT]   demands more than they thought. They've signed on with a cult of personality  in which one goal supersedes all others: Protect the president no matter what. In Congress  as CNN's Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb report  they're doing their part:
"Top Republicans on Capitol Hill have made a concerted decision in their Russia inquiries: They are staying away from digging into the finances of President Donald Trump and his family.
"Six Republican leaders of key committees told CNN they see little reason to pursue those lines of inquiry or made no commitments to do so â even as Democrats say determining whether there was a financial link between  Trump   his family  his business and Russians is essential to understanding whether there was any collusion in the 2016 elections.
"Republicans have resisted calls to issue subpoenas for bank records  seeking   [TGT]  's tax returns or sending letters to witnesses to determine whether there were any   [TGT]   financial links to Russian actors â calling the push nothing more than a Democratic fishing expedition."
They aren't saying that they've looked into the possibility of these ties and found there's nothing to them; they're saying they don't even want to look. This is a party that launched seven separate congressional investigations of Benghazi. It's enough to make you think they're afraid that if they started poking around in   [TGT]  's financial connections to Russia  they'd find that he's guilty of something. While it was always going to be tricky for this Congress to investigate the Russia scandal  the "investigations" are rapidly turning into a joke.
One of the odd things about the way Republicans have approached the entire Russia scandal is that there's a halfway plausible story they could tell about the 2016 election which wouldn't implicate   [TGT]   but would still be at least somewhat consistent with what we know so far. It would say that Russia was trying not to help  Trump  so much as just to cause chaos in our election  and while the Russians certainly reached out to members of  Trump 's family and  his  campaign to engineer some kind of cooperation  it never amounted to much.
That account of events is extremely generous to everyone around  Trump . But at least it has a remote connection to some of the facts  enough to make it seem like the one telling that story would almost be acting in good faith. And it's a position some in the GOP have taken. The party as a whole  however  has adopted the "nothing to see  move along" position instead  which is likely a tactical mistake. If you're really clever  what you want to do is pretend that you're eager to get to the bottom of the scandal while quietly sabotaging the investigation. But Republicans aren't even bothering to pretend. They've all but announced that for them there is no higher priority than protecting  Trump   not even the national security of the United States.
Let's take  for example  the question of the president's tax returns  which he has insisted on keeping hidden despite the fact that there has never been a president in American history whose tax returns the public had a more pressing interest in seeing. The CNN piece notes that Sen. Ron Wyden has been asking to see those returns and "to obtain records about a lucrative 2008 real estate deal between  Trump  and a Russian billionaire that raised questions among Democrats about potential money laundering and suspect business dealings." Sen. Orrin Hatch  who chairs the Senate Finance Committee  has refused. "He doesn't want to give up his tax returns  and I believe he's right " Hatch says.
Now imagine that Democrats take the House. They would be able to release  Trump 's returns by use of a little-used provision in the law  which allows the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee  the Senate Finance Committee  or the Joint Committee on Taxation to request from the IRS any American's tax returns  including the president's. The chair could then share it with the rest of his or her committee  which could then vote to release the returns to all members of the chamber. Once 435 members of the House have   [TGT]  's returns  they'd be public in about 12 seconds.
If Republicans had been making a good-faith effort to fully investigate the Russia scandal  they might be able to say in January 2019 to their newly empowered Democratic colleagues that releasing  Trump 's returns against  his  wishes is a radical move that would set a bad precedent. It's possible they could win over a few Democratic members of the Ways and Means Committee with that argument  just enough to stop the release  since Democrats are far more open to arguments about precedents and the long-term health of institutions. But after Republicans spent the first two years of the   [TGT]   presidency running roughshod over every norm in sight and making clear that they only want to protect  Trump   an appeal to norms and precedents will surely fall on deaf ears.