{"id":8425,"date":"2019-10-19T02:46:12","date_gmt":"2019-10-19T09:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=8425"},"modified":"2019-10-19T02:46:12","modified_gmt":"2019-10-19T09:46:12","slug":"growing-number-of-republicans-struggle-to-defend-trump-on-g-7-choice-ukraine-and-syria-the-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=8425","title":{"rendered":"“Growing number of Republicans struggle to defend Trump on G-7 choice, Ukraine and Syria”, The Washington Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Rachael Bade<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>Mike DeBonis<\/span> and\u00a0<\/span>Seung Min Kim, October 18, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n

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A growing number of congressional Republicans expressed exasperation Friday over what they view as President Trump\u2019s indefensible behavior, a sign that the president\u2019s stranglehold on his party is starting to weaken as Congress hurtles toward a historic impeachment vote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In interviews with more than 20 GOP lawmakers and congressional aides in the past 48 hours, many said they were repulsed by Trump\u2019s decision to host an international summit at his own resort and incensed by acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney\u2019s admission \u2014 later withdrawn \u2014 that U.S. aid to Ukraine was withheld for political reasons. Others expressed anger over the president\u2019s abandonment of Kurdish allies in Syria.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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One Republican, Rep. Francis Rooney (Fla.) \u2014 whose district Trump carried by 22 percentage points \u2014 did not rule out voting to impeach the president and compared the situation to the Watergate scandal that ended Richard Nixon\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still thinking about it, you know?\u201d Rooney said of backing impeachment. \u201cI\u2019ve been real mindful of the fact that during Watergate, all the people I knew said, \u2018Oh, they\u2019re just abusing Nixon, and it\u2019s a witch hunt.\u2019 Turns out it wasn\u2019t a witch hunt. It was really bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

The GOP\u2019s rising frustration is a break from the past three years, when congressional Republicans almost uniformly defended Trump through a series of scandals that engulfed the White House.\u00a0There\u2019s now a growing sense among a quiet group of Republicans that the president is playing with fire, taking their loyalty for granted as they\u2019re forced to \u201cdefend the indefensible,\u201d as a senior House Republican said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A few Republicans are starting to say they flat-out won\u2019t do it anymore \u2014 particularly the president\u2019s choice of his Trump National Doral Miami golf resort for next year\u2019s Group of Seven summit of world leaders, a selection that will benefit him financially.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to go out and try to defend him. Well, I don\u2019t know if I can do that!\u201d steamed a frustrated Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho).\u00a0\u201cI have no doubt that Doral is a really good place \u2014 I\u2019ve been there, I know. But it is politically insensitive. They should have known what the kickback is going to be on this, that politically he\u2019s doing it for his own benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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To be sure, Republican leadership in the House and Senate \u2014 and many rank-and-file GOP lawmakers \u2014 are still firmly behind Trump, who remains immensely popular with the party base. While several have criticized the president over policy, such as the withdrawal of U.S. forces from northern Syria, they have argued against impeachment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On Friday, Trump\u2019s top allies continued to defend him, playing down the Doral announcement and doing damage control for Mulvaney\u2019s blunder, in which their former House colleague contradicted Trump\u2019s\u00a0\u201cno quid pro quo\u201d talking point and admitted that the president had withheld nearly $400 million in military aid to force Ukraine to pursue an investigation that would benefit him politically.<\/p>\n

Hours after the comments, Mulvaney sought to walk back his remarks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After saying Trump held back aid to pressure Ukraine, Mulvaney tries to walk back comments<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t see what the big deal is, frankly,\u201d Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) said of Trump\u2019s decision to host the G-7 at Doral.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On Ukraine, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, \u201cI think Mick was very clear in cleaning up the statement, that there was no quid pro quo.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Other Republicans shrugged off the latest controversies, including Trump\u2019s choice of his Florida resort for the international meeting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI think the optics aren\u2019t good .\u2009.\u2009. but we have a lot more problems to worry about,\u201d said Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said the Doral announcement <\/b>\u201cdoesn\u2019t bother me a great deal\u201d even as he admitted, \u201cI think there is certainly an appearance of conflict of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Still, there was a notable shift in tone, even among some of Trump\u2019s most adamant defenders. On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) criticized Trump\u2019s Syria decision in an op-ed in The Washington Post<\/a>, just days after 129\u00a0House Republicans backed a resolution condemning the president\u2019s move.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithdrawing U.S. forces from Syria is a grave strategic mistake,\u201d wrote McConnell, who rarely criticizes Trump and never mentioned the president\u2019s name in the op-ed. \u201cIt will leave the American people and homeland less safe, embolden our enemies, and weaken important alliances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, several GOP lawmakers have reached out to White House officials to urge Trump to reconsider his Doral decision, which they worry smacks of corruption, according to GOP officials familiar with the conversations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk candidly. At the very least, they\u2019re pressing Trump to publicly commit to hosting the international leaders free, to avoid any appearance that he\u2019s using his office to enrich himself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThis is a legitimate criticism. The profit issue? That clearly has to be transparent,\u201d said one longtime Trump ally, Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), who has raised his own concerns and is under the impression that Trump will host the event without charge.<\/p>\n

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Trump has awarded next year\u2019s G-7 summit of world leaders to his Miami-area resort, the White House said<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reed often criticizes Joe Biden for allowing his son Hunter to be paid $50,000 a month for sitting on a Ukrainian board while he was vice president. Reed said that standard \u201capplies to anyone else, including everybody in the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u201cI would encourage those at the White House to look at the optics and appearance of this,\u201d he continued. \u201cEven the appearance of impropriety is something we need to take into consideration. I have concerns about this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reed isn\u2019t alone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m not sure the wisdom of that\u201d Doral decision, said Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-Mich.), who announced his retirement this year in part out of frustration with Trump.\u00a0\u201cIt just further fans the flames that the Democrats have been ranting about.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0Some Republicans are skeptical that Trump will hear them out, however, noting that in the past he\u2019s scolded his own children for allowing charity events on his property without charging. \u201cZero chance they do it for free,\u201d one GOP official predicted. \u201cRemember all the Eric Trump cancer fundraiser stuff? Trump went ballistic when he found out the club wasn\u2019t charging the charity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Republicans are also privately griping about Mulvaney\u2019s admission on Ukraine. \u201cGet over it,\u201d Mulvaney told reporters at the White House on Thursday before he walked it back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s not an Etch A Sketch,\u201d said Rooney, who asked: \u201cWhat is a walkback? I mean, I tell you what, I\u2019ve drilled some oil wells I\u2019d like to walk back \u2014 dry holes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He added: \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it. .\u2009.\u2009. When the president has said many times there wasn\u2019t a quid pro quo .\u2009.\u2009. and now Mick Mulvaney goes up and says, \u2018Yeah, it was all part of the whole plan!\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rooney has participated in the closed-door interviews of current and former Trump administration officials in the impeachment probe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He said he has been increasingly concerned by revelations regarding the Trump administration\u2019s dealings with Ukraine, but at this point he did not see the allegations against Trump rising to the level of Nixon\u2019s wrongdoing. \u201cBut I think we need to get all the facts on the table. And every time one of these ambassadors comes and talks, we learn a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The new GOP grievances with Trump couldn\u2019t come at a worse time for the president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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House Democratic leaders are moving rapidly in their impeachment probe and could hold a vote by the holiday season. They have been turning up an increasingly\u00a0robust body of evidence showing that the president pressured Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, a 2020 presidential contender, and his son Hunter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Additionally, a majority of voters now back the idea of ousting Trump from office \u2014 even more Republicans are supporting impeachment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Yet Republicans believe that Trump has made it harder for them to help him politically survive impeachment and win reelection. For one, his Doral announcement undercuts his own argument that Biden did something wrong when he allowed his son to make a profit from a Ukraine company board.\u00a0Trump is now boosting his own bottom line from the Oval Office, they noted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Even House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), who frequently appears on Fox News to praise Trump, seemed uncomfortable about the Doral decision. Asked if he had a problem with it, he responded:\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t know how decisions are made on something like the G-7. Secret Service and a lot of other agents are involved with that and concerned about security .\u2009.\u2009. so I don\u2019t\u2019 know what factors they used in deciding the locations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The only Republicans who applauded Trump\u2019s move were a handful from Florida. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, who represents the district that includes Doral, said that he was <\/b>\u201cthrilled\u201d and that the move was\u00a0\u201cgreat for the economy of Doral.\u201d <\/b>Sen. Rick Scott agreed, arguing, \u201cThere\u2019s no conflict of interest in holding anything in the great state of Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI understand the arguments others are going to make about whether it\u2019s lining his pocket at this event and so forth, but as a Floridian, you know, I think it\u2019s good for Florida to have that event,\u201d said\u00a0Sen. Marco Rubio.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Read more at PowerPost<\/a><\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Rachael Bade,\u00a0Mike DeBonis and\u00a0Seung Min Kim, October 18, 2019 A growing number of congressional Republicans expressed exasperation Friday over what they view as President Trump\u2019s indefensible behavior, a sign that the president\u2019s stranglehold on his party is starting to weaken as Congress hurtles toward a historic impeachment vote. In interviews with more than 20 GOP […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8425"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8426,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8425\/revisions\/8426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}