The Dysfunctional Republican Party Strikes Again
Senators from purple states stuck with Trump as colleagues with an easier path to re-election voted against him. That’s kind of strange.
Why is this man smiling?
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesThe Republican Party that can’t get out of it’s own way is alive and unwell. The party that threw away winnable Senate seats by nominating people such as Todd Akin (Missouri, 2012) and Christine O’Donnell (Delaware, 2010), and couldn’t prevent the nomination of a reality television star for the presidency — made a special appearance in the Senate this week. This dysfunctional party is busy making life difficult for its most vulnerable senators in the 2020 election cycle.
As expected, the Senate voted on Thursday against President Donald Trump’s declaration of a state of emergency over the southern border, with 12 Republicans joining all the Democrats for a 59-41 overall margin. That’s an even larger defeat for Trump than Wednesday’s 54-46 thumping over his Yemen policy. The votes reflected both Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s inability to hide divisions within the party, and the incentive structure that is far less favorable to Trump loyalists than it was up through November.