He really can shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any voters
by digby
Coons says he was "surprised" to see a GOPer say "publicly" what "many are thinking privately" about Mueller report pic.twitter.com/f3TBCOR6sN— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) May 20, 2019
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) alluded on Monday morning that Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) might not be the only Republican who thinks President Trump engaged in conduct that was “borderline or actually illegal.”
During an interview with CNN, Coons said he was “surprised” at Amash for “saying publicly what I think many are thinking privately.” Coons then raised the prospect that he’s had “conversations” with Republicans about their true thoughts on the report.
“Those who have read the Mueller report cannot avoid the conclusion that the President and some of his absolutely core advisers engaged in profoundly disappointing, reprehensible conduct that would rise to the level of an obstruction of justice charge if he were anyone other than the president of the United States,” he said.
“You don’t think Republicans are thinking that privately do you?” CNN’s Alisyn Camerota asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“What makes you say that?” she prodded.
“Conversations. …. There are very few who would be willing to say publicly that this conduct is reprehensible for a president,” he said, clarifying that there’s a “big difference” between believing something is “borderline or actually illegal” and saying they would vote to impeach the president.
“I have not spoken to a single Republican senator who would vote to remove the president,” he said. “Many privately expressed concerns about what was revealed in the Mueller report in part because of the gap between what Attorney General Barr characterized as being in the Mueller report and what was actually in the Mueller report for those who have taken the time to read through it.”
There’s a difference between a president acting in ways that are “borderline if actually illegal” and actually doing something about it. In other words, if a Republican president is a criminal, they’re fine with it. Obviously, they would be completely apeshit, if a Democrat did what Trump has done.
We already knew that if a Republican president is an unfit, imbecile completely in over his head they are fine with it, so I suppose this isn’t that different.
Maybe I’m being too Pollyannaish but I honestly don’t think Democrats would go along with their president being this bad in every way. Tribalism might make them excuse some of this behavior but I can’t believe they’d let all of this go unchallenged. After all, when Clinton was accused of having unauthorized fellatio, they took to the floor and denounced him as the worst role model in history and refused to vote for impeachment only because the charges were so trivial didn’t rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors, which was the correct decision. It was a ridiculous set-up, unworthy of the US Congress and everyone knew it.
In this case we have mountains of evidence that the president, his family and his cronies welcomed the sabotage of his opponent by Russian agents, that he tried repeatedly to cover it up, that he’s making money hand over fist from the presidency, that he’s a complete ignoramus about policy and the only thing that’s saved us from a major international (so far) is the fact that he hasn’t provoked a mistake by a hostile power or his subordinates aren’t following through on his orders.
It’s a total catastrophe. And the Republicans in congress are accomplices.
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