‘He’s on his own’: Some in GOP fleeing Trump
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump’s steadfast grip on Republicans in Washington is beginning to crumble, leaving him more politically isolated than at any other point in his turbulent administration.
After riling up a crowd that later staged a violent siege of the U.S. Capitol, Trump appears to have lost some of his strongest allies, including South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Two Cabinet members and at least a half-dozen aides have resigned. A handful of congressional Republicans openly are considering whether to join a renewed push for impeachment.
One GOP senator who has split with Trump in the past urged him to resign and questioned whether she would stay in the party.
“I want him out,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told the Anchorage Daily News. “He has caused enough damage.”
The insurrection on the heels of a bruising election loss in Georgia accomplished what other low points in Trump’s presidency did not: force Republicans to fundamentally reassess their relationship with a leader who long has abandoned tradition and decorum.
The result could reshape the party, threatening the influence that Trump craves while creating a divide between those in Washington and activists in swaths of the country where the president is especially popular.
“At this point, I won’t defend him anymore,” said Ari Fleischer, a former White House press secretary for George W. Bush and a GOP strategist who voted for Trump. “I won’t defend him for stirring the pot that incited the mob. He’s on his own.”
When the week began, Trump was without question the most dominant political force in Republican politics and a 2024 kingmaker, if not the GOP’S next presidential nominee himself. On Friday, there was a growing sense that he was forever tarnished — and may be forced from office before his term expires in 12 days.
Absent a resignation, calls for a second impeachment on Capitol Hill grew louder Friday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress would proceed with impeachment proceedings unless Trump leaves office “imminently and willingly.”
President-elect Joe Biden isn’t putting his weight behind the effort yet, suggesting there’s not enough time between now and his Jan. 20 inauguration to pursue impeachment or any other constitutional remedy.
“I am focused now on us taking control as president and vice president, on the 20th and getting our agenda moving as quickly as we can,” Biden said.
Trump still has supporters, especially among the many rankand-file Republican voters and conservative activists beyond Washington.
On Thursday morning, there was loud applause and shouts of “We love you!” when Trump phoned into a breakfast meeting of the Republican National Committee in Florida.
“The vast majority of the committee is in full denial,” said Republican National Committee member Bill Palatucci of New Jersey, who attended the breakfast. “They’re willing to condemn the violence, but without any reference to the president’s role in any of it.”
Leading Republican pollster Frank Luntz has had extensive conversations with grassroots voters and Republican officials about Trump’s standing since the siege.
“The professionals are running away from a sinking ship, but his own supporters have not abandoned him, and they actually want him to fight on,” Luntz said. “He’s become the voice of God for tens of millions of people, and they will follow him to the ends of the earth and off the cliff.”
And because of the voters’ continued loyalty, elected officials in deep red areas must remain loyal to the outgoing president as well, even if his own Cabinet does not. In the hours after this week’s riot, 147 Republicans in Congress still voted to reject Biden’s victory, including Texas’ Ted Cruz and seven other senators.
The dramatic split in the party is reflected within the divergent paths adopted by the early slate of 2024 Republican presidential prospects.
Cruz and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri embraced Trump’s calls to reject Biden’s victory before and after the mob attack. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton resisted Trump’s wishes, drawing an angry tweet from the president earlier in the week.
Such attacks didn’t carry as much weight at the end of the week as they once did given Trump’s weakened political state. On Thursday, Cotton chastised Republican colleagues such as Hawley and Cruz, who had given voters “false hope” that Trump’s November loss could be overturned.
Nikki Haley, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, tried to toe the line as she condemned Trump’s actions this week during a closed-door meeting with the Republican National Committee.
She praised some of Trump’s accomplishments but predicted that, “His actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history.“