WITH COHEN PLEA, REPUBLICANS FACE TRUMP QUANDARY

Washington, Aug. 22: Moments after Donald Trump’s former personal attorney implicated the US President in a felony, Senator John Cornyn declared “People who do bad things, who break the law need to be held accountable.”

Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, quickly made clear his statement wasn’t aimed at Trump.

For Republicans, Tuesday’s courtroom drama revived an uncomfortable and all-too-familiar predicament. On a seemingly weekly basis, party leaders and lawmakers have found themselves trying to explain away a slew of Trump-generated controversies, hoping that occasionally stern statements can carry them through until the latest round of chaos blows over. It's a strategy the party has leaned on through Trump’s refusal to unequivocally blame Russia for meddling in the 2016 election, through his statements equally blaming white supremacists and counterprotesters for violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, and through his numerous insults aimed at women and minorities.

But Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen’s extraordinary plea deal — it came less than an hour after former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was found guilty of eight financial crimes — ups the pressure on the GOP in a midterm election year. Cohen’s plea marks the first time a Trump associate was found guilty of a crime directly related to the 2016 election. And it's a crime Cohen says Trump was not only aware of, but personally involved in carrying out.