House GOP support wavering
House Republicans looked “shell-shocked” at a closed-door meeting Wednesday following the latest in a cascade of troubling revelations about President Trump.
While Trump still has his defenders, more GOP lawmakers are now willing to go on record criticizing him after it was reported Tuesday he allegedly tried to pressure thenFBI Director James Comey to drop the probe into former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn’s ties to Russia.
The mood at the House Republicans’ conference meeting was anxious and subdued, with one source telling the Web site Axios that members appeared “shell-shocked.”
About the same time, Sen. Susan Collins (D-Maine) was telling Team Trump to get its act together.
“We cannot have this constant chaos and serious questions being raised virtually every single day. It is distracting from the ability to work on certain issues like health-care reform, and the administration needs to get its house in order,” Collins told Newsradio WGAN.
Rep. Justin Amash (RMich.) said that if the reports about Trump’s pressure on Comey are true, they would be grounds for impeachment.
Asked if he trusted Comey’s word or Trump’s, Amash (inset) said, “I think it’s pretty clear I have more confidence in Director Comey.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan, while promising a thorough investigation, defended Trump, saying people were out to get him.
“The last thing I’m going to do is prejudge anything. I’m a person who wants to get the facts . . . and follow the facts wherever they may lead,” Ryan said. “It is obvious there are some people out there who want to harm the president. But we have an obligation to carry out our oversight, regardless of which party is in the White House.”
Perhaps the strangest defense of the president came from Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.).
“Having spent time on Air Force One with the president, I can say that he jokes a lot,” Comer said. “Sometimes when you say a joke, everybody gets a joke. But when you write it on paper, it sounds very different.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Comey had been invited to testify.
And both the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees requested copies of memos written by Comey after his meetings with the president.