Is the president’s hold on congressional republicans slipping?

Is the president’s hold on congressional republicans slipping?

The democrats actually were able to pass some things in both the Senate and the House. Of course, they will be vetoed by the president if they ever make it to his desk. In the Senate, a resolution was passed saying that the president would have to get congressional approval for any additional military action against Venezuela. Fat chance. The vote was 52-47. Naturally every democrat voted for the resolution and they were joined by five republicans, Rand Paul (Kentucky), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine), Todd Young (Indiana) and surprisingly Josh Hawley (Missouri). I actually thought that John Curtis of Utah would vote for the resolution too. But he didn’t.

As is his wont, the president went ballistic lashing out at the five and in particular Collins who is the most moderate of the bunch. The president posted “Republicans should be ashamed of the senators that just voted with Democrats.” He said that the lawmakers “should never be elected to office again” and the vote “greatly hampers” U.S. self-defense adding that the law the vote invoked wasn’t constitutional. Rand Paul who actually cosponsored the resolution of course disagreed saying “Meaningful checks and balances require the president’s party to stand up to and resist unconstitutional usurpations of power,” and that Republicans had given too much ground to the president, abandoning “all pretense of responsibility and any semblance of duty.”

Collins is the only one of the group up for reelection this year. Like in previous years, she is an underdog to whoever wins the democrat primary – likely Maine’s governor Janet Mills. Trump called Collins after the vote in what was described as a “profanity filled rant.” As to Trump saying that she should not be reelected Collins replied “The president obviously is unhappy with the vote. I guess this means that he would prefer to have Gov. Mills or somebody else with whom he’s not had a great relationship. I don’t know, I’m just not going to comment.” But the president knows that he needs for Collins to be reelected. No other republican stands a chance of being elected instead and despite their differences Collins has generally voted with the president. That Trump called only Collins is a bit suspicious. I think this is a ploy to actually help Collins. She can now boast of her independence from the president which should help her at the polls. Surely he should have lashed out at Rand Paul who said “Whenever I had misgivings, I’d always say ‘he’s the best we’ve ever had,’ much better than the Bushes who were war mad. I thought Trump was different so it disappoints me that he’s under the thrall of Lindsey Graham.” Yikes! 

Over on the House side a three-year extension of the “temporary” COVID-19-era premium tax credits was passed. Again all the democrats voted for the measure and were joined by 17 republicans. Recall that this is the hill that both parties have decided to die on during the last session in the battle over a continuing resolution. Not surprisingly the republicans (called “moderates”) are all in tightly contested districts. Derrick van Orden of Wisconsin said “I have long opposed the damage the Unaffordable Care Act has done to our country, but I will not watch Wisconsinites lose health care because Democrats let their own law collapse.” Huh? On this one the president has been unusually quiet with the White House simply saying that he still opposes any extension of the “temporary” credits and did not consider this a personal defeat. I guess this is because he was basically in the background leaving the heavy lifting to Mike Johnson. So if anything, this is a rebuke of Johnson and not the president. Of course, the extensions will not pass the Senate and even if they did would be vetoed by Trump.