15 Republican senators openly oppose Trump, but are blocking a Supreme Court nominee for him anyway

[Judi Lynn]

Alan Pyke
Deputy Economic Policy Editor, ThinkProgress
1 hr ago

15 Republican senators openly oppose Trump, but are blocking a Supreme Court nominee for him anyway

Mitch McConnell’s weird, undemocratic blockade just got Trump’d.



Since tapes emerged Friday confirming Donald Trump felt his celebrity entitled him to sexually assault women with impunity, 11 Republicans in the Senate have abandoned their previous support for the GOP nominee.

The new defectors are Sens. Mike Crapo (R-UT), Mike Lee (R-UT), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), John McCain (R-AZ), Lisa Murkowski (R-AZ), Rob Portman (R-OH), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), and John Thune (R-SD).

They join four caucus-mates — Sens. Ben Sasse (R-NE), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Mark Kirk (R-IL), and Susan Collins (R-ME) — who had already publicly said they would not vote for the man their party nominated amid much fanfare this summer.

Yet all 15 of those politicians are participating in Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s Supreme Court blockade, which began before former Justice Antonin Scalia’s body was cold.

More:
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-senate-defectors-scotus-76775ccae57e#.9p5adefns

[asiliveandbreathe]

1. These pukes are carefully threading the needle - it is all about their own

asses...Hassan in NH needs to demolish Ayotte..so now and only now does ayotte defect - (I don't believe her, or any of them actually)

Their reputation precedes them - and the call to still support block a SCOTUS nominee...pathetic - can't have it both ways..Dems look good for +4 (tie - 50-50) - sure would like =5 - but I'll take a tie....be well...

[Bill USA]

2. The GOP has become the greatest threat to responsible, representative Government we face today.

As Ornstein and Mann said a few years ago, they have become an insurgency, willing to destroy what we have in order to "win" the existential battle: Let's Just Say it: The Republicans are the Problem.

We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.

The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.

“Both sides do it” or “There is plenty of blame to go around” are the traditional refuges for an American news media intent on proving its lack of bias, while political scientists prefer generality and neutrality when discussing partisan polarization. Many self-styled bipartisan groups, in their search for common ground, propose solutions that move both sides to the center, a strategy that is simply untenable when one side is so far out of reach.
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