Senate Republicans Are Finally Realizing That Trump Is Unfit To Be Commander-In-Chief

Rachel Maddow pointed out on Thursday that even Republicans are coming to the realization that most of the country reached a long time ago: Donald Trump is unfit to be commander-in-chief.

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While they continue to toe the line for him on most domestic issues, including the ongoing special counsel investigation, the GOP is starting to break away from him on key matters related to foreign policy.

As Maddow pointed out on Thursday, that’s a big deal.

“The idea that Congress, even the Republican-controlled side of the Congress in the Senate, that they might get up on their hind legs on issues like that and express themselves and take back some of their power on an issue like that, that would be a huge thing,” the MSNBC host said.

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Maddow said:

The number of Republican senators who crossed over and voted with Democrats to try to stop the Trump administration from lifting Russian sanctions on Oleg Deripaska, that number of Republican crossovers was not sufficient to stop the administration … but it did hit double digits.  And in the House it was well over 100 Republicans that joined with the Democrats to try to stop the Trump administration on that, too. Today, Senate Republicans got behind a legislative rebuke of the president on Syria and Afghanistan. … Senate Republicans showed today they are willing at least to rebuke him on issues like that. That dynamic will be fascinating to watch regardless of what you think about whether there ought to be more American troops in Syria and Afghanistan and for how long. The idea that Congress, even the Republican-controlled side of the Congress in the Senate, that they might get up on their hind legs on issues like that and express themselves and take back some of their power on an issue like that, that would be a huge thing. War powers and decisions about authorizing the use of American military force have accrued increasingly to the presidency for a couple of generations now. For every president since Vietnam, increasingly and inexorably, it has been this one-way swing of U.S. military power being consolidated within the presidency. Decision-making power and authority over U.S. military force being consolidated in the executive.  I wrote a book about it in 2012 called “Drift” in which I did not anticipate that the thing that might ever turn that drift around would be the election of a president who was so widely perceived on a bipartisan basis to be manifestly unfit to wield those kinds of concentrated powers when it comes to U.S. force. But that’s where we’re at. It has taken a Trump presidency to swing the pendulum back in the other direction.

Republicans are taking foreign policy out of Trump’s hands

On Thursday, the Republican-controlled Senate voted to rebuke Trump’s foreign policy as it relates to Afghanistan and Syria. As Rachel Maddow pointed out, this follows other votes where Republicans in both the House and Senate have broken from Trump.

As this president becomes more unhinged – this week insulting his own intelligence community – Republicans in Congress are increasingly casting votes that curb or check his foreign policy powers. They seem to recognize – finally – that in some cases U.S. national security is more important than partisan politics.

The idea that Donald Trump is unfit to be commander-in-chief is no longer up for debate. Even Republicans in Congress are trying to take matters of national security out of his hands.

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Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.