Donald Trump may publicly claim that the ongoing House impeachment inquiry is a “hoax,” but in private he is losing what’s left of his mind.
According to new reporting from CNN, Trump calls Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – one of his staunchest defenders in Congress – more than three times a day to freak out about impeachment.
“[T]he President has spent hours tweeting about the impeachment and lighting up the phone lines of his allies on Capitol Hill — including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, to whom he’s stressed the importance of Republican unity,” the report notes.
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In private, Trump is increasingly leaning on the Republican leader in the Senate. In a return to the President’s panicked behavior during the height of the Mueller investigation, Trump is calling McConnell as often as three times a day, according to a person familiar with the conversations.
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Trump has been lashing out at GOP senators he sees as disloyal, according to this person, telling McConnell he will amplify attacks on those Republicans who criticize him.
McConnell faces his own dilemma of having to preserve the Republican majority in the Senate, while also placating an erratic President who demands nothing short of total loyalty. That will become harder as more details about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine trickle out.
Trump is starting to see cracks in his GOP supportÂ
For three years, Republicans in Congress – at the direction of Mitch McConnell – have been blindly loyal to Trump, no matter what he says and does.
But as PoliticusUSA’s Jason Easley noted last month, citing GOP strategist Mike Murphy, as many as 30 Republican senators would vote to impeach Trump if the vote was done in secret.
As public opinion continues to shift and more information comes to light surrounding the president’s extortion scheme in Ukraine, it is becoming more difficult for Republicans to act like Trump’s behavior is acceptable.
We’ve already seen some Republicans in the Senate – most notably Utah Sen. Mitt Romney – break from Trump as he continues to ask foreign powers for help winning the 2020 election.
There is no question that congressional Republicans have largely stuck with Trump even after he admitted to extorting a foreign power for political gain, but the president knows that his leash is getting shorter and some cracks are starting to emerge.
It’s no surprise that he’s blowing up Mitch McConnell’s phone in recent weeks.
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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.
