Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, has become the second person in Trump’s orbit to flip and cut a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. Flynn is reportedly prepared to testify against Trump, members of the Trump family, and others in exchange for reduced charges.
So we have the president of the United States and his inner circle potentially implicated by a former top campaign adviser who was then made national security adviser. You might think this would lead some congressional Republicans to pause and think about how closely they want to be tied to this president and his priorities. How hard they want to work to give him a win right about now. How much they want to vote Trump a personal payday.
But hell no. Today’s Republican Party has no room in it for people who would hesitate or change course just because the popular vote-losing Republican in the White House is implicated in election meddling by a foreign country. It’s full steam ahead on tax cuts for people like Donald Trump (and, incidentally, many Republicans in Congress). Jeff Flake, the supposed conscience of the Senate Republicans these days, gave up his vote in exchange for a laughably weak promise to work with him on his priorities … and did it hours after the Flynn charges became public.
This is the payday and Republicans aren’t going to hesitate. If anything, Trump’s troubles make it more important to them to pass tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy before he’s too weakened to provide them any cover at all. But voters need to remember not just what Republicans are voting for, but the fact that it was so important to them that this level of presidential corruption and scandal didn’t break their stride.
Jam your senators' phone lines at (202) 224-3121. Tell them to vote "no" on the Republican tax bill.