This is a highly optimistic take and I hope it's correct. To watch them refuse to answer basic simple questions, which were not classified and by their own admission had no legit reason not to answer that bordered on contempt was highly concerning to me.

Everything is already there to impeach Trump, except the political will. Again, it's hilarious why the GOP doesn't just throw him under the bus and put Pence in.

It's because 99% of Trump's base don't understand what's going on. They quite literally think the only ones who will be losing their insurance, medicaid, welfare, etc., are the lazy black and brown people. Then when they find out "Oh, wait... You mean I'm gonna lose MY MEDICAID TOO?!", that's when they care.

Yes, "we" are right on just about every issue, but it's not "we" that need to be convinced. It's the overwhelming majority of Republicans who vote against they're interest primarily because their racist and/or think none of this is gonna effect them.

I don't know why I'm laughed at or how no one else gets this. You need to overlook their racism or whatever other shortcomings they have long enough to court their votes and educate them on what all these Trumpian consequences will mean to them personally. Once we have their votes, then we can focus on getting them to fall in line with social reforms. Otherwise, calling them names will only entrench them and by the time they figure they're part of the "you're screwed too" club it will be too late for everyone.

Donald Trump is exploiting the fatal flaw of the two-party system

The thing you have to remember is that tossing Trump under the bus is not cost free for the GOP. Plenty of hardcore Trump partisans will be highly agitated and penalize the GOP for it, if only by staying home or whacking the traitors in primaries ala Cantor.

I am not apologizing for the Congressional GOP but the vice they are in is pretty clear.

Let's have the recording then.

There can only be one reason. Well, two actually. One is that the GOP has zero morals. The other is that they are afraid of pissing off Trump's base and losing their seat.

It would be interesting to compile a list of Republicans who could throw Trump under the bus relatively risk free politically. Sen. McCain is one. Even though Trump won AZ, McCain won by a higher margin than Trump did. So he really doesn't have to suck up to Trump (and afaik he does it less than most Republicans).

Comey just said he believed he (Trump) may well lie about their meetings

If the GOP came up with a unified PR strategy, they could dump Trump, put Pence in there and not alienate the base. I mean they had one for the last 8 years with anti-Obama and anti-Obamacare. Though ironically, if Pence actually did become president and started enacting GOP policy, those policies might be the thing to really alienate the GOP base.

But shouldn't there be at least 22 Senators that carried their districts by a larger margin of votes than Trump received? I think McCain is one example.

wtf? didnt he release a statement that he was "totally and completely vindicated"?

lol this, like what kind of point is he even trying to make? that trump isn't mentally unfit for office and widely regarded as dangerous/sociopathic/narcissistic by mental health professionals? ookkkkk

Without the 20% of Trump's base, the repubs don't have a chance to win anything. Sure that base wont ever vote for a democrat, but they also wont be showing up to the polls to vote against the people that kicked out their god king. They have painted themselves into a corner where the only way to remain in power is to cow-tow to the insane. Its like their incestuous relationship with the evangelics, only on a much more on-the-surface, scary way. If they **** over Trump, their days in power are over and they know it, so they have no choice but to let an insane child with dementia run the white house in order to keep their jobs.

They don't fear the dems, they fear getting primaried by an even bigger lunatic. They fear losing that sweet sweet koch money.

At work, has testimony started?

I agree with DVaut et al that the GOP is in a bind vis a vis removing Trump, but imo it's far less of a gamble than they think it is. I'm skeptical that their power would take a crippling hit. The base would go through the garment-rending and teeth-gnashing you'd expect, but in the end, most of those dudes are rock solid GOP voters come hell or high water. That's the advantage of having a platform defined by the stalwarts of greed and religious hatred of the outgroup. They might talk about staying home, but the other guy is gonna run on raising taxes to help blacks, and they can't very well let him win can they?

This was the HRC fallacy. Trump can't win; his approval rating is in the toilet even among Republicans. Oh except 95%+ of those dudes showed up to pull the lever for him (and against Clinton) anyway, and he picked up some new voters energized by his naked racism and utopic "good at business" promises.

The only valid concern afaics is individual candidates getting primaried, as tomdemain points out. But even this is undercut by the fact that the Kochs vastly prefer Pence to Trump, and wouldn't mind seeing the latter relegated to the dustbin of history.

Didn't realize Comey started hours ago. Anybody got quick bullet points on things missed?

And they fear their base revolting. Very few Rs can survive a third of their voters staying home because they're pissed about Trump.

Tom, what time should we switch to BBC for an election results sweat?

Exit polls at 10pm gmt. Radio 4 will have the best coverage.

Yes.

At my count there have been at least 4 of these dip****s asking questions about emailzzzzzz...right now McCain is just blabbering on about nothing except the Clinton emails. Clearly very troubled.

John McCain with one of the worst false equivalence attempts I've ever seen. What a dummy.

I seriously wonder if his mental faculties are worse than Trump's. Either unable to comprehend or just willingly being a douche.

The McCain questioning was so painful.

This translates into 5 PM Eastern in Yank Speak.

Or about 4 hours from now