The most charitable view of Graham’s sycophancy is that the president has put him and GOP senators in general in a no-win predicament. AdvertisementThe political hell most Senate Republicans have found themselves in since 2016 can be described as the chasm between how Trump wants them to behave and how they believe they should govern. This means they have to attract less single-minded voters who are often more Trump-skeptical — mostly suburban, college-educated Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. That’s why Graham as well as Iowa’s Sen. Joni Ernst and Florida’s Sen. Marco Rubio find it necessary to hide behind various parsing rationalizations. Short of that, the safer path will be for Republicans to continue to pretend everything is “perfect.”Twitter: @JonahNRO

Source: Los Angeles Times October 08, 2019 09:56 UTC