The crisis within the Republican Party that has been unleashed by Donald Trump is being understated.
It is rare for senators to yell at any US attorney general during a meeting. Senators yelling during closed-door meetings is not an accepted behavior.
When the Senate abruptly closed up and left town without passing the reconciliation bill to fund ICE and the border patrol, it was clear that something very big had happened to derail the whole process.
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Senate Democrats immediately held a press conference and pounced on the reported Senate Republican divide and asked Republicans to join with them to stop Trump’s corruption by blocking taxpayer funding for his ballroom and putting restrictions on the DOJ slush fund.
The rift between Trump and Senate Republicans shows no signs of mending, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) offered some insight into what it was like in the room on his podcast.
“Fiery does not begin to cut it,” Cruz said. “My guess is there’re probably 45 senators in the room, at least half of them were blasting the attorney general, and they were pissed.”
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“There were multiple senators yelling at the attorney general, saying this feels like self-dealing,” Cruz said.
“I got to tell you, the Republican senators were pissed — people were the entire meeting. They were screaming at the acting attorney general, and he was trying to lay out the legal basis,” Cruz said, adding “the legal basis is quite sound.”
Trump’s slush fund is an example of: just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be done.
Cruz laid out the number of Senate Republicans who were willing to vote with Democrats.