Republicans despondent

Hill Republicans despondent over Trump

Many senators are simply refusing to say anything about their presumptive nominee.

By Seung Min Kim and Burgess Everett

Senate Republicans have tried to work with Donald Trump. They’ve offered gentle advice and firm guidance, hoping he’ll morph into a general election candidate who won’t kill their chances of keeping the Senate, or better yet, will give Hillary Clinton a run for her money.

None of it has worked. And now a palpable mix of despair and resignation has permeated the Senate Republican Conference. Many lawmakers are openly frustrated, and refusing to defend the comments and actions of their own standard-bearer, the man they’ve endorsed for president.

Trump’s insinuation that President Barack Obama may be sympathetic to Islamic State terrorists was the final straw for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“I’m not going to be commenting on the presidential candidates today,” the Kentucky Republican said Tuesday, an abrupt reversal after several weeks of weighing in on Trump’s performance, particularly the ways he believed the candidate needed to improve.

McConnell’s No. 2, Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, declared he is done talking about Trump until after the election — nearly five months away.

“Wish me luck,” he said.

Cornyn, whose Capitol office is located just steps from the Senate chamber, has been among the most accessible GOP senators on matters involving the presidential race.

Then there was Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, an oft-mentioned potential vice presidential pick for Trump. The chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who met with the presumptive nominee at Trump Tower in New York last month, seemed almost dejected as he was pressed Tuesday about how Trump has handled the aftermath of the mass shooting Sunday at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

“I don’t know that I really have a lot to say,” the usually voluble Corker said twice. He eventually noted that he has offered advice to the businessman at key times but said he has been “discouraged by the results,” panning Trump’s high-profile foreign policy speech in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Monday.

“It wasn’t the type [of address] that one would expect a person who is wanting to lead the greatest nation in the world to make,” Corker added. “Fifty people have perished, and [53] more have been harmed.” Trump “continues to be discouraging.”

For Republicans grappling with the prospect that Trump could erase their Senate majority this November, the GOP standard-bearer has done little to pivot from the aggressive rhetoric and controversial policy stances that enthralled Republican primary voters.

Once again, vulnerable GOP senators running for reelection in swing states found themselves seeking daylight from Trump.

“Listen, I’m responsible for my own words and my own actions,” said Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. On Trump repeating his call to bar Muslim immigrants from entering the United States, Johnson stressed: “Again, I’ve stated very clearly I disagree with that.”

“You know I’ve previously disagreed with him on his viewpoint that we should have a religious-based test in terms of people’s admission to the United States,” Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said. She instead emphasized that lawmakers need to zero in on gaps in the U.S. intelligence system, adding: “I think the focus really needs to be more based on the facts and the evidence.”

Even Republicans in influential national security positions had little to say about Trump’s response to Orlando and his fitness to be commander in chief. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, who has found himself in an unexpectedly competitive reelection race in Arizona, declined to respond to questions about the presumptive nominee and how he has handled himself post-Orlando.

Meanwhile, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who is also on the ballot in November, simply responded that he hadn’t seen Trump’s speech.

“I’ll go read,” Burr said as he ducked into an elevator at the Capitol.

Trump’s former opponents in the GOP presidential contest weren’t too keen, either, on Trump’s latest remarks.

“I’m happy to address the substantive challenges facing this country,” said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the effective runner-up to Trump in the Republican primary. “But I have no interest in providing play-by-play color commentary on the ongoing political battles in the presidential battle.”

While Republicans reluctantly endorsing Trump are delicately denouncing his proposals while supporting the nominee himself, the latest round of controversial positions aired by Trump has only emboldened the vocal faction of Republicans at the Capitol who have said they can’t endorse the billionaire mogul.

Trump not only repeated his call to bar Muslim immigrants — a plan that would not have applied to Orlando shooter Omar Mateen, a U.S. citizen born in New York — but also said it should be broadened to countries with a proven history of terrorism against the United States or its allies. The presumptive GOP nominee called for Obama’s resignation over the president’s reluctance to use the label “radical Islam” and accused Obama on Tuesday of “continu[ing] to prioritize our enemy over our allies, and for that matter, the American people.”

Trump also tweeted a self-congratulatory note mere hours after the Orlando massacre, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

“He’s won 13 million votes total so far; he’s got to get 65 million or so to win the general election, which includes a lot of independents and Republicans that don’t feel as he does,” said Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), who has long been dismayed by Trump. “He can’t win the general election talking the way he is.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) deemed Trump’s suggestion that Obama was sympathizing with Islamic terrorists “highly offensive” and again panned the mogul’s call to bar Muslims from the United States.

“Mr. Trump’s reaction to declare war on the faith is the worst possible solution. You’ll never win this war if you don’t have partners in the faith,” said Graham, a respected national security voice in the GOP. “I have said over and over again, I don’t think he has the judgment, the temperament or the experience to deal with what we’re facing.”

Added Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who isn’t sure she’ll even vote for Trump: “I think his comments are inappropriate when the nation is in mourning over the worst terrorism attack that we’ve had since 9/11.”

Other Republicans tried to make the best of it, pointing out what they saw as bright spots in Trump’s remarks.

Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma said he found Trump’s post-Orlando comments “very appropriate.” But he quickly clarified that he wasn’t talking about barring Muslims from the United States.

“Sooner or later, you have to say what the reality is. And radical Islam is responsible for destroying this country, and this is probably the most heinous of all their acts,” Inhofe said. “As long as we have an administration that doesn’t recognize that, we’re at war, and everyone knows it except for Hillary and Obama.”