Eye summer exit

‘Constant chaos’: Senate Republicans eye summer exit

'All of us want to get back to where there's a lot of sanity. And that's back home,' says Mike Rounds.

By BURGESS EVERETT and MARIANNE LEVINE

Senate Republicans’ long, hot summer of Trump is finally ending. And for many in the GOP, it can’t come soon enough.

In just the month of July, the party has weathered a flurry of racist tweets from President Donald Trump attacking four minority congresswomen, a pro-Trump “send her back” chant and the president’s barrage on the city of Baltimore and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). Senate Republicans are also swallowing a budget-busting fiscal deal negotiated by the Trump administration and Speaker Nancy Pelosi that many in the party loathe because of its spending increases.

And they’ve been confronted with questions about their support of a former Labor secretary who gave a sweetheart deal to a wealthy sex offender, the replacement of beloved former colleague Dan Coats as director of national intelligence and sexual assault allegations against a high-ranking general seeking Senate approval. Not to mention former special counsel Robert Mueller's testimony that sparked a wave of impeachment endorsements from House Democrats.

Asked to sum up the last few weeks, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) observed: “It’s like there’s constant chaos.”

“It’s frustrating because we’re doing a lot of work on lowering health costs. And I did a major speech on the Senate floor and it gets no coverage. Instead what I’m asked about is the latest tweet, which I obviously I don’t agree with,” Collins said of Trump’s attacks on Cummings. “We’re constantly being diverted from policy and issues that really affect the lives of the American people.”

On Thursday, the Senate is expected to recess for five weeks. Few Republican senators will have town halls; some will hold public events in which they are pressed on the latest from the White House. But overall, the GOP says they expect a respite from the constant tension between their majority, the president, the media and the larger political atmosphere.

"All of us want to get back to where there's a lot of sanity. And that's back home,” said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.).

“It's time for a break for all of us,” agreed Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). “Everybody tends to get a little testy towards the end.”

A handful of Republican senators have been willing to criticize the president when they believe he runs afoul of governmental norms, or civility. But as the month of July became more and more disorderly, the level of interest steadily decreased in opining on Trump’s order for the Democratic freshman “squad” to “go back” to where they came from or the president’s allegation that Cummings, an African American, is “racist.”

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) vowed that if there are “things I thought were highly divisive, racist, misogynistic, anti-immigrant I would speak out. And I’ve done out.”

“If necessary, I’ll do that in the future. I hope it’s not necessary,” Romney said. “I don’t respond to all of the things that come forward that in many cases are inappropriate. I just don’t think it’s productive to do a daily commentary on what the president’s doing.”

After Trump first began laying into Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan on July 14, the GOP seethed with outrage. Several Republicans said Trump’s message that those lawmakers couldn’t “leave fast enough” was racist, others pleaded with him to stay on message.

Just days later, the angst ratcheted up anew as Republicans pleaded with the president to quell “send her back” chants aimed at Omar at a North Carolina rally. Romney called them “offensive,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called them “not appropriate.” Nine days later, Trump attacked Baltimore and Cummings’s leadership, plunging the GOP into yet another series of questions about the president, race and the party’s image.

“I’ve been dealing with this since 2015 when I got in the race. And now he’s the president, it’s relevant and he gets a lot of coverage,” said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who ran against Trump. His philosophy: “You don’t have to comment on every issue going on the planet. Or every political statement.”

“Go back home and leave the nation’s capitol? Yeah. I can’t wait,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). “People talk about stuff here that people back home aren’t so obsessed about. Like what the president tweeted and what he said.”

Still, many Republicans know the president’s controversial and aggressive attacks on his foes shape the national perception of the Republican Party. And then there are the times Trump’s moves directly affect the narrow Senate majority.

On Wednesday, the Senate Armed Services Committee advanced the nomination of Gen. John Hyten to be the No. 2 military officer in the country, despite an accusation of sexual misconduct. Most Republicans dismissed them, but not all.

“It is hard. He’s a brilliant officer,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who voted against Hyten’s nomination, in part because Hyten didn’t act on complaints regarding his accuser’s military leadership early enough. “But he exhibited a lack of leadership.”

The full Senate will still have to weigh in, a potentially difficult vote for some senators. Moreover, axing Labor Secretary Alex Acosta over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal means the Senate will have to confirm a new Labor secretary in an election year; Trump has nominated Eugene Scalia, a labor lawyer and the son of former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. And replacing Coats, a former Indiana senator, with Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas) as the president’s top Intelligence adviser could get complicated as well.

“I was surprised. I didn’t see it coming. Because Coats had done a great job,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who said Ratcliffe is “super sharp” but not a known commodity on intel issues. “I don’t know his background on this. He was on House Intel, but I’ve got lots of questions.”

Many Republicans like to say that while the media and political strategists are scrutinizing Trump’s every move, the Senate is slowly getting things done under the radar. Two Senate committees advanced a bipartisan package of bills intended to lower health care costs in recent weeks, perhaps the most ambitious effort brewing in the Senate. Other efforts have broken down. The Senate is unlikely to pass substantive legislation to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and bipartisan asylum reform talks have been abandoned.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee said he recommends watching Washington as split-screen: On one is Trump and his battles with Democrats, his Twitter account and Mueller; on the other is a two-year budget agreement and the healthcare effort.

“Watch the one screen, you would think everything is chaos. If you look at the other you would see a two-year budget agreement and important movement to reduce out of pocket health care costs,” Alexander said. The Senate’s under-the-radar work is “not really as newsworthy, it's not as exciting but it's more important.”

Thursday will mark the last day of that split screen for awhile. But even the last day in session until September carries with it some drama, as the Republican Caucus agonizes over how much support to give a budget backed by Trump that increases spending and undercuts all the party’s arguments against spending during the Obama era.

"I wouldn't say we're ending on a high note or a low note. The budget vote will be divisive and in my judgment it will create as many problems as it solves,” said Sen. John N. Kennedy (R-La.), turning reflective about the upcoming recess.

"What I'm going to miss the least is the feeling that you're working 12 to 14 hours a day and you wonder how much you've accomplished. I'm not gonna miss that,” he said.