GOP Senate hits the panic button as Donald Trump’s impeachment gets underway

Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats are set to announce any minute now that they’re impeaching Donald Trump over his criminal attempt at conspiring with the president of Ukraine to alter the outcome of the 2020 election. Even as this plays out, House Intel Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has announced that the whistleblower now wants to testify to the committee as soon as this week.

This leaves the Republican Senate in a very tricky place. They know Donald Trump committed one of the most serious crimes imaginable. They know the proof is going to come out. They know that most Americans are going to end up agreeing that Trump should be impeached. Sooner or later they’ll have to vote on whether to remove Trump from office, or to censure him, or to acquit him. Several of these GOP Senators are up for reelection in 2020 – and they’ll have to answer for their impeachment vote at that time.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer presented a resolution this afternoon calling for the full whistleblower complaint about Trump’s phone call to Ukraine to be immediately released, every single Republican Senator – including Mitch McConnell voted in favor of it. This resolution is non-binding, but it certainly places additional pressure on Trump to release the complaint. Suffice it to say that this vote is not what Trump was hoping for.

And yet we’re now in a place where Donald Trump has become so toxically radioactive, Senate Republicans are clearly worried about the fallout landing on them. Their vote today on the complaint is a sign that, at the least, they’re panicked enough to realize that they have to try to cover their own backsides, even if it means doing so at Trump’s expense.