But most GOP senators are sticking with Trump.
Mitt Romney said former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ extraordinary critique of President Donald Trump was “very powerful.” Lisa Murkowski said she’s “struggling” with whether to support Trump’s reelection and even suggested Mattis’ comments could cause the dam to break in the GOP.
“I thought General Mattis’ words were true, and honest, and necessary, and overdue,” Murkowski told reporters. “I felt like perhaps we are getting to a point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally — and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up.”
But those two Senate Republicans are outliers. The GOP conference largely declined on Thursday to endorse Mattis’ view that Trump is trying to deliberately divide the country and is a threat to the Constitution.
Mattis’ blistering criticisms, which were printed in The Atlantic on Wednesday, amount to an exclamation point on a brutal week of tension between Trump and his party after protesters were forcefully cleared from outside the White House for a presidential photo-op, and after Trump threatened to deploy troops to the streets of U. S. cities to quell unruly protests over the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
Yet Trump’s GOP firewall still seems largely secure.
“I don’t think that’s going to make a difference that some have talked about in terms of being the straw that breaks the camel’s back, so to speak,” said Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.). “How many times have we heard that?”
Several GOP senators took pains not to criticize either man, while some simply said they hadn’t read Mattis’ remarks and declined to address them.
