On Sunday evening, the president of the United States told the world that he thought a member of Congress should be tried for treason. "I want Schiff questioned at the highest level," Donald Trump tweeted of Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who is leading an impeachment inquiry into Trump. It was a dangerous boundary shattered by a desperate president. Republicans were silent.
Less than three hours later, Trump unleashed another gust of tweets quoting a longtime supporter who warned what might happen if the president was impeached for asking a foreign government for dirt on a U.S. political opponent. "It will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal," evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress was quoted as saying in Trump's tweet. It was a gleeful stoking of the president's inflammatory rhetoric. This time, just one member of his party managed to find some words of disgust.
Republicans aren't coming to the rescue, America. Not those who represent North Carolina. Not those who could exercise their constitutional obligation to check the behavior of the executive branch. That time has come, again and again, with this president. Each time, with fewer and fewer exceptions, Republicans have meekly let the moment pass.
That abdication never has been more clear than in the days since news broke of Trump's Ukraine call and a subsequent whistleblower's complaint, much of which has been confirmed as accurate by the White House itself. The disturbing revelations were met with plaintive "last chance" calls for Republicans to question what happened, to express a minimum of concern about Trump's extraordinary transgression and White House attempts to hide it. This editorial board joined that chorus, as we have before with North Carolina's leaders.
Richard Burr, North Carolina's senior senator and chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has at least responded to Trump by taking the first careful steps of interviewing witnesses regarding the whistleblower's complaint. Thom Tillis, however, has taken a decidedly different path. In a statement last week, he scolded "another pathetic attempt by Democrats to destroy President Trump with falsehoods." Other N.C. Republicans, including Mark Meadows and Patrick McHenry, followed suit.
The GOP response is, certainly, a testament to the sway that Donald Trump has over his party. But it's also a reminder of a reality not confined to this administration or Congress _ that elected officials, like so many of us, tend to look after themselves first. Republicans know if they were to do the right thing and condemn Donald Trump en masse, voters might not only turn on the president but could punish his party in elections to come. So like politicians have done forever, Republicans have denied or minimized Trump's abhorrent behavior.
That doesn't mean America is powerless. Democrats are right to take the step of an impeachment inquiry, regardless of its political risk or whether Trump ultimately gets to speed through their stop sign. The president may have broken the law. His White House may have attempted to cover up corrupt behavior. Congress has a responsibility to investigate.
But this week has become about more than a call to the Ukraine. It's about a president who is threatening perceived foes with charges of treason and inciting his supporters with visions of civil war. It's about a dismantling of a bedrock principle in this country that regardless of the degree of our disagreements, we have structures in place to peaceably find a way forward.
We wish Republicans would protect those principles and structures, but we no longer believe it will happen. Neither does Donald Trump.
