but the president s own political appointees who have been critical of what he s done. i think that s so significant. and the syria decision is something that could unique republicans and democrats, but the uniting of republicans in condemnation of the white house policy is what i think is so significant. because it goes to something really large. the question is the president corrupt and is the president incompetent? those are fundamental questions that could start to turn more and more republicans against this white house. and what we ve seen over the past few days with mulvaney s behavior i think brings that question into sharper focus. i think it is significant that mitt romney is speaking out publicly. while he does say these things when asked, it s not often he sits down for an extended interview the likes of which he did with axios. he wants to get that message out. and i also think it s not just mitt romney anymore. it s not this tidal wave of republicans. but francis rooney,
no cracks in the wall is just about what he can afford. aaron, i m so thrilled you re with us. you re writing about exactly this. the president reversed course on just one of these topics, the g-7, after learning impeachment weary republicans were tired of defending him. talk about that. yeah, so every time something like this happens i think back to 2011. the white house, the obama white house put forward this big budget deal that a lot of people in congress weren t terribly happy with. it was a bipartisan effort, and congressman cleaver came forward and called it a sugar coated satan sandwich. since the impeachment inquiry has been launched here, the president trump has introduced two satan sandwiches to this republican caucus. one is the syria decision, which they are overwhelmingly uncomfortable with. many of them are talking about this in almost terms of a slaughter of isis being rekindled in the reej p. and then of course you have the
think there could ever be a flip once again of graham s support for the president? a handful, that s a new one. i could see that one catching on. just call somebody a handful. that was senator lindsey graham talking to jonathan swann in his capitol hill house. and question swe can see lindse getting exacerbated with the president. he is still sticking with him but the syria decision put some distance there that hadn t been there before. here s why they matter so much. senator romney, his friends can see him voting for conviction. there would need to be 20 republican senators who flip in order to convict the president, remove him from office if he were to be impeached by the house. mitt romney could be one of the first to go. senator lindsey graham, if he went, he would take a lot of other ones with him. if he went it would be part of a big wave. that s why each of them is worthy of watching. let me get your thoughts on rudy giuliani for a moment
it would have made it to an article of impeachment if he had stuck to the decision. but if you want to keep the votes of the senate republicans with you when it comes to impeachment, it would help if you keep their confidence at the same time so they re not listening for that one thing that makes their brain flip the switch and say i m done here. and the loudest part of it is syria. syria is both honest, angry objections to what the president did. republicans and democrats think he left an al eye on the battlefield. but also it s become a vehicle for other frustration. they have carried frustration for a long time. after the president himself tweeted republicans should stick together, trying to keep the team together, mitch mcconnell, as neo-isolationism reers its head on both the left and right, we can expect to hear more talk
president back down from a decision just because he s criticized for it. but i think when you step back, it s the broader scope of the president being criticized on several front right now, and this is one of them that the president backed off of. it s interesting it comes after he made mick mulvaney go out and defend him, and now they re changing their mind. i was up on capitol hill all week talking to republican members and we ll get to the conversation obviously about impeachment as well. but what i heard repeatedly after that doral announcement was just kind of puzzlement from republicans. they were all trying to do the dance where they say he s going to do this at cost, he wasn t going to profit from this supposedly. but they were all struggling to figure out why would you as kaitlyn said, why would you do this now? you ve got so many things on your plate, and i m sure that that message got communicated back to the white house. why would you do it anyway, because it raises o