Trump’s attacks on Republicans could leave him friendless if a recall comes.

Washington: President Donald Trump has intensified his attacks on Republican senators, an approach he may regret if he is ever challenged and the Senate has to weigh the accusations against him stemming from an investigation into Russia’s meddling in US elections 2016.

More than half of the 11 Republicans in the Senate Judiciary Committee, who would be central to any proceedings to remove Trump from office, have become entangled with the Republican president even on Thursday when he fired the tweets of the dawn.

In a Twitter series, Trump called on Sen. Lindsey Graham to “seek publicity” and said she “simply can not forget her electoral defeat” in the 2016 presidential race. Trump also assaulted Sen. Jeff Flake, another Republican critic, as “A no-factor in the Senate,” adding, “It’s toxic.”

Flake and Graham are members of the Judiciary Committee, whose president, Chuck Grassley, has urged Trump to reduce it.

“He must be 100 percent clinging to ideas and forgetting personalities,” Grassley said Friday when asked whether Trump could meet without friends in Congress that he would have to defend himself in a recall process.

For his part, Grassley said his views would not be colored by a past presidential sniper.

“Let’s say the House of Representatives accused the President of the United States, so I’m a jury,” Grassley said. “The Senate is the jury that decides whether to be charged, the jury must be impartial.”

Low traction

In Congress there is little talk of seriously discussing Trump’s removal from office.

Two Democrats in the House of Representatives have filed a contentious article alleging obstruction of justice by the president in connection with an ongoing investigation into possible links between his 2016 campaign and Moscow.

But Republicans control the House, as well as the Senate, and the impeachment article has gained little strength.

Under the United States Constitution, the House of Representatives may vote to approve an indictment. If that happens, he goes to the Senate, which acts as a jury and weighs the charges as far as the House is concerned. It takes a two-thirds vote in the Senate to convict. Approval leads to the removal of the office.

Two presidents have been indicted by the House: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Neither was convicted by the Senate. President Richard Nixon, who faces an almost certain charge over the Watergate scandal, resigned in 1974.

In the Clinton impeachment bout, the committee was a resource for the full Senate and could play a similar role in any future rehearsal.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump Needs Friends

Having friends would help any president who will face the impeachment, said Charles Brain, a White House liaison with Congress during Clinton’s impeachment process.

Without those friends, Brain said, lawmakers “can rest easy,” refusing to share information with the White House and letting attacks against the president gain momentum.

In addition to Flake and Graham, Trump has faced several issues before and after his election with Republican Senator Ted Cruz and other members of the Judiciary Committee, including Grassley, John Cornyn, Orrin Hatch, Thom Tillis and Ben Sasse.

The president has also attacked Republican senators who are not on the committee, including Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski.

Special Attorney Robert Mueller is investigating whether Trump’s campaign was arranged with Russia to influence the election. Grassley’s committee is also studying the issue, as are other panels of Congress.

The Kremlin denies any electoral interference. Trump has dismissed Mueller’s probe as a “witch hunt” and denies any collusion. In the end, Mueller could end up clearing Trump and his assistants of any foul.

If not, at least two questions will come up in a possible prosecution inquiry, said Elaine Kamarck, a leading member of the liberal think tank Brookings Institution.

One would be about the severity of any possible charges. Another, he said, would be “do you have friends, do you have people who believe in you and want to save your presidency?”
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