WASHINGTON (AP) — For House Republicans, the political year began with a pep rally of sorts as President Donald Trump gathered them at the Kennedy Center in Washington for a rousing speech. But by the time the legislators had completed their first week of work this mid-term election year, the fractures in the party were already showing.
From pushback to Trump’s “Donroe doctrine” of aggression in the Western Hemisphere to breakdowns in party unity on health care, Republican lawmakers are showing signs of independence from Trump after spending much of the past year acquiescing to virtually every one of his demands. It showed a new dynamic in the GOP as Republicans begin a difficult campaign to maintain control of both the House and the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, speaking at the U.S.-Mexico border Friday with a group of Republican Senate candidates, said Republicans were “going to be laser-focused” on affordability issues and pointed to legislation in the works on housing and health care.
Thune’s border trip and talk of affordability were a nod back to some of the main themes of Trump’s presidential campaign. But attention in Washington has been dominated lately instead by Trump’s military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, his threats to use military force to take control of Greenland, the release of case files on Jeffrey Epstein and a debate over the extension of insurance subsidies offered under the Affordable Care Act – an issue where Republicans have been struggling to find unity.
Recent shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in several US cities, including one that killed a woman in Minneapolis, have also raised new questions about the Republicans’ hard-line immigration agenda and diverted attention from Trump’s handling of the border, which they see as a political success.
Even so, Trump still has a lot of command over most of the party. That was demonstrated this week by a pair of unsuccessful House Veto votes, in which most GOP members sided with the president despite previously voting for low-profile bills.
The Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who has been one of the few Republicans who have consistently challenged Trump, said that “there was some bully pulpit intimidation going on” by the president that caused the veto overrides to fail.
Anyway, the Democrats are making the case that Trump is being distracted from the needs of the Americans, especially after the attack on Venezuela.
“He’s headed for another endless and costly war, while American families here struggle with rising costs,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
Venezuela war powers vote draws GOP support
To prove their point, Democrats are forcing votes on war powers resolutions that would stop Trump from attacking Venezuela without congressional approval. Such measures rarely succeed, but a procedural vote on the legislation garnered support from five Republicans Thursday, setting up a final vote next week. House Democrats are also advancing a similar resolution.
GOP senators who voted for the legislation tried to ease the conflict with Trump by arguing that their positions were in line with his own campaign promises to reduce US commitments abroad.
“A prolonged campaign in Venezuela involving the US military, even if unintentional, would be the opposite of President Trump’s goal of ending foreign entanglements,” said Senator Todd Young, Republican of Indiana who voted for the war powers resolution, in a long statement explaining his vote.
Trump reacted with fury. The president immediately called for the five Republicans, who included Maine Senator Susan Collins, who will be re-elected this year, to “never be re-elected to office.”
Republicans are already dealing with the withdrawal of several lawmakers who have had uneasy relations with Trump, and there were concerns that such a fight could complicate the picture of their campaign even more.
“If Susan is not the senator from Maine, we will end up with a Democrat,” said Senator Bernie Moreno, Republican of Ohio. “That would be 10 times worse. But I appreciate that President Trump is absolutely upset.”
GOP pushes back on Trump’s plans for Greenland
Trump’s desire to own Greenland and his administration’s decision not to rule out military force also met with significant resistance from GOP lawmakers this week.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who is retiring after touting Trump last summer, took the Senate floor to proclaim that he was “sick of stupid.” He specifically criticized White House deputy policy chief Stephen Miller, who made comments that Greenland should be part of the United States.
“I want good advice for this president, because I want this president to have a good legacy,” Tillis added. “And this nonsense about what’s going on with Greenland is a distraction from the good work he’s doing, and the enthusiasts who said it was a good idea should lose their jobs.”
Other Republicans, including Thune and the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Roger Wicker, also gently pushed back on military threats against Denmark, which is a NATO ally of the United States.
After meeting with the Danish ambassador, Wicker said that it was Denmark’s right not to sell Greenland.
“I’m worried about Greenland. I’m worried about some of the things he does. I don’t think so,” said Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, another retiring Republican. “I feel that Congress should be more independent and should provide checks and balances here.”
Bacon added that Trump still had the ability to “unite” his Republican colleagues, but that Trump’s threats had “strained my spine.”
Health care votes expose divisions
During Trump’s speech at the Kennedy Center on Tuesday, he urged Republicans to own the health care issue. However, when the House voted Thursday on a Democratic proposal to extend outdated health care subsidies to Affordable Care Act health plans, 17 Republicans broke with the party leadership to help pass the bill.
“People recognize the challenge here, which is to address health care affordability,” said Rep. Mike Lawler, Republican of New York who voted for the proposal.
He still criticized the Affordable Care Act, a signature piece of legislation for Democrats, but the health care debate unfolding in Congress is one that Democrats feel confident making a central campaign issue.
“In this first full week of the new year, House Democrats – each of us joined by 17 Republicans – joined in a bipartisan way to protect the health care of the American people,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said after the vote.
January 6 plaque coming out of storage
On the fifth anniversary of the attack on the Capitol, Trump told House Republicans that he had told his supporters to go “peacefully and patriotically” to confront Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election. The White House also unveiled a website that portrayed the January 6 attack as a “witch hunt” against him by Democrats and some Republicans in Congress.
But the Republican-controlled Senate this week agreed to display a plaque honoring the police who defended the Capitol — a cause that has become a point of contention with Trump as president. The plaque had been kept in storage rather than being displayed because the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had said that the memorial was not in compliance with the law.
It was Tillis again who pushed the issue on the Republican side. He said it was important to honor the police and staff who risked their lives and their own safety that day.
Democrats who joined the effort said they were alarmed by the White House’s attempt to reframe the narrative.
“It is so important that we be honest with the American people about what happened,” said Senator Jeff Merkley, Democrat of Oregon.
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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Steven Sloan, Lisa Mascaro and Nathan Ellgren contributed.
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This story has corrected the party affiliation of Rep. Mike Lawler. He is a Republican, not a Democrat.