New York Times
By Jennifer Steinhauer
February 29, 2016
The
unraveling of a party hierarchy increasingly in the shadow of Donald J.
Trump has shifted to Capitol Hill, where Republican members of Congress
are beginning to split
between those who could accept, even embrace, the billionaire as their
nominee and those who have vowed, “Never Trump.”
Rather
than unify, Republicans are feeling increasing pressure to align
themselves with traditional conservatism or ride the wave of resentment
toward it that has led
many voters Mr. Trump’s way.
“I
told Donald Trump, ‘This isn’t a campaign, this is a movement,’ ”
Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, told a large crowd of
supporters Sunday when he became
the first senator to endorse the businessman.
But
Senator Ben Sasse, the freshman Republican from Nebraska, countered on
Facebook: “Please understand: I’m not an establishment Republican, and I
will never support
Hillary Clinton. I’m a movement conservative who was elected over the
objections of the G.O.P. establishment. My current answer for who I
would support in a hypothetical matchup between Mr. Trump and Mrs.
Clinton is: Neither of them.”
While
many senators are waiting for the results of the primaries on Tuesday
to endorse Mr. Trump, renounce him or reserve the right to remain
silent, many are privately
pondering which camp to join. There is no playbook for the choice they
face. In the last half-century, no prospective Republican front-runner
at this stage has been the object of such intraparty animus.
Some
members say they are merely reflecting their constituents’ views. “I
come from an interesting rural county with a lot of Rust Belt union
folks, and Donald Trump is
truly resonating through western New York,” said Representative Chris
Collins, one of a handful of House Republicans who have endorsed the
front-runner. “It starts first and foremost with the leader who is going
to make our borders safe again, and some of
the rhetoric, he realizes, he now has to moderate.”
But
other leading Republicans are saying a Trump nomination could hurt
Republicans running for re-election in swing states. “We can’t have a
nominee be an albatross around
the down-ballot races,” Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2
Republican in the Senate, told CNN on Monday. “That’s a concern of
mine.”
Democrats
are already seizing on earlier comments that Republican lawmakers,
including Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin and Senator John McCain of
Arizona, have made
suggesting that they will support any nominee out of party loyalty.
Several
Republican senators, led by Tim Scott of South Carolina, have
enthusiastically endorsed Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, while House
Republicans are more scattered
in their choices. But regardless of their first choice, lawmakers are
facing pressure to choose sides in what has become an almost moral
quandary for Republicans: whether they can tolerate Mr. Trump as the de
facto head of the party.
“Just
as the burden is on the establishment to understand that Trump will
likely be the nominee,” said Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and
presidential candidate,
“so is the burden on Trump to understand that establishment doesn’t
have to support him.”
Mr.
Sessions has never been a leader of a large faction on Capitol Hill,
and indeed on Monday he seemed to back away slightly from his fulsome
endorsement, urging Mr.
Trump to denounce white supremacists after the billionaire businessman
initially declined to criticize David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan
leader.
But
in at least one important area, immigration, Mr. Sessions and Mr. Trump
are closely aligned. The senator has made it almost a single-minded
pursuit to thwart any overhaul
of the nation’s immigration laws that he deems “amnesty,” and he served
as a one-man wrecking crew in 2006, 2007 and 2013 when Congress pursued
changes to immigration laws. That role alone has made him a power
broker in an election cycle in which Mr. Trump
has soared in part because of his anti-immigration statements.
More
Republicans, like Senators Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of
South Carolina, have been vocal critics of Mr. Trump, and former Senator
Tom Coburn of Oklahoma,
a staunch fiscal conservative, added his voice on Monday.
“He simply lacks the character, skills and policy knowledge to turn his grandiose promises into reality,” he said.
Mr.
Coburn’s replacement, Senator James Lankford, a former minister, is
unlikely to back Mr. Trump, reflecting a possibly growing discomfort
with the candidate among religious
conservatives even as he so far has won a sizable share of
evangelicals’ votes.
“I
think a lot of people in churches are starting to say, ‘This guy
doesn’t reflect my values,’ ” said Tim Griffin, the lieutenant governor
of Arkansas, which holds a
primary on Tuesday with polls indicating a close race.
“I don’t let my kids watch shows with cussing in them,” he said. “I never thought that would include Donald Trump on C-Span.”
Representative
Mo Brooks, Republican of Alabama, has broken with Mr. Sessions and
thrown his support behind Senator Ted Cruz of Texas for the presidential
nomination.
Mr. Brooks has largely made an economic argument, but has also said he
objects to what he characterized as Mr. Trump’s admitted history of
adultery.
Some
members, particularly those in tough re-election fights, are electing
to stay vague and elliptical. When asked in a local radio interview
Monday about Mr. Trump’s
initial reluctance to denounce Mr. Duke, Senator Ron Johnson,
Republican of Wisconsin, said more than once that he “prays every night”
that the Republican presidential nominee “is a person of integrity,
intelligence, ideas, and courage.”
For
other members, the balance of the Supreme Court remains a key issue,
and on that logic alone they are resisting being too critical of the
potential nominee, no matter
his flaws.
“I’d rather be in our shoes than in Hillary Clinton’s shoes any day of the week,” Mr. Collins said.
Worried
about the prospects of a negative Trump effect on some House races —
even though gerrymandered districts make it exceedingly unlikely for
Republicans to lose the
House — Kevin McCarthy of California, the House majority leader, is
advising members to focus on local issues and priorities in their
respective districts.
“I
don’t think there is any pressure in the House,” said Representative
Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, who had endorsed Senator Rand
Paul of Kentucky. “I think
as the winner emerges I think you will see my colleagues in the House
starting to endorse the front-runner. But it will be motivated by a
desire to get a seat on the bus.”
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