CONGRESS/GOP/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “While President Donald Trump was busy rhetorically destroying America’s neighbor to the north and disrupting the broader G7 conference over the weekend, you could have heard a pin drop among congressional Republicans. And while the President was in Singapore meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — a meeting that Republicans had decried when then-President Barack Obama said he would be open to sitting down with Kim — the response from the bulk of Republicans back home was largely celebratory. Why so quiet and respectful? Two names: Martha Roby and Mark Sanford. Those are Republican members of Congress from Alabama and South Carolina, respectively. And both have been on-again, off-again critics of aspects of Trump’s behavior and approach, both as a candidate and while in office. And both seem to be paying a political price for that willingness to criticize the President. Roby was forced into a runoff earlier this month with a Republican who cast her as insufficiently loyal to Trump. And now Sanford, a South Carolina Republican in the House, faces a serious primary challenge in his Charleston-area House seat from a state legislator portraying him as — wait for it — insufficiently loyal to Trump.”
-Chris Cillizza, “2 names that explain why Republican politicians are afraid of criticizing Donald Trump,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, June 12, 2018 4:42 pm