GOP/INTELLIGENCE/RUSSIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Republicans scrambled on Tuesday [7-17-18] to mitigate the damage done by President Trump’s embrace of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia over his own intelligence agencies, setting a public hearing in the Senate next week, examining new sanctions on Moscow and reaffirming the fraying Western alliance…After Republicans pleaded privately with the White House for Mr. Trump to clean up his remarks, the president walked back his comments, asserting that he had misspoken a day earlier in Helsinki, Finland. But amid a flurry of overlapping policy proposals and a drumbeat of Democratic demands for swift action, the ability of congressional Republicans to move beyond statements of condemnation to legislation and oversight that could change Mr. Trump’s course was very much in doubt. Many Republicans found themselves wrestling with an unwelcome dilemma two years in the making: They could publicly undermine the president and risk upsetting the loyal Trump voters they need to win elections, or they could stifle their own long-held beliefs that Russia is a dangerous actor set on destabilizing the United States. At least some were dealing with a moment they helped create: Since the summer of 2016, they have abetted the president’s refusal to recognize Russia’s actions by initiating their own attacks on those who would expose the Kremlin’s efforts.”
–Nicholas Fandos and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Republicans Scramble to Contain Trump’s Damage, but Path Is Unclear,” The New York Times online, July 17, 2018