DEMS/GOP/INVESTIGATIONS/SOCIAL MEDIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Many congressional Republicans are done trying to defend President Donald Trump after he said he was the victim of a lynching on Tuesday [10-22-19] — but that doesn’t mean they’re trying to rein him in, either. Trump’s tweet comparing the impeachment process to a ‘lynching’ set off a firestorm of Democratic criticism but largely a wrist slap from Republicans, who have grown frustrated but accustomed to the president’s inflammatory rhetoric. After more than four years of trying to limit the president’s divisive style, asking him to stop tweeting or focus on the economy, the Republican Party has given up any pretense of trying to rein him in…Republicans had already been privately expressing frustration that Trump has been acting as a one-man war room in the impeachment fight, lashing out in Cabinet meetings and lobbing attacks from his Twitter account.”
–Melanie Zanona, Burgess Everett and Marianne Levine, “Republicans quit trying to rein in Trump after ‘lynching’ tweet,” Politico, October 22, 2019 6:15 pm