Trump and Republican Senators

It’s undisputed. Our intelligence agencies knew by February that Russia (i.e. Putin) was paying the Taliban a bounty for each American soldier they killed. Intelligence officials say they briefed Trump on this matter at the time. Trump did nothing about it. Confronted with the facts, Trump says that he was never briefed about the matter. Trump is clearly lying. If he had not been briefed about it he would be outraged. Instead he has treated the matter as if it were of no more consequence than if a mouse had been found in the White House kitchen. 

Appalling as Trump’s behavior is, it’s of a piece with what we’ve come to expect of him. No less a tragedy of our times than his holding the reins of power is that Republican senators and cabinet members fail to repudiate him and make it their mission to remove him from office.