Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019 | 2 a.m.
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With partymates like Mark Amodei’s, he doesn’t need enemies.
Amodei, Nevada’s only GOP member in the U.S. House of Representatives, got carved up by his fellow Republicans this past weekend after saying Congress should examine the whistleblower complaint about President Donald Trump’s infamous call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
“Let’s put it through the process and see what happens,” he said when asked what he thought about House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.
The knives came out when his remarks were interpreted by several news organizations, including Fox News, as Amodei expressing support for the impeachment probe. Amodei’s camp immediately went into damage-control mode, saying he didn’t support impeachment, but not before his Facebook page came alive with commenters calling him a traitor, a RINO (Republican In Name Only) and similar names. Even after he tried to wriggle out of the situation, saying he felt the complaint should be sent to intelligence committees, he still faced attacks. Fox News host Laura Ingraham unloaded on him on Twitter, saying: “Now is not the time for vague or opaque statements from Republicans. Reporters shouldn’t have to get them to do cleanup on their remarks,” she tweeted.
Welcome to the Party of Trump, where blind loyalty to Trump is required and anyone who doesn’t show it is labeled an enemy.
Not that Amodei deserves much sympathy. Yes, he was on target in saying Congress should hold the president accountable, so he certainly didn’t deserve to get beaten up on that point.
But Amodei helped drive the Republican Party’s ugly metamorphosis into a cult of personality, serving as the Nevada state chairman for Trump’s campaign in 2016. You reap what you sow, congressman.
Whatever Amodei truly thinks about impeachment, the situation is an infuriating commentary on the dog-eat-dog state of the GOP and its contempt for the nation’s democracy.
Given the facts surrounding the Ukraine call, it’s unconscionable that no Republican has lined up behind the impeachment inquiry.
Instead, with few exceptions, they perhaps complain behind closed doors about Trump but unfailingly support him in public.
Then there’s Amodei, who in the interview seemed to edge up to the line of supporting the impeachment probe — or perhaps step over it.
Amodei, in the interview, seemed to be crossing over. He could have given a simple yay or nay response on how he felt about the inquiry, for instance, but instead offered his vague “put it through the process” comment. He further said he thought it was wrong for federal government agencies to “put your finger on the scale of an election” — which is exactly what Trump is accused of doing — and that “if it turns out that it’s something along those lines, then there’s a problem.”
Based on his remarks, it was plausible to think he supported the impeachment probe.
But Amodei insisted that was not the case. He immediately contacted the White House and congressional Republican leadership to explain his position and complain about the coverage of his remarks.
“I now have a full appreciation of how the president feels,” he said in a jab toward the media.
Regardless of where Amodei truly stands, the furor speaks volumes about the GOP machinery under Trump. It’s not about protecting the Constitution or our democratic principles. It’s about protecting Trump and silencing any hint of dissent toward him.
