Senate Republicans Chicken Out, Again

William Saletan: “On Thursday, Republican senators had a chance to kill Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund for professed victims of ‘weaponization’ by the Department of Justice. They refused. A Democratic amendment to block the fund, as part of an immigration-enforcement spending bill, failed in the Senate. Subsequent attempts to limit or outlaw the fund failed as well.”

“Republicans seem to think they can walk away from this issue because Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, has said he won’t implement the fund. They’re wrong. Blanche’s corrupt deal with Trump, in which he agreed to set up the fund as part of a fake “settlement” of a Trump lawsuit against the IRS, remains intact. And it’s not just the slush fund that is very much alive. The deal also continues to guarantee—and Blanche has refused to withdraw—immunity for Trump and his family against any investigations by the IRS.”