There are a whole host of things President Trump has done that Republicans on Capitol Hill have stomached — sometimes begrudgingly. When Trump attacks the Justice Department and the FBI as rogue agencies conspiring to implement a constitutional coup, GOP lawmakers mildly protest but take it in stride. When Trump tars the news media as enemies of the people, conservatives call it unhelpful and leave it at that. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the gravelly voiced senior senator from Kentucky, tries to talk about Trump’s antics and ad-libbing as little as possible during his weekly press stakeouts. And when there is controversy he can’t duck from, McConnell dismisses it as a shiny object that distracts from the real legislative work senators are doing.
But forcibly separating children from their parents at the southern border, a policy the Trump administration insists is not a policy, is a development that is so repugnant in the minds of voters that these very same lawmakers have actually broken with the White House. Sens. John Cornyn of Texas, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Orrin Hatch of Utah, three men who are normally rock solid for the administration, either introduced bills to stop the family separations or sent letters urging the executive branch to cease the policy on its own.
