In an interview that aired on Friday, Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania said that Republican lawmakers used to privately slam President Donald Trump as “crazy,” reports Mediaite .
Boyle made an appearance on SiriusXM’s The Dan Abrams Show , discussing, among other issues, the Republican Party in the era of Trump.
“I’ve been here a member of Congress five years,” Boyle began, alleging that Republican lawmakers appear to have changed their mind about the president.
“I have noticed a shift myself from 2016, 2017, in private conversations I had with Republican colleagues,” he said, revealing that GOP lawmakers used to complain about Trump being “crazy.”
“There were members who in 2017, the first year he was president, would say to me either in the member’s gym or right off the House floor, ‘Oh my God what is he doing now? He’s crazy, I can’t stand this guy, my wife didn’t vote for him.’”
That has changed, however, according to Boyle, and now “you rarely hear” those same lawmakers bash Trump.
“And I’m talking about the same individuals,” Boyle stressed.
Some Democrats have suggested that the Republican Party is not as unified as it seems. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, for instance, said in a December interview that a “handful” of Republican senators would be willing to vote to remove Trump from office, according to The Hill .
Republicans in the United States Congress have staunchly and unanimously defended Trump against Democratic accusations, signaling that not a single GOP lawmaker would be willing to vote against Trump. Some have, however, warned the White House against “underestimating” the dangers of a Senate trial.
In a recent column, GOP operative Douglas MacKinnon — who was a writer in the White House for former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush — alleged that a number of “seemingly loyal” Republican senators may be setting a trap for Trump . The Republican operative wrote that certain senators representing purple states have been demeaning Trump in private conversations and signaling that they would be willing to vote to remove him from office.
My floor speech within the last hour during today’s Impeachment Debate. The Constitution has endured for more than two centuries. For the sake of our Constitution, our country, and for Americans today and tomorrow, I urge all members to have the courage to vote yes. pic.twitter.com/0U980pjy4D
— Rep. Brendan Boyle (@CongBoyle) December 18, 2019
According to Democrats in the House of Representatives, Trump committed multiple impeachable offenses when he allegedly pressured the government of Ukraine to investigate his political opponents.
They assert that Trump invited foreign meddling in the 2020 presidential election by temporarily freezing — and threatening to permanently cut — military aid to the country unless the Ukrainian government investigated one of the leading Democratic presidential candidates, former Vice President Joe Biden.
Trump and other Republicans have countered these accusations by accusing Democrats of collaborating with Ukraine during the 2016 presidential election.
