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The American public has given President Biden favorable reviews since he took office last month, and the policies that he is hurrying to put in place appear broadly popular, according to polls.

And notably, as he signs a wave of executive actions and pushes a major $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, Mr. Biden is facing muted opposition from Republicans so far a reflection of the partys weakened position as it juggles two increasingly divided factions.

I think that Republicans have found Biden to be much more progressive than they thought he was going to be, but I think were too busy trying to kill each other to really focus on it, said Sarah Chamberlain, the president of the Republican Main Street Partnership, a group of centrist Republicans that includes more than 60 members of the House and Senate.

This week, the Houses G.O.P. caucus met to discuss the fate of two lawmakers representing opposite ends of the partys identity: Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the chambers No. 3 Republican. Ms. Greene is one of the chambers most fervent loyalists to former President Donald J. Trump, while Ms. Cheney is pushing to unlink the party from his brand of populism.

The result of the meeting on Wednesday was a kind of stalemate, with the Republican leadership allowing Ms. Greene to keep her committee assignments despite a history of offensive and conspiracy-minded statements, and Ms. Cheney comfortably retaining her top position against a mutiny from Trump allies. On Thursday, the entire House voted to strip Ms. Greene of her committee positions over widespread G.O.P. opposition.

This intraparty division gives Mr. Biden the upper hand as he pushes his legislative agenda forward, said Doug Schwartz, the director of polling at Quinnipiac University, which released a nationwide poll on Wednesday. Hes advocating policies that have solid support in the public, so Republicans are in more of a defensive posture, as theyre opposing popular policies, Mr. Schwartz said.

The publics dissatisfaction with the state of affairs in the United States remains high: Roughly seven in 10 said they were unhappy with the way things were going, according to the Quinnipiac poll. But optimism is on the rise, and many are attaching their hopes to the new president. When asked about the coming four years under Mr. Biden, 61 percent of Americans described themselves as optimistic.

In a Monmouth University poll released last week, 42 percent of Americans said the country was headed in the right direction considerably less than half, but still more than in any Monmouth poll going back to 2013.

The Quinnipiac survey found that more than two-thirds of Americans supported Mr. Bidens coronavirus relief package, with wide majorities also backing certain key elements including a permanent increase to a $15 minimum wage and a round of $1,400 stimulus checks to individuals. On the question of the stimulus payments, even 64 percent of Republicans supported them.

On a range of other Biden policies, the poll found widespread support: rejoining the Paris climate accord, opening a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and ending Mr. Trumps ban on travel from some predominantly Muslim countries.

The New Washington

Feb. 9, 2021, 3:44 p.m. ET

It bears mentioning that pollsters across the country undercounted support for Mr. Trump in November for the second straight time; until survey researchers complete a full post-mortem analysis of 2020 polling, it will be impossible to rule out the possibility that some polls may still be missing a share of his supporters.

Still, in general, the smart Republicans are trying to pick their battles, said Robert Cahaly, a Republican pollster in Georgia who has worked with candidates in both the partys populist wing and its establishment.

Mr. Biden, for his part, will be looking to capitalize on Republicans compromised position. In the end, America wanted a president that was more empathetic, but people do not want a president that looks weak, Mr. Cahaly said.

But he and other Republican strategists cautioned that if Mr. Biden moved too hastily on legislation that was seen as left-leaning, he could face a backlash from some of the disaffected Republicans who supported him in November. Ms. Chamberlain said that if Mr. Bidens environmental policies were perceived as harming the economy, he could find himself in a hole. I think you let them pass laws left and right, and then you expose them for what they are, Ms. Chamberlain said of her suggested strategy for Republicans.

Americans are not holding their breath for a new dawn of bipartisanship. Just 21 percent of respondents in the Monmouth poll said they were highly confident that Mr. Biden would be able to persuade lawmakers in Washington to work together more. Another 39 percent were somewhat confident.

While Mr. Biden receives favorable job reviews over all, 16 percent of Americans in both the Monmouth and Quinnipiac polls said they hadnt made up their minds. Many of these people are onetime G.O.P. voters who lost faith in the party under Mr. Trump and are waiting to see how Mr. Biden governs, said the longtime Republican pollster Whit Ayres.

Basically, the approval numbers on Biden are the disapproval on Trump, Mr. Ayres said. But the disapproval numbers on Biden are lower than the approval number on Trump which suggests there are some people who are hanging back to see what he does.

And there is evidence that those who are hanging back are giving him the benefit of the doubt. In an Associated Press/NORC poll released on Thursday, in which respondents were pushed to give an answer, his approval rose to 61 percent. Thirty-eight percent disapproved.

Opinions of the Republican Party, meanwhile, are much darker.

In the Quinnipiac poll, 64 percent of Americans said the G.O.P. was moving in the wrong direction, including an overwhelming 70 percent of independents and 30 percent of Republican partisans, according to the Quinnipiac poll.

The partys rank and file is now heavily tilted toward the Trump faithful. The Trump base is so big as a share of the party because so many of my type of Republicans have left the party, said Ms. Chamberlain, the head of the centrist group. But they want to come back to the party.

These staunch pro-Trump Republicans express deep frustration with their representation in Washington. Most G.O.P. voters continue to think the vote in November was rigged, echoing Mr. Trumps false claims, and many are irritated that legislators in Washington were not able to keep him in power.

Partly as a result, only 50 percent of Republicans said they were satisfied with G.O.P. lawmakers in Washington, according to the Quinnipiac poll. Thats down from 83 percent among Republican voters nationwide in a Quinnipiac survey a year ago.

Two people can both look at the same house and dislike it, but for different reasons, Mr. Cahaly said. Theres just an element of Republicans that want their old party back and hate the new populism. Then there are Republicans who like the idea of this being a working persons party and wish the old Republicans would just go be Democrats. This fight is going to take place in primaries, in town halls. This party is in a little bit of a civil war.

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Bidens Policies Are Popular. What Does That Mean for Republicans? - The New York Times

Jonathan Capehart:

Well, I do agree with David that there are green shoots to use a phrase from a previous presidency, green shoots of progress, and maybe even green shoots of a new beginning.

But the Republican Party right now is going through I think, is going to be a multicycle refreshing, that the these green shoots that we are seeing, will that mean that Republicans become more emboldened and stand up for themselves and, going into the midterm elections, the non-Trump Republicans get elected, maybe even Republicans take over the House, but not with Trump Republicans? I don't know.

But what I do know is this. The Republican Party is not is not going to cure itself of what former Senator Danforth talked about until it has concerted leadership within the caucus to push the Marjorie Taylor Greenes and the other folks within that caucus, because she is not the only one, push them aside and get about the business of governing.

I focus on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who should have used the Marjorie Taylor Greene moment as a leadership moment to do what a leader is supposed to do and stand up for the values of the party and the caucus, and to push aside those who run afoul of that.

I don't know what Leader McCarthy stands for. I don't know what the Republican Party stands for. And if his calculations this week are about retaking the House in 2022, my question is, what is your program? What are you for?

Because unless you can tell the American people, and particularly folks in the districts around the country, unless you can tell people what the Republican Party will do and what Leader McCarthy would do as speaker proactively, positively, then why should the American people look at the Republican Party as a viable alternative to the Democratic Party?

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Brooks and Capehart on the GOP's identity crisis - PBS NewsHour

Republican lawmakers spent four years never seeing the tweets. They were on Twitterfeuding with Democratic colleagues, expressing disappointment in 2020s college football schedule, describing cloudsbut never seemed to be online when Donald Trump was firing off some of his wildest content, and were always suddenly too busy to see any news coverage of the presidents posts. When I wake up in the morning, GOP Senator Kevin Cramer said last June, after Trump suggested an elderly racial justice protester slammed to the sidewalk by Buffalo police had it coming, the presidents tweets are not in the top 100 things I think about.

It was an embarrassing out, but in Republicans minds, perhaps the lesser of two evils. Sure, they couldve condemned Trump, but that wouldve meant getting their own friendly Trump tweet. Seeking to avoid that at all costs, they left themselves two options: Defend the indefensible, or mutter something about being late for lunch and busting ass out of there before Manu Raju or Kasie Hunt could ask them another question.

That is, in essence, what some in the GOP are trying to do again as they face pressure to take punitive action against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greenethe QAnon Congresswoman whose prolific posting career has included promoting conspiracy theories, calling for Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats to be executed, and proudly harassing a Parkland school shooting survivor. While some in the party like Mitt Romneyand even Mitch McConnellhave denounced her, others are going to hilarious lengths to avoid being pinned down. I havent even looked at what all shes done, Senator Tommy Tuberville, an ardent Trump supporter, told CNN Tuesday when asked about the highly-publicized Greene saga. Travel in this weather, its been a little rough looking at any news or whatever.

But the whole I couldnt watch the news because its snowing dodge only works when you cant be held to account. Republicans could or whatever their way out of commenting on Trump because they knew that no amount of pressure in the media or from Democrats would pose much of a threat to him, and if they could stay in his good graces while keeping a little distance, theyd be fine. Thats not quite the case with Greene. If Republicans ignore her abominable conduct and unfitness for office, Democratslooking a lot more assertive now that they control both the White House and Congresswill make her the ranting, raving face of the party. And if Kevin McCarthy and other GOP leaders dont do the bare minimum and remove her from her committee assignments, the Democratic majority led by Pelosi and Steny Hoyer have promised to do it for them, forcing a floor vote that would require all House Republicans to go on the record supporting or opposing Greene.

McCarthy, who evidently wants to keep the MAGA crowd happy without hitching himself to its looniest representative, had clearly hoped thered be an easy way out. In a two-hour meeting with Greene Tuesday night, the minority leader gave her three options, Politico reported: She could (1) publicly denounce QAnon and apologize for the conspiracy-mongering and violence-promoting on which her entire political career is based, (2) step down from her committee assignments, or (3) have them taken from her by her own colleagues. Its not clear how she responded, but its probably safe to assume that it wasnt what McCarthy wanted to hear; after the meeting, sources told Politico, the House minority leader convened a second late-night meeting with the panel that designates committee assignments to discuss stripping Greene of hers. McCarthy and his Republican colleagues are desperately hoping to avoid letting the matter go to a vote. Theyre reportedly banking on cutting a deal with Hoyer in which they would voluntarily remove Greene from the Education and Labor committee but allow her to remain on the Budget committee, if hed just please refrain from putting the matter to a vote on the floor.

Hoyer may have some incentive to agree; there has been concern among Democrats that removing a member of the opposing party from committees, particularly for conduct that in part preceded her time in office, could be used against them in the future. But this is about more than the political gamesmanship of forcing Republicans to choose between MAGA and moderates. Its about confronting the very real danger posed by Greene and others like her. She has continued to post with reckless abandon. Responding to Politicos reporting on Twitter, she charged that Democrats and the bloodthirsty media are bent on destroying Republicans, your jobs, our economy, your childrens education and lives, steal our freedoms, and erase Gods creation. One lesson of the Trump era is that there are real-world consequences to that kind of rhetoric, even if it comes in a tweet that Republicans say they didnt see.

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Republican Senator Says He Hasnt Seen the Marjorie Taylor Greene Scandal Because of Bad Weather - Vanity Fair

(Reuters) - Dozens of Republicans in former President George W. Bushs administration are leaving the party, dismayed by a failure of many elected Republicans to disown Donald Trump after his false claims of election fraud sparked a deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol last month.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump addresses a campaign rally in Dalton, Georgia, U.S., on the eve of the run-off election to decide both of Georgia's Senate seats January 4, 2021. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo

These officials, some who served in the highest echelons of the Bush administration, said they had hoped that a Trump defeat would lead party leaders to move on from the former president and denounce his baseless claims that the November presidential election was stolen.

But with most Republican lawmakers sticking to Trump, these officials say they no longer recognize the party they served. Some have ended their membership, others are letting it lapse while a few are newly registered as independents, according to a dozen former Bush officials who spoke with Reuters.

The Republican Party as I knew it no longer exists. Id call it the cult of Trump, said Jimmy Gurul, who was Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in the Bush administration.

Kristopher Purcell, who worked in the Bush White Houses communications office for six years, said roughly 60 to 70 former Bush officials have decided to leave the party or are cutting ties with it, from conversations he has been having. The number is growing every day, Purcell said.

Their defection from the Republican Party after a lifetime of service for many is another clear sign of how a growing intraparty conflict over Trump and his legacy is fracturing it.

The party is currently caught between disaffected moderate Republicans and independents disgusted by the hold Trump still has over elected officials, and Trumps fervently loyal base. Without the enthusiastic support of both groups, the party will struggle to win national elections, according to polling, Republican officials and strategists.

The Republican National Committee referred Reuters to a recent interview its chair Ronna McDaniel gave to the Fox Business channel. Were having a little bit of a spat right now. But we are going to come together. We have to, McDaniel said, predicting the party will unite against the agenda of President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Representatives for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

A representative of former President Bush did not respond to a request for comment. During the Trump presidency Bush made clear he had retired from politics.

ITS APPALLING

More than half of the Republicans in Congress - eight senators and 139 House representatives - voted to block certification of the election just hours after the Capitol siege.

Most Republican Senators have also indicated they would not support the impeachment of Trump, making it almost certain that the former president wont be convicted in his Senate trial. Trump was impeached on Jan. 13 by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on charges of incitement of insurrection, the only president to be impeached twice.

The unwillingness by party leaders to disavow Trump was the final straw for some former Republican officials.

If it continues to be the party of Trump, many of us are not going back, Rosario Marin, a former Treasurer of the U.S. under Bush, told Reuters. Unless the Senate convicts him, and rids themselves of the Trump cancer, many of us will not be going back to vote for Republican leaders.

Two former Bush officials who spoke to Reuters said they believe it is important to stay in the party to rid it of Trumps influence.

One of those, Suzy DeFrancis, a veteran of the Republican Party who served in administrations including those of former presidents Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, said she voted for Biden in November but that breaking the party apart now will only benefit Democrats.

I totally understand why people are frustrated and want to leave the party. Ive had that feeling for 4 years, DeFrancis said.

But she said its critical the party unite around Republican principles such as limited government, personal responsibility, free enterprise and a strong national defense.

Purcell said many felt they have no choice, however. He referred to Marjorie Taylor Greene, a freshman Republican congresswoman from Georgia who promotes the QAnon conspiracy theory, which falsely claims that top Democrats belong to a secret governing cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles. Another newly elected Representative, Lauren Boebert from Colorado, has also made supportive statements about QAnon.

We have QAnon members of Congress. Its appalling, Purcell said.

Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Soyoung Kim and Grant McCool

Excerpt from:
Exclusive: Dozens of former Bush officials leave Republican Party, calling it 'Trump cult' - Reuters

In any case, the Senate always decides on disqualification after the offender is a private citizen, since that is what he becomes upon conviction of an impeachable offense. The Constitution does not even specify that this second vote on disqualfication must be immediate. The Senate could vote weeks later, after deliberation and debate, well into the former presidents private life.

Still more fundamental: This late impeachment argument fails to grasp the constitutional framework within which the question must be considered. The Federalist Papers made plain the framers preoccupation with protections against the demagogue, the unworthy candidate of perverted ambition who practices with success the vicious arts, by which elections are too often carried. The provision for disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit was one of many instances of constitutional checks against popular passions that could lead to the election of officeholders who would threaten to subvert the Republic.

No basis exists for claiming that the drafters of the Constitution intended to leave presidents who have demonstrated danger to the Republic to seek the position again based on a mere happenstance of timing: that a Senate trial cannot take place after the president has been voted out of office.

Mr. Trump is being tried for conduct that the Constitution expressly singles out as a basis for disqualifying someone from office. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment disqualifies from federal or state office anyone who has engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States or given aid and comfort to them. Mr. Trump has been impeached for taking such actions for the express purpose of promoting opposition to the transfer of power to his duly elected successor.

The House voted this impeachment with urgency, intending to have the Senate try, convict and remove Mr. Trump to disable any further maneuvers by him to retain office. This has hardly been a generalized political witch hunt against vague offenses.

Moreover, Congress holds a similar power in its ability to police its own ranks. Under Article 1, Section 5 both the House and Senate may expel a member by a vote of two-thirds. Neither has regularly exercised this power, but of the 15 Senate expulsions, 14 involved members who had supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. The House also expelled three members for support of the secession.

Enough Republican senators may adopt this argument against late impeachment to block conviction and the ensuing vote on disqualification. But the moment should not pass without calling out in clear terms the damaging constitutional precedent that this outcome will produce.

The Republican senators are effectively seeking to establish a loophole in the critical constitutional mechanism for holding presidents accountable for high crimes and misdemeanors in this case, a trial and decision on disqualification of a former president who, while in office and as set forth in the article of impeachment, gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government, threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of government.

Bob Bauer, a former senior adviser for the Biden campaign, is a professor of practice and distinguished scholar in residence at New York University School of Law and an author, with Jack Goldsmith, of After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency.

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Opinion | The Republican Argument Against Trying Trump Is Dangerous - The New York Times