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Mitch McConnell's former chief of staff Josh Holmes breaks down the mindset of the establishment GOP. | Alex Wong/Getty Images

SIREN -- THE NEW CIVIL WAR: INSIDE THE MINDS OF TOP ESTABLISHMENT REPUBLICANS -- FROM JOSH HOLMES, the former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the president of Cavalry: If you took a time machine from ten years ago and arrived this week you would be forgiven for assuming Donald Trump was elected president as a Democrat on a platform of the south will rise again!

Trump is using the precious capital of the bully pulpit to talk about confederate monuments in between savage attacks on fellow Republicans. Just think about that. Not tax reform. Not repeal and replace. Not North Korean nuclear capabilities. No focused critiques on extremely vulnerable Democrats who have opposed him at every possible turn.

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The reality is that every time he attacks a Republican he invites another member in good standing and another segment of the Republican party to abandon him. When youre eight months in and Republicans are all you have left, chipping away at the remaining few is a helluva strategy. The outpouring of critiques from within the GOP about the Presidents handling of Charlottesville could serve as a wake up call for the Administration, but if not, it could also be a Republican Party that begins to reassert an identity without Donald Trump.

WHAT JOSH IS TALKING ABOUT -- @realDonaldTrump: Great to see that Dr. Kelli Ward is running against Flake Jeff Flake, who is WEAK on borders, crime and a non-factor in Senate. He's toxic! Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments. You........can't change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson - whos next, Washington, Jefferson? So foolish! Also......the beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!

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ITS NOT SURPRISING that Trump doesnt want Flake to be reelected -- he has been vocally opposed to the president, his behavior and some of his policies. This is just the latest back-and-forth between the two in the last month. But calling for an incumbent senators head from your own party is unprecedented. Flake has good relationships with his Senate colleagues and is a reliable Republican vote for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. This type of intraparty pissing match in public is the exact type of thing McConnell hates. Expect Republican senators to link arms and back Flake.

-- SENATE DEMOCRATS will love this. Its like a free gift. It distracts the GOP and could force McConnell and other outside groups to spend millions of dollars in a costly primary tying up money that could be used elsewhere.

-- @AliABCNews: The NRSC unequivocally supports Senator Flake in his reelection bid. NRSC Chairman @SenCoryGardner @SenJohnMcCain: .@JeffFlake is a principled legislator & always does what's right for the people of #AZ. Our state needs his leadership now more than ever.

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What establishment Republicans think about Trump's tirade - Politico

If Republicans want to be in the majority, its not a question of sticking from Trump, its a question of accomplishing things, Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma, said in a phone interview, driving away from a town hall-style forum this week in Ada, Okla. And most of those things require a presidential signature.

By the time Mr. Cole hung up, Mr. Trump had reverted to blaming both sides for the violence last weekend in Charlottesville, Va.

The remarkable exchange with reporters at Mr. Trumps Manhattan tower has renewed pleas, from corners of both major parties, for Republicans to break with the president in a more permanent way.

And Mr. Trump seems to be all but daring them, using his ritual Twitter unburdening on Thursday morning to lash out at two Republican senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina (publicity seeking) and Jeff Flake of Arizona (Flake Jeff Flake) who have criticized his recent leadership.

There is no doubt that Republicans have collectively amended their approach to the Trump problem in recent months, at least slightly: Finger-wagging counter-tweets and one-off statements of disapproval have often supplanted willful public ignorance. (Many had long retained a habit of telling reporters they had not seen the presidents latest objectionable flourish, no matter how ubiquitous.)

But it is not clear what a meaningful, sustainable divorce from Mr. Trump could even look like.

The most extreme remedies, like impeachment, remain nonstarters in Republican circles. The party has likewise declined to embrace any formalized censure against the president, an option pushed Wednesday by House Democrats though last months sanctions on Russia, passed against the administrations wishes, were a notable bit of bipartisan defiance.

Among Republicans, though, the next steps are complicated by the presidents ramshackle legislative strategy: The White House has effectively outsourced its agenda to its partners in Congress.

Abandoning Mr. Trump is abandoning themselves.

Are Republicans to set aside plans to overhaul the tax code, a party priority long before Mr. Trump arrived? Should they really refuse to consider the presidents broadly conservative nominees?

At least some have arrived at a disquieting conclusion: It is time for the party to dream small, for now anyway.

We cant get an agenda through, Mr. Flake said in an interview on Wednesday, noting the 60-vote threshold for most major legislation. The notion youre going to get all the Republicans, let alone any Democrats, to agree given his standing in the polls and when hes making these kinds of statements is just absurd.

Mr. Flake called it laughable to think that the Republicans signature effort, repealing the Affordable Care Act, could be revived successfully in this political moment.

The most striking appraisal came on Thursday from Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee and a frequent administration ally this year. He said that Mr. Trump had not demonstrated that he understands the character of this nation.

I do think there need to be some radical changes, Mr. Corker told reporters back home. The president has not yet been able to demonstrate the stability nor some of the competence that he needs to demonstrate in order to be successful.

Still, with few exceptions, most Republicans have appeared inclined to slog on.

A Gallup poll this week placed Mr. Trumps approval among Republicans in the high 70s a comedown from his postelection standing but still a large majority to consider, especially for lawmakers in safe districts whose most serious electoral threats often come in a primary election.

The Charlottesville episode has made plain how desperate Republicans are for Mr. Trump to steady himself.

You tell me what he needs to say so we can move beyond this, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin asked of reporters in his home state.

Your words are dividing Americans, not healing them, Mr. Graham said of the president on Wednesday, two days after issuing an instant backslap on Twitter Well done Mr. President when Mr. Trump gritted through the more explicit denunciation of white supremacists that he seemed to regret hours later.

Some Republicans have taken care to avoid using Mr. Trumps name even as they back away from his remarks, using we as a sort of euphemism for the president they have in mind.

We can have no tolerance for an ideology of racial hatred, Mr. McConnell said in a statement on Wednesday.

We must be clear, Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Tuesday on Twitter. White supremacy is repulsive.

Democrats appear eager to convince voters that Mr. Trumps character and his partys agenda cannot be disentangled. With an eye toward next years midterm elections, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is already pressing the argument that House Republicans have helped pave the way for President Trumps racially charged presidency.

But it is legislative failure, more than any connection to Mr. Trump, that Republicans seem to view as the more menacing electoral iceberg.

House members are not afforded the luxury of the Senates six-year terms, which supply a longer runway for congressional accomplishment and can embolden some in the upper chamber to defy Mr. Trump more freely.

In the Senate, most of those guys arent up next cycle, said Mr. Cole, the Oklahoma congressman and a former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Its easier to break when your names not on the ballot.

The partys priority, he said, must be to move legislation on the big three: health care, taxes and infrastructure.

If we get to the end of the year and we havent done any of the big three, then you worry about political trouble, he said.

From many sides.

Jonathan Martin contributed reporting from Birmingham, Ala.

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Republicans in Congress May Be Stuck in a Relationship With Trump - New York Times

After President Trump's rhetoric on the Charlottesville violence inflamed more criticism, many Republicans stayed silent. A handful criticized Trump directly while some issued broad statements against racism, but very few came to Trump's defense. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Congress is in recess, but Republicans are in hiding, apparently unsure how to answer questions about President Trump's response to last weekend's violence in Charlottesville and unwilling to try.

We invited every single Republican senator on this program tonight all 52, Chuck Todd said on MSNBC's MTP Daily on Wednesday. We asked roughly a dozen House Republicans, including a bunch of committee chairs, and we asked roughly a half dozen former Republican elected officials, and none of them agreed to discuss this issue with us today.

That's about 70 rejections altogether, and other news anchors had the same experience on Wednesday even on Fox News.

Our booking team and they're good reached out to Republicans of all stripes across the country today, Shepard Smith told his viewers. Let's be honest: Republicans often don't really mind coming on Fox News Channel. We couldn't get anyone to come and defend him here. Because we thought, in balance, someone should do that. We worked very hard at it throughout the day, and we were unsuccessful.

Trump a day earlier had doubled down on his position that both sides white supremacists and counterprotesters were responsible for the violence, and again seemed to draw a moral equivalence between the groups.

On CNN, Wolf Blitzer and Kate Bolduan recounted their bookers' struggles to line up interviews with Republicans. Blitzer came up empty; Bolduan landed one out of 55 requests.

There are two ways to view Republicans' shyness. It is significant that they are refusing to stand up for the president, ostensibly the head of their party. Yet it is also notable that so few, even those who have issued critical statements, are unwilling to elaborate in an interview setting.

A poll published Wednesday by NPR, PBS and Marist College offers insight into possible reasons. While a majority of Americans said the president's response to Charlottesville has not been strong enough, only 19 percent of GOP votersexpressed that view; 59 percent of Republicans said Trump's words have been sufficient.

By a 40-pointmargin, Republican voters are generally satisfied by the way Trump has handled Charlottesville. Republican politicians risk alienating those voters, if they come down too hard on the president.

The politically safe move, it appears, is to run for cover.

See more here:
Republicans are even avoiding Fox News when asked to talk about Trump and Charlottesville - Washington Post

Trump called out Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R- S.C.) on Aug. 17 for their criticism of his leadership. Here are 4 other politicians Trump has targeted on Twitter. (Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post)

President Trump went on the offensive Thursday against two Republican senators, attacking them for their recent criticisms of his divisive governing style and response to the violence in Charlottesville.

In a morning tweetstorm, Trump lambasted Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.), calling Graham publicity-seeking and Flake toxic and endorsing a primary challenger to Flake in his reelection bid next year. Flake recently published a book that was highly critical of Trump.

Trump appeared to throw his support behind former Arizona state senator Kelli Ward, whois already mounting a primary challenge against Flake.

Flake wrote in his book that Republicans abandoned their principles in the face of Trump's unorthodox campaign and surrendered to the politics of anger. The party gave in to the belief that riling up the base can make up for failed attempts to broaden the electorate, Flake wrote in Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle. These are the spasms of a dying party.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) says the Republican president in the White House is not displaying the conservatism his party should be embracing. In his new book, "Conscience of a Conservative," Flake says populism and protectionism are as threatening to the GOP now as the New Deal was in 1960. (Dalton Bennett,Kate Woodsome/The Washington Post)

Ward is an osteopathic physician who unsuccessfully challenged Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2016, using the senator's advanced age against him. This time, Ward is hoping to use Flake's opposition to Trump to her advantage.

Jeff Flake has been unable to effectively serve the people of Arizona. Thats the big story, she said in an interview last week. Thats why he has such dismal job approval ratings. Hes been there almost 20 years and has accomplished really nothing. His values dont align with his constituents and its time for him to be sent back home and send somebody to Washington, D.C. who can accomplish the America First agenda that the president put forth but that the American people embraced across this entire country.

Ward said that she's especially upset with Flake's recent words and actions on health care and taxes even though he voted for the GOP health-care bill and is supportive of attempts to overhaul the tax code.

So where has Flake gone wrong?

On taxes, he's already come out with his opposition, Ward claimed. Rather than saying 'Im looking forward to what Donald Trump puts forward so that we can accomplish the goal of lowering taxes across the board and making sure that our American economy thrives,' he puts a negative spin on it from the beginning.

And on health care, she said she's upset with his behavior I'll call it his behavior on Obamacare.

When the bill was over in the House, Jeff Flake was over in the Senate telling reporters that there just was no appetite for full repeal of Obamacare in the Senate. He was whispering to his donors in the hospital corporations and the insurance industry not to worry.

Ward specifically cited a Washington Post story from May that included Flake telling constituents that he had a hard time believing that the Senate would vote to pass health-care legislation before the August recess.

Flake's campaign spokesman responded in a statement, You don't serve Arizona by cutting backroom deals in Washington, D.C. That's why Senator Flake will always fight for the people of our state.

McCain tweeted a defense of Flake.

Trump also slammed Graham, who was among the Republicans who criticized Trump for failing to offer a full-throated condemnation of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. The president waited two days before denouncing the neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan groups that organized the Unite the Right event, only to reverse course Tuesday to again blame both sides for the violence that left a counterprotester, Heather Heyer, dead. Two police officers also died in a helicopter crash.

[Trumps isolation grows in the wake of Charlottesville]

In going after Graham, Trump suggested the senator, who also ran for president in 2016, was still smarting from his loss to Trump in the Republican primaries.

Graham responded with a statement in which he said Trump's handling of the Charlottesville violence was being praised by some of the most racist and hate-filled individuals and groups in our country. For the sake of our Nation as our President please fix this. History is watching us all.

Trump's tweets made clear that the president is willing to challenge fellow Republican lawmakers and potentially imperil their reelection chances if they criticize him. The GOP holds a narrow 52-48 margin in the Senate, though most political analysts say it will be difficult for Democrats to win back the chambers in 2018 because ofthe election map favoring Republicans.

But Trump also needs to maintain party loyalty to help pass his legislative agenda, including upcoming efforts at tax revision and, perhaps, infrastructure. McCain, for example, cast a crucial vote against the GOP's effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, prompting Trump to attack him repeatedly including yet again on Tuesday during his heated news conference in New York.

President Trump's relationship with Congress has become more and more strained as he struggles to find legislative wins. Now he's going after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a key leader in his own party. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

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Deepening GOP split, Trump attacks Republican senators Graham, Flake as 'publicity-seeking,' 'toxic' - Washington Post

AUSTIN, Texas Signs of a fractured Republican Party in Texas have Democrats hoping to seize an opportunity to gain some ground.

They say Hillary Clinton won 10 Texas districts in 2016 that Republicans currently hold. Progressive Texas groups, which call their collective One Texas Resistance, told state leaders Wednesday to "respect us or expect us."

"We will not allow them to harm our communities, our kids, or rob us of our rights and our basic humanity," said Emmitt Shelling of the Transgender Education Network of Texas.

They called Gov. Greg Abbott's conservative special session agenda "distracting and destructive." They're fighting against the so-called sanctuary cities law lawmakers passed this session and that's facing a court challenge.

Leaders also said they plan to challenge several abortion restrictions passed this summer.

"We know that these laws do absolutely nothing to protect our lives," said Amanda Williams of the Lilith Fund.

Rep. Cesar Blanco, D-El Paso, said Hillary Clinton won at least 42 percent of the vote last November in 20 districts that Republicans control.

"In 10 of those districts, Hillary Clinton won," he said. "Our message today to Republicans is that if you're not representing the values of hardworking Texans, we are coming after you."

State Republican Party Chair James Dickey says he's not at all worried.

"Republicans in Texas are happy with the progress that we've made just in the last few weeks and want to see more progress."

Dickey said the Legislature accomplished half of the ten priorities Republicans laid out last year. There's one priority, however, that seems to keep dividing House and Senate lawmakers: property taxes.

"We didn't see major progress on that," he said.

The stalemate led to flurry of GOP in-fighting that One Texas Resistance hopes to seize.

Lawmakers could be forced to come back to redraw congressional maps. A federal court called out two districts Tuesday for being discriminatory. That includes Lloyd Doggett's district, which spans from Austin to San Antonio.

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Texas Democrats to Republicans: Respect us or expect us - Spectrum News