This is just a gut feel. But I have the sense that the White House is losing control of this story.
The explanations are transparently ridiculous. Everyone sees that. But that’s far from a sufficient condition for Republicans to break ranks. To be clear, I don’t think Republicans are breaking ranks. But over the course of the afternoon, the support feels to me like it’s softening.
You’re hearing a small but growing number of Republican senators putting out statements not so much criticizing the President as saying that there needs to be an explanation of why this happened.
Basically, this current story is not enough. This isn’t working.
Just a short time ago, Sen. Boozman (R) of Arkansas, not at all a fan of the spotlight, not someone who makes waves, said:”Americans deserve a full explanation as to the circumstances of the decision to immediately remove Mr. Comey.”
There are a substantial number of Republicans who are almost total in their fealty, as expressed in statements today: Grassley, McConnell, Collins, Cornyn and a number of others. But that doesn’t feel to me like the direction this is going. This feels like the way things go when a White House starts losing ground on something very, very big.
