ABC correspondent: Ukraine transcript released by White House is 'even more damning than anticipated'

Don't count on Trump's sprawling federal indictment for removing and compromising highly classified information to turn the tide on Republican support, warned reporter James Risen for The Intercept on Friday — as he is essentially a "cult leader" and his followers are in a "fever dream" of loyalty and grievance.

"The Republican Party has devolved into a cult of personality, where every new piece of evidence of their leader’s criminality becomes another reason for his followers to defend him," wrote Risen. "Donald Trump has now been indicted twice in just over two months, in separate cases involving accusations of unrelated crimes. Both times, Republicans have rallied around him. The group of whiners and weaklings who are running against Trump for next year’s Republican presidential nomination are so intimidated by his hold on the party’s base that they are afraid to publicly tell the truth, which is that Trump is a thug who should be in prison instead of the White House."