GOP lawmakers are determined to keep Trump in office -- and he'll screw them over afterward: Rick Wilson

In a column for the Daily Beast, conservative campaign consultant Rick Wilson claims it appears that Republican Senators have already made up their minds to save Donald Trump's hide and keep him in office.

And the president will not return the favor as voters turn on them.

"For all his cognitive deficits, blistering ignorance, and unsubtle grifting, Donald Trump excels in one area: spectacle. No Democrat on the political scene can rival him in the creation of monstrous shitshows, cringetastophies, and dear-God-is-it-time-for-Dad-to-go-to-managed-care moments of pure Gantryesque spectacle," he wrote. "All of the cultural divides, political tribalism, and ideologically segregated media silos that made Trumpism possible are now converging in a fast-approaching singular moment of political danger for this nation, when a handful of senators will be required to make the most fateful decision of their lives."

Noting the Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has already rigged the trial with his late release of the rules on Monday, Wilson suggests the public can expect nothing less than "a show, not a trial."

"Republican Senators are following the Donald’s and the Turtle’s lead, treating the impeachment proceedings not as the forum for answers and accountability that Americans are after, but as a stunt. Martha McSally, who seems determined to go down in flames in purple Arizona, gave away the game when she tried to convert her entirely affected burst of snippy temper at CNN’s Manu Raju into a fundraising blitz," he explained. "Ted Cruz, looking for all the world like the cumulative result of cascading replication errors from cloning Wolverine too many times, is putting out drama-queen performative fan club videos for Trump. Why not burn down the Republic in defense of Trump and make some sweet email marketing bank off it?"

Wilson then goes to great pains to point out this will not end well for Republicans as history has proven.

"Trump may avoid the judgment he deserves, but the senators will not. I’ve taught this lesson a hundred times, but it’s going to take more, apparently, for it to sink in. Nixon’s Republican defenders were blown out in 1974. Why? They defended what the public rightly saw as corruption. In 1994, a Democratic Speaker of the House lost his seat and his majority when it was clear he was a party to a scandal with the House Bank and House Post Office. Corruption kills, and it kills its defenders as thoroughly as the ones engaged in it," he writes. "The GOP will be judged harshly by history because they know better. Republican senators, despite the pressure from Trump and McConnell, know exactly who Trump is. They know what Trump is. They know he’s a con man, a criminal, a character of the weakest and loosest moral fiber. They know he’s a faithless, feckless, foolish man driven by ego, spite, and avarice. "

 "The conceits that GOP Senators hold in their minds are astonishing. First, if they believe that Trump voters will thank them in some way, they’re not paying attention. Trump voters hate everyone except Trump. No points for being a bootlick, especially if the Senator ever—ever—said a cross word about Trump; just ask former golden boy Matt Gaetz."

"Republicans may well win this stacked trial in the Senate, but they have done themselves in," he adds before concluding, " Being thrown out of office stings, but becoming a punchline in political history, a footnote, a joke at best, is the deepest cut. Being held up in American object lessons in cowardice, failure, and disgrace is what’s coming. As they race to exonerate a guilty president, besmirch the character of the Senate, and shame themselves as leaders, perhaps they can find some small consolation in knowing that the ratings of this reality show will be historic."

You can read the whole piece here (subscription required).