'It's all about to get worse': GOP at risk as Trump's impeachment becomes a reality

In a column for Politico, conservative Charlie Sykes warned Republicans they better buckle up, because of the impeachment vote scheduled by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is likely to lead to more information about Donald Trump becoming public -- and that can't be good going into the 2020 election.

Warning, "it is all about to get worse: the evidence, the venue and the president’s conduct. There may be more smoking guns, the trial will be televised, and based on the past few weeks, Trump is likely to be more unhinged than ever," Sykes had some advice for the party he has long belonged to.

"You have to consider the possibility that there may be more transcripts, more tapes, more whistleblowers. The new evidence is not likely to be exculpatory, because the president’s conduct in pressuring foreign governments for dirt on the Bidens and obstructing justice has already been well documented," he wrote, before adding, "Polls already suggest historically high support for the impeachment inquiry, and we have not even begun those public hearings. In short, pretending that the facts aren’t facts—that you’ll be safe behind your flimsy justification—is not going to help when everything is out in the open. Deal with it."

Sykes when on to add that, as pressure mounts on Trump, his behavior will become more and more indefensible. As he puts it they need to "kill the monster" they helped create.

"As you watch this reckless and unleashed presidency it may have occurred to you how much you have contributed to this moment. You have convinced Trump that he can take you for granted. The president has bullied and berated you and, again and again, you have rolled over. And it has made things only worse," he lectured. "Between now and the beginning of the Senate trial, that behavior could become even more erratic and you will be forced to defend an ever-widening gyre of inanities, deceptions, abuses of power, episodes of self-dealing and other assorted outrages. Imagine six months of Giuliani butt-dials.

The first step to saving your life is to recognize what the monster feeds on. In this case, it’s your fear of standing up to him."

According to the conservative, they don't need to go down with the Trump ship, with Senate Republicans have the very real option of voting for impeachment if it comes to trial, and they need to think about their future as a viable party.

"Short term, breaking with Trump will spark a nasty blowback. But imagine for a moment a post-Trumpian Republican Party freed from the baggage of Trumpist corruption. The choice is between a party inextricably tied to Trump, with all of his crudity, dishonesty, lawlessness and arrogance, and a party that has shown that it is capable of being a principled defender of constitutional norms," he advised. "You have an opportunity to hold him accountable by doing your constitutional duty. History will want to know whether you got scared and shirked it."

You can read the whole piece here.