‘It’s all up to Republicans’: Columnist wonders when the GOP will stand up to Trump

President Donald Trump's burgeoning scandal with Ukraine has one columnist wondering when Republicans will put country before party.

"I was going to write today about how House Democrats are handling the impeachment question. But the truth is, it’s largely irrelevant. As long as Republicans are united in opposition, President Donald Trump will stay in office," Bloomberg Opinion columnist Jonathan Bernstein wrote. "That’s not to say that there aren’t bad and worse choices for Democrats, but they’re not the ones who have the real decision to make."

"Because the truth at this point is pretty obvious: If they could be assured of even a smattering of Republican votes, Democrats would almost certainly impeach the president. If they had enough votes to ensure his removal in the Senate, you could remove that 'almost – Trump would be gone very rapidly," he argued. "It’s all up to the Republicans."

"Republicans have been okay with all this, presumably because they’re getting what they want on policy. Or perhaps out of pure partisanship. Or maybe because they’re so deep in the conservative information-feedback loop that they’ve convinced themselves none of it is real. But they should be taking stock now of just how much lawlessness they’re willing to tolerate," he noted.

"As long as Republicans choose to stay relatively united, either in denying evidence of Trump’s malfeasance or claiming that there’s nothing wrong with it, then Democrats will be unable to generate enough constituent pressure to change their minds. Whatever evidence is turned up, Republicans probably can brazen it out if that’s what they really want, regardless of the damage it does to U.S. democracy. So that leaves one question for them: Is this really what you want?" he wondered.

Read the full column.