Rick Wilson: Bolton's bombshell has GOP terrified of a long trial that will 'grind them into dust'

Conservative political strategist Rick Wilson has published a new column in The Daily Beast that argues President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are "sh*tting bricks" at the prospect of former national security adviser John Bolton testifying.

Specifically, Wilson says that the leaked excerpts from Bolton's upcoming book have put a major political price on Republican senators who vote to acquit the president without even hearing a single witness.

At the same time, he writes that "vulnerable senators like Cory Gardner, Martha McSally, and Susan Collins are eager to stop this from becoming a parade of witnesses and grinding them into dust."

The reason for this, he writes, is that Trump's poll numbers in Maine, Colorado, and Arizona are underwater and standing up for the president in those states will inevitably hurt their political standing.

"They feel the pressure rising at home, and are starting to wonder if McConnell’s promises of financial support are going to make a difference," he writes. "The polling numbers are punishingly real. The public wants witnesses at the Senate trial. How big are the numbers? Hella big. The Monmouth poll put support for witnesses at an astounding 80 percent. Quinnipiac has it at 75 percent, Reuters 72 percent, Washington Post at 71 percent and CNN 69 percent. This is, as we say in survey research, a done deal. Voters who feel this strongly about an issue won’t forget it, and smart pollsters in the GOP know it."

Read the whole column here.