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In 2016, Longwell opposed Trump in the Republican primaries but recognized the potency of his fear-and-anger platform. How could she not? It was as if he were working from Bermans playbook. During the campaign, Longwell happened to be the incoming board chair of the Log Cabin Republicans; she was the first woman to hold the post since the group was founded, in the late seventies, to advocate for gay and lesbian Republicans. The board felt intense pressure to endorse Trump, despite his selection of Mike Pence, an openly homophobic evangelical Christian, as his running mate. Longwell told me that she basically lay on the tracks to stop the group from backing Trump. Mostly, though, she watched the election unfold with dismay.

For me, the world changed in 2016, Longwell said. That summer, her first son was born. My wifes water broke the night of Melanias speech at the Convention, and a few nights later, after their sons birth, she watched on television at the hospital as Trump accepted the Republican nomination. I remember just how bad he made me feel, she said. Thats what I remember. I remember holding a new baby and feeling like this cant be whats happening. On Election Night, she was at a party in Washington, texting with another anti-Trump operative, Tim Miller, the former spokesperson for Jeb Bushs short-lived Presidential campaign. Hes going to win, Miller wrote to her. As the news sank in, she went outside and bummed a cigarette, although she no longer smoked.

Many people who opposed Trump in 2016 have their version of this story: the Election Night disbelief and shock, the litany of outrages that followed. But, unlike many others in Republican Washington, Longwell did not make her accommodations, political and moral, with the new President. When, on his second weekend in office, Trump issued an executive order banning entry into the U.S. for citizens of seven majority-Muslim nations, Longwell decided that Trump really was a danger to the country. I started thinking about: What can I do? she recalled. How can I get involved?

In the fall of 2017, Longwell was invited to a session of the Meeting of the Concerned, a semi-secret group of disaffected Republicans that had started gathering every other Tuesday in a basement conference room near Capitol Hill. The Never Trumpers were hardly a real movement, less an organized cabal than a cable-news-savvy alliance. Among them were longtime Party operatives, such as Steve Schmidt and Rick Wilson, who became regulars on liberal-leaning TV shows, and public intellectuals, such as Eliot Cohen, a former Bush Administration official who now teaches at Johns Hopkins University, and Max Boot, of the Council on Foreign Relations, who stopped writing for the Wall Street Journals increasingly pro-Trump editorial page and went to the Washington Post. With the exception of Senator John McCain, most Republican elected officials already either supported Trump or kept their mouths shut about him. Inside the Administration, some had qualms about the President, but they soon were fired or marginalized, or quit. The official Party apparatus had been taken over by the President, and Republican lobbyists, consultants, political operatives, congressional staffers, right-wing media commentators, and government job seekers quickly identified where their interests lay.

Jerry Taylor, who helped found the Meeting of the Concerned and the Niskanen Center, the think tank that hosts it, told me about the first time Longwell showed up. Sarah didnt know anyone in the group, he said. She had never really travelled in those circles before. Many of the attendees were well-known denizens of Washingtons TV greenrooms, who bonded over their disillusionment with the Party and saw the election of Donald Trump as just the thin blue line between us and the abyss, as Taylor put it. Longwell wanted more than this talky self-styled resistance. She told me, Everybody was sitting around having a conversation that I had heard lots of versions of at that point, which is: What happened to the Republican Party? When Bill Kristol, a Republican pundit and the founder of The Weekly Standard, spoke up, Longwell recalled, she interrupted him: Why dont we do something about it? And he was kind of, like, Well, what would we do? And I was, like, I dont know, but youre famous. Youre Bill Kristol.

Kristol has been a leader of the hawkish neoconservative wing of the Party since arriving in Washington, as a member of the Reagan Administration. In 2016, he made a well-publicized attempt to recruit a last-ditch independent candidate to run against Trump. Having failed to find anyone of stature, Kristol settled on an obscure former C.I.A. officer and congressional staffer named Evan McMullin, whose candidacy never rose above the level of obscurity. After their initial meeting, Kristol and Longwell went out for coffee, and she urged him to take action again. They started brainstorming regularly at the Madison Hotel.

Then Mueller happened, Longwell said, and the idea for their group, Republicans for the Rule of Law, was born. Trumps firing of the F.B.I. director James Comey, in the spring of 2017, had set off the first major crisis of his Presidency, leading to the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel. Longwell and Kristol decided that their group would try to insure that Trump did not fire Mueller or block the investigation; to do this they would pressure Republican officials in the capital. I did think someone needed to fight the fight within the Republican Party, that you cant just give up even though its a long shot against a Republican President, Kristol told me. Sarah agreed.

In February, 2018, as Trump was publicly attacking Mueller, Longwell set up Defending Democracy Together, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that could accept donations without having to disclose donors. Defending Democracy Together became the umbrella organization for Republicans for the Rule of Law and other like-minded projects that sought to combat Trumps policies. Longwell and Kristol worked his contacts and raised substantial sums of money, including from liberal donors such as Pierre Omidyar, the tech billionaire who funds the left-wing Web site the Intercept.

Starting that March, whenever Trump threatened Mueller or opened a new front in his fight against the Russia hoax, the group ran TV ads defending the investigation, many of them featuring quickly produced clips of news footage or Trumps latest tweet, with urgent pleas to members of Congress to stop the President. All told, before the Mueller investigation was over, Republicans for the Rule of Law had run more than a hundred ads, aimed at a narrow but important segment of persuadable Republicans in key states, seeking to convince Party leaders that even Trumps base would not go along with his firing of the special counsel. In the hope of getting directly to the President, Longwell also ran the ads in Washington on Fox News, which Trump watches addictively.

In 2018, at a session of the Meeting of the Concerned, Longwell met George Conway, the husband of Trumps White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway. A prominent conservative attorney, he had accepted, then declined, a senior position in Trumps Justice Department. Earlier that year, Conway had started tweeting his dismay about Trump, thus setting off a marital-political drama worthy of a reality-TV Presidency. Like Longwell, Conway was invited into the capitals Never Trump circle, but he, too, decided that the meetings were often frustrating exercises in therapy. He craved action. (Look, theres a lot of benefit just to catharsis, Jerry Taylor joked to me, especially given that the alternative is to become an alcoholic, which is easy to do in this town now.)

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The Trials of a Never Trump Republican - The New Yorker

That the parties are coming together at all on major legislation is, of itself, a remarkable turn from the intransigence that has defined Washington since Trump won election in 2016 and Democrats regained control of the House two years later. Joe Lieberman, the former Connecticut senator, described the current landscape in Washington as an extremely partisan time, ideologically divided time in our government worse than 2008 and 2009 by far, Im afraid.

Still, Republicans and Democrats are coming together to get things done, he said, adding that if it works which I hope and believe it will, if they do enough quickly enough maybe there wont be a dominant counter-reaction among Democrats or Republicans left or right.

Yet already, the pandemic has emboldened Democrats calls for more comprehensive health care and employee benefits, with the crisis laying bare not only shortcomings within the nations health care system, but the precariousness of Americans financial condition. Retirement accounts have been ravaged and unemployment claims are soaring.

David Pepper, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, said the pandemic has exposed just that the current state of affairs just leaves so many Americans living right on the edge of disaster, and wed heard these studies for years.

This just bears this out, he said. It tells you what an unstable status quo were living in to start That is something that might reframe politics for a long time.

Progressive Democrats, anticipating a recession and high rates of unemployment, are preparing to use the coronavirus pandemic to draw their party to the left on economic policy, attempting to broaden support for a Green New Deal as a way to spur employment while decarbonizing the economy. And they are watching party leaders closely in negotiations for the rescue package and demanding constraints on corporations that receive federal aid, as well as guarantees for the working class.

Charles Chamberlain, chairman of the liberal political action committee Democracy for America, said Were in a moment right now where obviously one of the long-term impacts of the coronavirus is likely to be a complete restructure of our economy.

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'Extraordinary change': How coronavirus is rewiring the Republican and Democratic parties - POLITICO

Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz said on Monday that Sen. Richard Burr has received unfairly favorable treatment in retaining his powerful position when compared to former Rep. Katie Hill, who resigned after having an inappropriate affair with a staffer.

Burr, a North Carolina Republican who is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was revealed last week to have sold up to $1.7 million in stocks last month just days ahead of the sharp market decline stemming from the novel coronavirus pandemic. He has asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate and has not stepped away from any of his roles.

.@KatieHill4CA gets run out of Congress for screwing a campaign staffer absent any complaint, Gaetz tweeted. @SenatorBurr stays as Intelligence Chairman after screwing all Americans by falsely reassuring us w opeds on #COVID while he dumped his stock portfolio early. This is not fair.

A week before his stock sell-off, Burr co-wrote an op-ed, titled Coronavirus prevention steps the U.S. government is taking to protect you, asserting that the US was better prepared than ever before to face emerging public health threats, like the coronavirus. Burr said Friday that he did not base his sales on any information he received as chairman of the Intelligence Committee and requested that an ethics investigation be opened into the trades.

A source familiar with the matter told CNN that the committee did not receive briefings on the virus the week of Burrs stock sales.

Burr refused to answer CNNs questions earlier on Monday about the controversial stock sales. When asked whether he could see that there would be an optics problem with the chairman of the intelligence committee making such sales, Burr replied, Ill leave that up the Ethics Committee.

Gaetzs tweet said that treament was not fair compared to the backlash Hill faced.

In October, the one-term California Democrat resigned from Congress days after she admitted to having an inappropriate relationship with a campaign staffer before coming into office.

The House Committee on Ethics had previously announced that it was opening an investigation into allegations Hill engaged in an improper relationship with a congressional staffer in possible violation of House rules banning relationships between members and their staff. The probe was announced after a conservative blog had released intimate photos of Hill, alleging she and her husband had a separate relationship with an unnamed female campaign staffer.

When the Ethics Committee announced its investigation, Gaetz defended Hill, writing in a tweet, Who among us would look perfect if every ex leaked every photo/text? Katie isnt being investigated by Ethics or maligned because she hurt anyone it is because she is different.

Hill was the first openly bisexual member of Congress from California.

Hill said that Kenny Heslep, her estranged husband of nine years, was trying to humiliate her by sharing the photographs after the couple filed for divorce. She expressed feelings of frustration over a double standard in her final speech on the House floor as a member of Congress.

I am leaving now because of a double standard, Hill said. I am leaving because I no longer want to be used as a bargaining chip. I am leaving because I didnt want to be peddled by papers and blogs and websites, used by shameless operatives for the dirtiest gutter politics that Ive ever seen.

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Republican congressman thinks Burr is getting a better deal than ex-lawmaker who resigned: 'This is not fair' - KRDO

Aaron E. Carroll and Ashish Jha: This is how we can beat the coronavirus

The disparity between the parties was underscored Thursday afternoon when Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and California Governor Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, issued rapid-fire orders closing down all non-essential businesses, first in the city and then in the entire state, a jurisdiction of 39.5 million people.

This divergence reflects not only ideological but also geographic realities. So far, the greatest clusters of the disease, and the most aggressive responses to it, have indeed been centered in a few large, Democratic-leaning metropolitan areas, including Seattle, New York, San Francisco, and Boston. At Thursdays White House press briefing, Deborah Birx, the administrations response coordinator, said half of the nations cases so far are located in just 10 counties. The outbreaks eventual political effects may vary significantly depending on how extensively it spreads beyond these initial beachheads.

If the virus never becomes pervasive beyond big cities, that could reinforce the sense among many Republican voters and office-holders that the threat has been overstated. It could also fuel the kind of xenophobia that Trump and other GOP leaders, such as Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, have encouraged by labeling the disease the Chinese virus or the Wuhan virus.

Theres a long history of conservatives demonizing the cities as sources of disease to threaten the pure heartland, says Geoffrey Kabaservice, the director of political studies at the libertarian Niskanen Center and the author of Rule and Ruin, a history of the modern Republican Party. Thats an old theme. So that could be how it goes down.

David Frum: No empathy, only anger

Conversely, the charge that Trump failed to move quickly enough may cut more deeply if the burden of the disease is heavily felt in the smaller communities where his support is deepest. Most medical experts believe that, eventually, the outbreak will reach all corners of the country, including the mostly Republican-leaning small towns and rural areas that are now less visibly affected.

Theres no reason to think that smaller communities will be protected from it, Eric Toner, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told me. It may take longer for it to get there, but as long as there are people coming and going the virus will eventually find its way to rural communities as well.

Still, some experts believe that, throughout the outbreak, the greatest effects will remain localized in large urban centers. The bottom line is, every epidemic is local, and the social networks and the physical infrastructure in any specific geographic area will determine the spread of the epidemic, Jeffrey D. Klausner, a professor of medicine and public health at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, told me. Particularly, respiratory viruses are dependent on close social networks and are going to spread much more efficiently in crowded, densely populated urban areas.

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Red and Blue America Arent Experiencing the Same Pandemic - The Atlantic

Martha McSallyMartha Elizabeth McSallyPolitics and the pandemic Republicans are rightly worried NRSC outraises DSCC in February Florida Republican becomes first lawmaker to test positive for coronavirus MORE complained it was "inexcusable" the president was so "unprepared" for the virus epidemic: "Real leadership means taking action before there's a crisis."

No, the Arizona Republican then a Congresswoman wasn't talking about President TrumpDonald John TrumpBlame game heats up as Senate motion fails Trump approves disaster declaration for coronavirus in California Why studying persistent post-traumatic headaches in soldiers matter MORE's tragic failure to respond early to the Coronavirus pandemic: It was 2014, and she was assailing Barack Obama on the Ebola scare.

On the infinitely more serious current crisis, McSally now a Senator gushes about Trump's "decisive" leadership.

The politics of Coronavirus, which isshutting down much of the country, throwing the economy into a tailspin and threatening the health of perhaps millions of Americans, will play out in the weeks and months ahead. The downside is with Trump and Republicans.

This may be especially troublesome for a half dozen embattled incumbent Republican senators who savaged Obama for his handling of the Ebola health scare six years ago. Today, they are rallying behind the president.

That's not easy.

Few presidents have botched a crisis the way Trump did for almost two months. The administration already had downgraded resources for addressing a pandemic, an issue of little interest to Trump until it finally dawned on himthat the United States faces the most severe health crisis since the Influenza of 1918 which killed 675,000 Americans.

As enumerated by David Leonhardt for the New York Times, Trump repeatedly and recklessly dismissed this pandemic as a nothingburger. On Jan. 22, he declared it was "totally under control." Over the next few weeks he insisted only a handful of Americans would be affected by the virus, that when spring arrives it miraculously goes away, that it was a fiction of fake news and a Democratic hoax," like impeachment.

Only two weeks ago, he falsely claimed there was sufficient testing for everyone.

Eleven days ago finally he gave an address to a nervous country. The speech, apparently crafted by his often-clueless son-in-law Jared KushnerJared Corey KushnerPolitics and the pandemic Republicans are rightly worried In the Saudi-Russian oil price war, the US blinks first Coronavirus could keep Trump in the White House MORE, lacked a sense of crisis and made misrepresentations which had to be corrected.

As our American Nero calculated the political impact on his reelection, here's what transpired: The first reported case in the U.S. was on Jan. 20 in two months, this has soared to more than 26,000 cases with 340 deaths. These numbers are expected to climb sharply over the next few months. Worldwide, the total now over 316,000 cases.

Let's contrast that with the Republican uproar over the Ebola scare in 2014. That was chiefly an African plague affecting 28,000 people, a fraction of the toll Coronavirus already has taken. In the United States there were a grand total of 11 people infected and four deaths.

Yet in mid-October of that year, I was in North Carolina covering a Senate race at an event dominated by Republican Thom TillisThomas (Thom) Roland TillisPolitics and the pandemic Republicans are rightly worried Brady PAC endorses Biden, plans to spend million in 2020 McConnell cancels Senate break over coronavirus MORE's denunciation of Obama's dangerous dereliction on the Ebola crisis, putting he claimed a political hack in charge of meeting the challenge.The so-called hack was Ron Klain, a business executive and former Supreme Court clerk as well as political counselor; he's widely credited with successfully marshaling a multi-billion effort to stem the epidemic.

Six years later, Tillis is singing a different tune for an infinitely more serious matter; running for reelection, he praises Trump's "decisive leadership," and calls for the countrys leaders "to set aside our partisan differences."

Tillis and McSally aren't the only two-faced politicians on this score.In 2014, Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni ErnstJoni Kay ErnstPolitics and the pandemic Republicans are rightly worried Ernst calls for public presidential campaign funds to go to masks, protective equipment GOP lukewarm on talk of airline bailout MORE was outraged at Obama being "apathetic" and merely "reactive" and questioned whether he really cared about the safety of the American people. She has been silent on Trump's dawdling and denying and wants a bi-partisan partnership.Georgia Republican Sen. David Purdue six years ago bemoaned a "lack of leadership." Now he says Vice President Pence, who is in charge of the administration's policies, is doing a "fantastic job."

Republicans enjoy a 53-47 Senate advantage, and the conventional wisdom is they'll lose no more than a net of one or two seats and retain control. Those odds changed a few weeks ago when Montana's popular Democratic Governor, Steve BullockSteve BullockPolitics and the pandemic Republicans are rightly worried The Hill's Campaign Report: Biden moves to unify party before general election Poll shows Daines, Bullock neck and neck in Montana Senate race MORE, after resisting for a year, jumped in the Senate race to face a colorless Republican incumbent.

Now the terrible pandemic crisis will complicate the election prospects for the likes of Tillis, McSally and Ernst, maybe others.

Their only hope on this issue is voters have a short memory.

Al Hunt is the former executive editor of Bloomberg News. He previously served as reporter, bureau chief and Washington editor for the Wall Street Journal. For almost a quarter century he wrote a column on politics for The Wall Street Journal, then the International New York Times and Bloomberg View. Follow him on Twitter@AlHuntDC.

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Politics and the pandemic Republicans are rightly worried | TheHill - The Hill