In the eyes of many conservatives, there is nothing Trump can do which disqualifies him from the highest office in the land.
That's never been clearer than this past week, when his personal lawyer Michael Cohen's guilty plea deal named Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator to multiple felonies.
What did Republicans in Congress and around the nation say about the very strong chance President Trump committed multiple felonies?
Not much. In fact, instead of opening an investigations into the issue, they moved the line of acceptability further back. Prominent GOP members stated the Cohen plea deal made no mention of Russian meddling—another high crime Trump is under investigation for—but otherwise stayed silent on the issue.
Republicans in Congress appear unwilling to do anything to check President Trump, even if they personally dislike him. No matter what he does, the worst the President can expect from the party which controls every branch of government is a tweet of disappointment from Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and an endless game of "what about Hillary Clinton" from Fox News.
Though more symbolic in nature than revelatory, a recent Economist/YouGov survey shows just how far the overton window has shifted for President Trump.
Though overshadowed by news of Cohen's guilty plea deal and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's guilty conviction, rumors swirled in Washington of a tape of President Trump saying the n-word. But when asked their opinions, 64% of Republicans believed it was "possible that a person who uses the 'N-word' while in office can still be a good President of the United States."
Only 16% of Democrats agreed with this sentiment. 23% of Republicans believe Trump "probably has" used the n-word, which isn't a red flag for many of them since only 43% of the GOP "find the N-word offensive."
It may be hard to imagine how 43% of Republicans could believe the n-word—a word so bad we only refer to it by its first letter—isn't offensive. Even the 73% of Democrats who find the word offensive feels like too small a percentage to many.
The poll from Economist/YouGov also asked respondents if they thought previous Presidents used the n-word while in office. Interestingly—though a majority of Republicans now believe a President who says the n-word can still be good at his job—more GOP members believed Democratic Presidents used the word in the past.
For example, 31% of Republicans surveyed believed "Trump [has] definitely or probably used the [n-word] since becoming president," while 34% believed the same of President Jimmy Carter. Although that may be attributed to Carter's birth in 1924 in Plains, Georgia, and a belief that "everyone" in the South before the 1960s used the word all the time.
The survey also revealed a full 13% of Republicans believe Trump is the best President of all time, beating out previous GOP heavyweights Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan.
President Trump is often accused of behaving as if there are no consequences for any of his actions.
Looking at these poll numbers, it's hard to argue with that notion.
H/T - Vice, Economist/YouGove
