Michael Steel, a former GOP House leadership adviser, explained that, over the past three years, lawmakers have been “testing the boundaries of the president’s tolerance for dissent.”
On policy disagreements, he said, “You see a great deal more latitude. You don’t see angry tweet storms about Republicans who voted for sanctions on Russia. The disagreement over Syria has stayed in that bucket.”…
Chip Saltsman, a Republican strategist based in Tennessee, said that conservative activists are abuzz over the Trump-versus-House Democrats impeachment skirmish. “I have talked to nobody in the grass-roots world, GOP-wise, that brought up Syria,” Saltsman said. “I’ve talked to evangelical leaders who have. [But] to the base electorate right now, impeachment is so loud that Syria doesn’t register yet.”…
“Evangelicals see this decision as a punch to the gut, but punches to the gut don’t always have a lasting effect,” said David Brody, chief political correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network. He said the backlash over Syria amounts to “a mini crisis” for the White House, but added, “The president has done so much for evangelicals, in terms of judges and legislation, that this Syria decision isn’t going to be the death knell.”
