Republicans now have a sharply unfavorable view of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn after his plea deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, according to a new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll.
Our thought bubble: Though Republicans have turned on Flynn after his guilty plea, they haven't turned their backs on Trump — his approval rating among Republicans is 81% — and their continued dismissal of the Russia probe suggests they're not about to.
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Sen. Mitt Romney. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Saturday tweeted a scathing response to President Trump's Friday night commutation of former associate Roger Stone's prison sentence, calling the move "[u]nprecedented, historic corruption."
Why it matters: Romney has emerged as the party's most prominent Trump critic. He sent shockwaves through Washington after announcing he would vote to convict Trump in the impeachment trial — becoming the only Senate Republican to break ranks and vote for the president's removal from office. Now he is the first major GOP lawmaker to condemn Trump's Friday night call regarding Stone.
Chart: Danielle Alberti/Axios
By any standard, no matter how you look at it, the U.S. is losing its war against the coronavirus.
Why it matters: The pandemic is not an abstraction, and it is not something that’s simmering in the background. It is an ongoing emergency ravaging nearly the entire country, with a loss of life equivalent to a Sept. 11 every three days — for four months and counting.