Congressional Republicans must be called to account for the damage.

To be sure, Trumps presidency is, as a Los Angeles Times headline put it so succinctly, a train wreck. But the damage he is doing to the country can occur only because it has the support of Republican collaborators in Congress. Without Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), 52 other GOP senators and 197 House Republicans marching in lockstep in the rear, the president would not be able to pursue his goal of remaking the United States into a solely owned Trump enterprise. Armed with that GOP posse, Trump is now the most dishonest, uninformed, outright mean, bigoted and braggadocious creature ever to have inhabited the White House and he has unchecked power.
The latest Trump impeachment trial updates
This isnt to say Trump hasnt managed to inflict wounds all on his own.
He, and he alone, abused the power of the presidency by trying to coerce a foreign government into helping him politically. It was Trump, not his compatriots on Capitol Hill, who ordered the obstruction of the House of Representatives in the performance of its constitutional duty.
And it was Trump who has:
caused children to be separated from their families and placed in inhumane conditions;
cozied up to right-wing cutthroats who, through their words and deeds, damn democracy;
thumbed his nose at climate change and assaulted school lunch programs;
reveled in the use of foul language;
taken delight in disparaging brown- and black-skinned immigrants and the places they come from (shithole countries);
shown preference for those sharing his racial heritage (look at his administration, his playgrounds and his playmates);
paid lip service to unity while promoting division.
Trump has single-handedly demeaned his office.
That said, vandalizing America has been a GOP group act. Both Trump and Republicans must be pulled offstage.
The transformation of the federal judiciary, with extremely conservative ideologues holding life-term appointments, could not have happened without a Trump-McConnell alliance.
A solid stone wall of Republicans has converted the Senate into a legislative graveyard for bills passed by the House but opposed by Trump.
And in the Democratic-controlled House, his Republican defenders and apologists have no shame. Recall the spectacle of 193 House Republicans lining up to oppose a resolution that condemned Trumps racist tweets against four House Democratic women of color it passed with 236 Democratic and only four Republican votes.
Voters wishing for a better United States an America that builds trust in government and institutions and that stands tall in international affairs ignore Congress at their peril. Controlling Congress is essential to controlling Trump should he horror of horrors win reelection.
So, consider the 2020 House and Senate elections.
What are the chances of Democrats retaking the Senate?
Ill leave that question to pundits and pollsters. But the GOPs three-vote majority disappears if a small handful of Republican seats switch. Sitting in the hot seat? Maines Susan Collins, North Carolinas Thom Tillis, Colorados Cory Gardner, Arizonas Martha McSally and Iowas Joni Ernst.
Taking control of the Senate and tossing out McConnell as majority leader are nearly as important as dumping Trump. Trumps enablers on the ballot this fall, including South Carolinas sycophantic Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, ought to be held accountable for all they have done to help their potty-mouthed, lying leader who cheapens the presidency.
Whats next in the impeachment process
On the other side of the Capitol, the House should remain where it belongs under the gavel of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Not only should the majority remain Democratic, but there are Republicans in the House who are vulnerable. They, like their Senate colleagues, must be called to account for the abdication of their responsibility to scrutinize the work of the administration, and for turning a blind eye to what Trump is doing or, equally importantly, failing to do.
The impeachment trial, in a real sense, results from an accumulation of congressional Republican failures a problem that must be remedied at the polls in November.
Read more from Colbert Kings archive.
Read more:
Jennifer Rubin: Republican senators have a problem, aside from impeachment
Paul Waldman: Why every vulnerable GOP senator will stick by Trump
Jennifer Rubin: The media must call out Senate Republicans willful ignorance
Greg Sargent: Memo to vulnerable GOP senators: Youre already on video, and its bad
Jonathan Capehart: Three things Trump is doing that should scare the hell out of Democrats