What are we to make of arch-conservative Republican Sen. Thom Tillis Thomas (Thom) Roland TillisThe Hill's Campaign Report: GOP set to ask SCOTUS to limit mail-in voting OVERNIGHT ENERGY: EPA head questions connection of climate change to natural disasters | Pebble Mine executives eye future expansion in recorded conversations | EPA questions science linking widely used pesticide to brain damage in children Liberal super PAC launches ads targeting vulnerable GOP senators over SCOTUS fight MORE (N.C.) taking a stand against President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellPelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Senate GOP aims to confirm Trump court pick by Oct. 29: report Trump argues full Supreme Court needed to settle potential election disputes MORE (R-Ky)?

Tillis is among a surprising group of Senate Republicans backing a bill to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE in case Trump fires him.

Here is Tillis, who votes with Trump 96 percent of the time, sending the message to his fellow Trump backers:

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“The same people who would criticize me for filing this bill would be absolutely angry if I wasn’t pounding the table for this bill if we were dealing with Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonButtigieg stands in as Pence for Harris's debate practice Senate GOP sees early Supreme Court vote as political booster shot Poll: 51 percent of voters want to abolish the electoral college MORE,” he said last week. “So, spare me your righteous indignation.”

Well, that’s a first — one of the president’s strongest supporters telling other Trump supporters they are wrong to blindly back Trump.

The key here is that Tillis isn’t up for reelection until 2020.

I suspect that Tillis is getting a jump on distancing himself from the president in 2020. That is when Tillis’s name will appear below Trump’s name on the ballot (or if Trump is gone, below the name of Trump’s tainted-by-proximity vice president, Mike Pence Michael (Mike) Richard PenceButtigieg stands in as Pence for Harris's debate practice Trump argues full Supreme Court needed to settle potential election disputes Pence adviser knocks ex-staffer who criticized Trump on COVID-19 MORE).

With less than seven months until the midterm elections, the most politically savvy Republicans are drawing the obvious conclusion from current polls: If the election were held today, they would lose the House and possibly the Senate because of Trump.

The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll last week found Trump underwater, with a 39 percent approval and 57 percent disapproval rating. Trump’s approval rating is down 4 points since last month.

A Quinnipiac poll — taken before the raid on Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s office this month — found that 69 percent of Americans oppose Trump firing Mueller. Just 13 percent think Trump should fire him.

Even with those strong poll numbers backing Mueller, the top Republicans in the Senate and House remain protective of Trump.

They are politically paralyzed, displaying a ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ inability to stand up to Trump for fear of angering the president’s small but fevered base of supporters. Trump calls the probe a “hoax.”

Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 At indoor rally, Pence says election runs through Wisconsin Juan Williams: Breaking down the debates MORE (R-Wis.) has said he does not think legislation to protect Mueller is necessary because he does not believe Trump will fire the special counsel.

McConnell is taking the same stand in opposition to a bill that would give Mueller a 10-day period for speedy judicial review of any dismissal.

“I don’t think [Trump] should [fire Mueller] and I don’t think he will,” McConnell told my Fox News colleague Neil Cavuto.

But McConnell remains opposed to even bringing any legislation to insulate Mueller to the Senate floor for a vote.

That imperious position is responsible for the first cracks in the GOP congressional stonewall defense of Trump.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley Charles (Chuck) Ernest GrassleyCollins says she will vote 'no' on Supreme Court nominee before election The Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by Facebook - Trump, GOP allies prepare for SCOTUS nomination this week Gardner signals support for taking up Supreme Court nominee this year MORE (R-Iowa), a strong Trump supporter until now, is splitting from McConnell by scheduling a vote on the measure later this week in the committee.

“Obviously, the majority leader's views are important to consider, but they do not govern what happens here in the Judiciary Committee,” Grassley told reporters.

Two Republicans on Grassley’s Committee are spearheading the bipartisan legislative push to protect Mueller.

In addition to Tillis, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamSenate GOP aims to confirm Trump court pick by Oct. 29: report The Hill's Campaign Report: GOP set to ask SCOTUS to limit mail-in voting Senate GOP sees early Supreme Court vote as political booster shot MORE, is also a sponsor of the measure. He is on record as saying that if Trump fires Mueller, it will “be the beginning of the end of his presidency."

There is also the argument that Trump will veto any law protecting Mueller, so why bother? But Sen. Jeff Flake Jeffrey (Jeff) Lane FlakeJeff Flake: Republicans 'should hold the same position' on SCOTUS vacancy as 2016 Republican former Michigan governor says he's voting for Biden Maybe they just don't like cowboys: The president is successful, some just don't like his style MORE (R-Ariz.) has countered that, even if Trump vetoes the bill, the purpose of putting it on his desk is “to send a message to the president…the message needs to be that we take this very seriously.”

Also, McConnell and Ryan don’t have an answer to the obvious flaw in their logic.

If there is no danger of Trump firing Mueller, then what is the harm in passing legislation to protect him?

If McConnell and Ryan are right that Trump won’t fire Mueller, they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by protecting fellow Republicans and shutting down critical Democrats.

The reality is that if Trump fires Mueller, the midterms could be even worse than the most pessimistic prognosticators imagine.

The harsh reality of extensive political turmoil leading to riots if Mueller is fired is already of concern to police.

The Pittsburgh police chief told his officers to be prepared for just that scenario in a department-wide memo last week.

How far we have come since the Republican National Convention that nominated Trump in 2016 adopted a party platform that read “the next president must restore the public’s trust in law enforcement and civil order by first adhering to the rule of law himself.”

Juan Williams is an author, and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.