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A few Republicans, like Senator John McCain, offered strong rebukes to President Trump’s anti-American, pro-Russian ramblings yesterday. More Republicans, unfortunately, offered weak excuses. (My vote for the single weakest statement goes to either Senators Cory Gardner of Colorado or Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — both of whom complained about previous presidents.)

But whatever Trump’s fellow Republicans did or didn’t say yesterday, the big question is what — if anything — they will do. Trump is engaged in a shameful campaign to weaken the United States for some mysterious mix of self-interested reasons. Mere words aren’t enough of a response. This is an emergency.

And so far, Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, and other top Republicans have shown no willingness to take action to defend the country. “McConnell will deploy every tool at his disposal to refocus on business as usual,” Adam Jentleson, a former Democratic Senate staffer, predicted on Twitter. “A smattering of critical statements from GOP senators is step one because that will get reporters to stop hounding senators for reactions. No action will follow, and soon we’ll be back to normal.”