Mike Rounds, a Republican senator from South Dakota, told CNN: “We recognize the seriousness of this indiscretion, and we’re going to get the inspector general’s report we’ve asked for … and that means the bottom line, we want as much information as we can get, and then we’ll do our own assessment.”
He added: “But right now, I think they screwed up. I think they know they screwed up. I think they also learned their lesson, and I think the president made it very clear to them that this is a lesson they don’t want to forget.”
Sure, Mike. This was just a learning opportunity.
How is this meaningful when leadership there is likely in support of the current administration? If there are actually positives here, I’ll remain hopeful.
What it means is the GOP is no longer in lockstep with Trump, which is good news regardless of whether this goes anywhere. Politically, it’s a shot across the bow.
Basically, “dude … don’t make us defend an unprecedented security breach.” They’re of course still fine with human-rights abuses, but this is too much even for them.