<em>The Atlantic</em> Politics Daily: Johnson, Clinton, and Now, Trump

And as with their House counterparts, GOP senators lined up forcefully behind President Trump, with one exception. Mitt Romney of Utah had told my colleague McKay Coppins that he’s open to the idea that Trump needs to be removed from office (as they say, watch this space).

Another question mark is how big of a role Chief Justice John Roberts might play. As Ronald Brownstein writes, “Roberts could ultimately be the last man standing in the GOP with the ability to say no to a president who barrels through law and custom.”

—Saahil Desai

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« ARGUMENT OF THE DAY »

(Simon Montag)

At last, the lawyer George T. Conway III writes.

“As rare as impeachments may be, today’s impeachment of Donald Trump, president of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors was pretty much inevitable. …

In essence, Trump thinks everything should be about him, for him, for his benefit and glorification—and he can’t comprehend, and doesn’t care about, anything that isn’t.”

Read his full argument from the night of impeachment.

More: The narcissism, above all else, makes Trump unfit for office, Conway had argued back in October in his first essay for The Atlantic.

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« EVENING READ »

(Erin Schaff / The New York Times)

Unprecedented as they are, impeachments of presidents past can provide useful context for impeachment today.

A newly released diary shows House Republican leaders pledging to oust President Richard Nixon months before he resigned. Why did they back down?

A generation and a half later, there is as much about this story that seems strange as seems distressingly familiar. The televised debates in the Judiciary Committee make clear that in 2019, not even a handful of elected members in the House of the president’s party are interested in serving as nonpartisan jurors, wrestling with dismaying and politically inconvenient facts. In part, that’s because House Republican leaders in 2019 are at least as cowed by their base as Rhodes and Barber were in 1974, despite perhaps privately loathing this president as much as their predecessors hated Nixon.

Read Tim Naftali on what he discovered in Barber Conable’s diary.

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Today’s newsletter was written by Saahil Desai, an associate editor on our Politics team, and edited by Shan Wang, who oversees newsletters. You can reply directly to this newsletter with questions or comments, or send a note to politicsdaily@theatlantic.com.

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Saahil Desai is an associate editor at The Atlantic, where he covers politics and policy.