GOP congressman: Trump has reached conservative base 'like no person in my lifetime'

How has President Trump managed to secure the loyalty of a party he had almost no connection to prior to assuming office? The New York Times reports that it largely stems from the absence of choice for GOP lawmakers.

Former Rep. Dave Trott (R-Mich.) decided not to run for re-election because he realized he had no future as a Trump critic and didn't want to run as a Trump supporter, either. "I'm sure a lot of Republicans feel the same way," he said, adding that there isn't a market for independent voices in the party anymore. "But if they say that, the social media barrage will be overwhelming."

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) said Trump has managed to reach Republican voters in a way that makes it difficult to stray off on a different path. "Trump has touched the nerve of my conservative base like no person in my lifetime," he said.

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Republican lawmakers, in many ways, are acquiescing not to Trump, but to their constituents who have seemingly placed loyalty to Trump above political ideology. "They interviewed me after the vote and then they interviewed one of the Cape Coral Republican ladies and she said, 'Well, it's about time they came around to realize it's a big media hoax,'' recalls Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) who said he felt uneasy about voting against impeachment. "How do you argue with that? How do you reason with that?" Read more at The New York Times.