(CNN) -
Former President Donald Trump's lies and his insistence that the November election was rigged against him may have been too extreme for the lawyers who must defend him at his next Senate impeachment trial in little more than a week.
But his party has largely stuck with him.
After a brief flirtation with reason and good judgment in the weeks following the Jan. 6 siege of the Capitol, the Republican Party has decided to honor Trump's deep and often blind loyalty, choosing to overlook his role. in inciting deadly insurrection rather than paying the price of challenging him and his base next year at the polls.
The collapse of Trump's legal team amid a disagreement over legal strategy, which CNN first reported Saturday night, stood in stark contrast to the slow progress of Republican elected leaders back to the former president's corner as the wrath of legislators on the insurrection fades and their potential power to help or destroy them in the 2022 elections becomes paramount.
While the Republican Party continues to give in to Trump's whims, forgives his dangerous behavior and shudders at his electoral threats, the judiciary and the legal profession adhere to a higher ethical standard and have largely refused to tolerate his efforts to attack the nation's democratic institutions and founding principles throughout his baseless electoral farce, making the Republican Party's loyalty to Trump even more appalling.
A person familiar with the departure of the five lawyers - Butch Bowers, Deborah Barbier, Josh Howard, Johnny Gasser, and Greg Harris - told CNN that Trump wanted the lawyers to focus their defense on the notion that there was massive voter fraud in November and had his elections stolen, instead of questioning the legality of convicting a president after he left office.
Trump was not receptive to discussions about how they should proceed, according to CNN's Gloria Borger, Kaitlan Collins, Jeff Zeleny and Ashley Semler.
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Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman, who recently voted with the majority of his party to present a discussion on the constitutionality of impeaching Trump, which was considered a test vote indicating that the former president would be acquitted after the trial due to his substantial Support within Republican ranks, he said Sunday that he believes the question of whether a president can be convicted after leaving office needs to be answered, but that the country should put Trump's allegations of election fraud behind him.
There was "no proper wrongdoing or fraud, not widespread enough to change the election outcome, period," Portman told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union."
"We have to acknowledge that this election was lost and we have to move on."
And yet the majority of the Republican Party has expressed concern about the forced repercussions for the former president.
They showed how much the party has been irrevocably changed by Trump's corrosive influence last week when Republican members remained silent and refused to berate Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who should have ended the week in disgrace after KFile CNN's reporter stated that she previously demonstrated support for the execution of prominent Democrats.
Instead, like Trump, the first-year Republican has doubled down and escaped largely unscathed, avoiding any punishment from Republican leaders, as she falsely claims to be a victim of "bloodthirsty media."
On Saturday, he was defiant on Twitter after claiming to have had a "big call" with Trump, and he continued to tell falsehoods about the presidential election and showed no shred of remorse for his endorsement of violent threats against lawmakers or offensive and unspoken theories. rationale for the Parkland shooting.
While his conduct receives the go-ahead from Republican leaders, some Republican state parties and local leaders are rushing to condemn Republican lawmakers who dared to vote to remove the former president.
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The case of both Trump, expected to be acquitted in the Senate, and Greene's is the latest example of how Lincoln's party has become the party without consequences, freed from its moorings by Trump's acceptance of Unfounded conspiracy theories and their pampering of the party's most dangerous fringe elements.
In phrases that could have been plucked from Trump's own permanently suspended Twitter account, Greene claimed Saturday that she will "never apologize" or "back down" despite CNN revelations about her shocking conspiracy-laden social media posts. , including the fact that she "liked" a comment that suggested "a bullet to the head would be faster" as a way to eliminate the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
He also expressed support for comments about the execution of FBI agents.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who should be the person responsible for enforcing discipline within their ranks and establishing decorum barriers, indicated that he intends to speak to Greene this week about the posts that threaten to kill legislators.
But he also spent the past week trying to approach Trump at Mar-a-Lago and amend his fleeting rebuke to the former president after the insurrection that endangered the lives of its members, paying tribute to the standard-bearer of a party that is already preparing. for a divisive primary cycle.
At least 50 House Democrats have called for Greene to be removed from the House, and others have called for her to be censored or stripped of her commission assignments, but there is still no indication that Republican leaders will crack down on her. .
Before being elected to the solid red light district last fall, Republican strategists raised concerns about Greene's ties to Islamophobic and anti-Semitic tropes, and her previous support for QAnon, whose supporters believe the unfounded conspiracy theory she says that Trump was involved in a battle against celebrities and Democrats who abuse children.
But she won and has been among Trump's staunchest supporters, backing up his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent.
He has worn a mask to the Capitol with the message "Trump won."
"I had a BIG call with my all-time favorite POTUS, President Trump!"
Greene tweeted on Saturday.
"I am very grateful for his support and, most importantly, the people of this country are absolutely 100% loyal to him because he is 100% loyal to the people and America First."
Trump's office has not responded to requests for comment on the call.
Republicans feel pressure for impeachment vote
Meanwhile, it's the Republicans who challenged Trump with their impeachment votes earlier this month who now appear to be most politically at risk.
On Saturday, the South Carolina Republican Party voted to formally censure Representative Tom Rice for voting to impeach Trump, and South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick said the vote amounted to "nothing more than a political kick on the way out "and one that" played directly into the game of the Democrats. "
Several of the other nine House Republicans who joined Rice in that impeachment vote are facing backlash at home, with the flank aligned with Trump and his party promising primary challenges, reprimands from local leaders and a landslide. expenses against you.
Several Republican lawmakers have called for Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, the third Republican in the House of Representatives, to be stripped of her leadership post after she supported impeachment.
Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a close Trump ally, attacked her at a rally in her home state Thursday and Trump has been weighing how he should get revenge, reportedly showing allies in polls to argue that she it has weakened in the area.
In Cheyenne, Gaetz sought to ignite divisions within his party while defending "prairie populism" and called on Republicans to defeat Cheney when he ran for reelection, even going so far as to receive a phone call from Donald Trump Jr. to amplify that message.
He claimed that Cheney was part of a "private insider club" that includes President Joe Biden, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Utah Senator Mitt Romney and Pelosi who want to use the government to "get rich."
“Washington mythologizes establishment power brokers like Liz Cheney for playing a deeply corrupt game.
But there are more of us than they are and we see counterfeits and phonies more clearly than ever, "Gaetz said during the rally.
"If you want to show that you have power, defeat Liz Cheney in this next election and Wyoming will bring Washington to its knees."
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Cheney told his party that his vote on the impeachment charge, accusing Trump of "inciting insurrection," was a vote of conscience.
McCarthy has said he supports Cheney but has "concerns."
Votes for the impeachment of Cheney and the other nine Republicans could emerge in a meeting with all House Republicans on Wednesday, but it is unclear whether McCarthy intends to address the controversy over Greene's posts on social media. or how, so far, he has only intervened publicly through a spokesperson who called Greene's comments "deeply disturbing."
The minority leader has already canceled a Republican leadership meeting scheduled for Tuesday because he will travel back from Houston after an energetic event, his spokesman told CNN.
However, he did not offer additional details as to why it was not rescheduled, and a family source believes that one of the reasons McCarthy canceled is because he does not want to talk about Greene.
Who is Marjorie Taylor Greene, the proQanon congresswoman?
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'Lies that come together'
In his Twitter thread Saturday, Greene tried to claim that, like Trump, he is a victim of "bloodthirsty media" and "America-hating socialists."
Alluding to Pelosi's comments during a press conference this week that "the enemy is inside the House of Representatives," Greene sought to define the enemy as "a poisonous rot of socialist policies" and "America's latest sellouts. that they are pompous hypocrites who think they are untouchable elites.
Romney, a rare Republican who has spoken out frequently against Trump, chided her on Twitter Saturday: "The Lies of a Flock of Feather Coming Together: The Nonsense of Marjorie Taylor Greene and the 'Big Lie' of a Stolen Election ».
Portman said Sunday "State of the Union" that Republicans should "stand up and say that what she has said is totally unacceptable."
"There is no room for violence in our political dialogue," said the Ohio senator, who announced early last week that he will not seek re-election after his current term ends in 2022.
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But with most Republicans keeping quiet about Greene, tensions continue to rise between her and some of the Democrats who want to see formal action to reprimand her for her past comments.
Rep. Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat, plans to move to an office further away from Greene's after the two had a discussion about wearing a mask earlier this month.
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the National Security Commission, said Saturday that "the Republican leadership has to step up right now" because Greene "is an embarrassment to all of us."
Thompson asked McCarthy to take a stand for the good of his party, calling it a sad day for Republican politics in the United States: "He has the number one position in the Republican party in the House of Representatives," Thompson said of McCarthy during an interview with CNN's Ana Cabrera on "Newsroom" on Saturday.
“You have to show that leadership.
Otherwise, he is complicit in what she is doing with her silence.
But McCarthy's visit to Mar-a-Lago this week suggested that his main concern is staying in Trump's goodwill, meaning Greene, and those who share his beliefs, are likely going nowhere.
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