“Look,” Coats said, “others have tried and it’s had no impact whatsoever. They get tarred and feathered.” “What would make a difference?” Mattis asked. “If the Senate stood up,” Coats said. He knew the Senate intimately, especially the Republicans. He had served 16 years as a Republican senator. And he kept in touch with half a dozen Republican senators who were friends. None were bailing on Trump—not out of conviction, but for political survival. “The Senate’s not going to stand up.”
