Juan Williams: Will the GOP ever curb Trump?

What will it take for the American people to march on the White House and say: “Enough is Enough”?

What will it take to get Senate Republicans to march to the Trump White House — as they did long ago when Nixon was in the Oval Office — and tell the president he is hurting the country and it is time to go?

{mosads}Less than a month ago, Senate Republicans gave Trump a pass despite clear evidence he committed a high crime by pushing a foreign government to interfere in the 2020 election. They even refused to hear witnesses.

The job of justifying the GOP’s refusal to convict fell to Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

Senate Republicans’ stand against removing him from office was nonetheless a “lesson” for Trump, she said.

How was it a lesson?

In a subsequent interview, Collins explained that “many voices in the Senate have pointed out that the call [in which Trump asking the Ukrainian president to announce a probe into a political opponent] was problematic.”

Well, Collins should take a look at what has happened since:

Trump fired the Director of National Intelligence after one of his aides told Congress that Russia continues to interfere in U.S. politics and is interfering in the 2020 election to help Trump.

Trump then replaced him with a loyal Trump supporter with no experience in the FBI, CIA or any other intelligence agency.

And the new head of intelligence, Richard Grenell, then fired a deputy with 30 years of experience. He replaced him with a former House aide who has pushed the discredited conspiracy theory that the FBI and CIA led a ‘Deep State’ effort to defeat the Trump 2016 campaign.

Now, Collins has regrets: “I would have much preferred that the president nominate the acting director Maguire for the post…” she said. “I care deeply about that position and believe the person needs experience in the intelligence community, which regrettably Ambassador Grenell does not have.”

And there is more, Sen. Collins.

Since the Republicans in the Senate gave him a free pass, Trump has fired people who testified at the House impeachment hearings. The banished include Alexander Vindman, a decorated war veteran.

Trump also fired Gordon Sondland, his ambassador to the European Union, who testified that there was a deal to released congressionally approved military aid in exchange for political damage to former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democrat with the best chance to defeat Trump in the 2020 race.

Once again, Sen. Collins, while the Senate is looking the other way, Trump appears to have clearly broken the law.

U.S. Code states it is illegal to retaliate against “any person, for providing to a law enforcement officer any truthful information relating to the commission or possible commission of any Federal offense.”

But Trump’s press secretary disagrees. Anyone who testified about the president’s actions “should pay for that,” she said.

Collins again expressed regret.

“I obviously am not in favor of any kind of retaliation against anyone who came forward with evidence,” Collins said when told the news of the president’s purge of American citizens for having testified to the facts under oath in public congressional hearings.

Oh, but there is more, Sen. Collins.

With no fear of Congressional oversight, Trump is now acting as judge and jury by giving clemency to a group of convicts, mostly rich friends, including a former New York police commissioner, the former owner of an NFL team, the former governor of Illinois and a former Wall Street “junk bond king.”

Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr (D-N.J.) described the wave of pardons as Trump shielding “unrepentant felons, racists and corrupt scoundrels.”

And that led to concern that he is on the verge of pardoning even more of his friends, including former aides from his 2016 campaign who have been convicted of crimes. They include former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former national security adviser Mike Flynn and political confidante Roger Stone.

Senator, you may say that is only speculation. But there is reason for the concern.

Trump has launched a Twitter attack on federal prosecutors, a federal judge and even a juror in the Stone case.

{mossecondads}Trump complained that the sentence recommendation from federal prosecutors for Stone, to punish him for lying to Congress and witness intimidation, was too harsh. Soon after, top Justice officials changed the sentencing memo and four prosecutors quit.

Attorney General William Barr then complained publicly that Trump’s tweets made his job “impossible.”

That didn’t stop Trump. He then attacked the federal judge and a juror in the case. The judge is “totally biased,” he said before accusing the jury foreman of hating him and Stone.

The judge, unlike Congress, took a stand: “Any attempts to invade the privacy of the jurors or to harm or intimidate them is completely antithetical to our system of justice,” said Judge Amy B. Jackson.

She added the obvious about a nation that is founded on equal justice under law and not one man’s opinion: “The truth still exists. The truth still matters.”

As House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told Republicans at the end of the Senate trial: “Now you may be asking how much damage can [Trump] really do in the next several months until the election? A lot…If right doesn’t matter, we’re lost. If the truth doesn’t matter, we’re lost.”

We are lost, Sen. Collins.

Juan Williams is an author, and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.