Anatomy of a speech: how does a Republican leader say no to Trump?

South Carolina’s state senate majority leader offered a nuanced case for rejecting Trump’s redistricting demands How does a Republican leader say no to Donald Trump? How do they criticize the US president’s policies without facing a social media riot, or losing their career ? As the party scrambles to redraw key congressional districts after the supreme court effectively gutted a major section of the Voting Rights Act that prevented racial discrimination, all eyes turned this week to South Carolina. I had never had the privilege of speaking with the president of the United States until last week. And it really was – it was a privilege. I enjoyed the conversation. It was a very good conversation. He gave me more time in a phone call than I could have expected… The president told me, he said: “Look, I hope you can help us out.” He said: “But I understand you got to do what you’re comfortable with, you got to do what you think is right.” I would hope that the home team can retain the majority. And I would also hope that if the home team retains the majority, that they’ll actually do something productive with it. Over the last year and a half, I suspect if we look back at what they’ve done with the majority, I don’t know that anybody in here could name more than one piece of legislation they’ve passed. And no matter how big and beautiful it was, there’s a whole lot more that they’ve left on the table. And that, to me, is disappointing – to have a majority that doesn’t do anything with it. Trying to go to 7-0 I think is extremely risky from a political standpoint. I think at best you’re going to get 6-1 and you may even go 5-2. I’ve told the press a number of times, I think if you get cute with this, you could end up in a 5-2 scenario. I don’t want to go 5-2. I don’t want [Democratic House minority leader] Hakeem Jeffries as the speaker of the House. I think the best chance that South Carolina has to prevent that from happening is with our current maps. I...

Original source: Guardian