1. United States
2. Mo.
3. Letter

As an elected official, you are insubordinate, incompetent, feckless. St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial: "Members of Congress have a constitutional duty to act as a check on presidents who overstep their authority. That duty applies even when — we’d argue, especially when — that president is a member of their own party. If there was ever an issue that cried out for congressional intervention over a rogue president … well, Donald Trump has provided too many examples lately to dig into them all here: From his openly corrupt monetization of his office, to his unauthorized and aimless war in Iran, to his weaponization of the Justice Department against his perceived enemies, to his deeply un-American attacks on the free press, and more. The consistent, cowed silence of Missouri’s entire GOP congressional delegation in response to all those outrages no longer comes as any surprise. There are some Republicans in Congress who can rightly claim to display courage or at least some semblance of independence in the face of this power-mad president — but no one would count any of our state’s Republican officeholders among them. Still, we thought and hoped that Trump’s new betrayal of Ukraine as it continues resisting Russian aggression would be a special case. It was less than a month ago that every single one of Missouri’s eight Republicans in Congress voted to sanction Russia over its unprovoked invasion and its illegitimate campaign to annex its democratic neighbor. Trump signed that legislation — then, just last week, he turned around and openly, unilaterally violated it by striking a deal with Russia to resume importing Russian diesel fuel into global and U.S. markets. As some courageous Republicans (none of ours) have angrily pointed out, Trump’s deal not only violates the law Congress passed and Trump signed, but it effectively gives Russia economic aid in its relentless war on democracy in Ukraine (and, by extension, its ongoing attempt to gird NATO). “The United States should not provide Putin with a financial lifeline while Russia continues to kill Ukrainian civilians,” a bipartisan group of six senators wrote in a joint statement, including Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Curtis of Utah. “The Administration must immediately reverse course.” And where are Republican Missouri Sens. Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, and Republican Missouri U.S. Reps. Ann Wagner, Bob Onder, Mark Alford, Sam Graves, Eric Burlison and Jason Smith? Tending to their crickets, apparently. …If more than the usual handful of rank-and-file Republicans in Congress were to stand up to Trump and declare this deal an illegal incursion on congressional authority and a rank betrayal of a global ally, he might actually hear that message. Alas, all he’s hearing from our state, as usual, is crickets."