Attacks on Trump signal battle for soul of Republican Party
The battle, pitting the old guard versus rebels led by Steve Bannon, is being waged with a ferocity unsettling many in Washington.
Tuesday 24 October 2017 22:51, UK
Seldom has such language been used about a President by senior members of their own Party.
Within hours of each other Bob Corker and Jeff Flake launched extraordinarily bitter attacks on Donald Trump.
Mr Corker called him and someone who was "debasing" the country.
Mr Flake described him as "" and said that the country had to stop pretending that "this behaviour is normal".
Now in normal times such an astonishing assault on a President would signal a huge threat to the occupant of the White House.
But these are not normal times.
There is a battle for the soul of the Republican Party that's being waged with a ferocity that is unsettling many people here.
On one side are the traditionalists, the establishment, the old guard of the Grand Old Party (GOP).
On the other, the insurgents, organised and led by Mr Trump's former strategist Steve Bannon.
He's no longer in the White House and is free to "wage war", as he put it, against those Congress men and women who he believes do not support or represent what Donald Trump stands for.
His strategy is to remove sitting Republicans he doesn't like by pitching them against Trump loyalists in tight primary races.
Some are starting to give up before entering the fray.
We could be witnessing a major shift in Republican politics or a short-lived but uncomfortable rupture that the GOP will survive.
In the end it is for the voters to decide and that in turn will depend on what Donald Trump achieves rather than what he tweets.
It promises to be a rocky ride for the Republicans.