WATCH: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse tells Salon “fewer than half” of GOP senators think Trump “makes it through his presidency”
In a visit to Salon, Rhode Island Democrat says his GOP colleagues feel "a lot of anxiety" about their president VIDEO
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I didn’t ask Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse the most obvious question during his recent visit to Salon’s New York studio for a video interview (watch below): Is he running for president in 2020? Leaving aside the strange synchronicity of his last name — and I’m honestly not sure whether it’s an asset or a liability — the idea seems plausible. The Rhode Island Democrat clearly represents the liberal-to-progressive wing of his party, is close with his fellow New Englander Elizabeth Warren, but doesn’t come off as a fire-breather. In theory, Whitehouse straddles the Democrats’ Hillary-Bernie divide but carries none of their baggage (and is younger), while looking the part of conventional white male politician.
But even in the era of permanent campaign cycles, it’s too early for that. You might say that another, more explosive question came up during our conversation: Will Donald Trump still be in the White House by the time that next election gets here?
Whitehouse was in New York this week to talk about his new book, “Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy” (written with Melanie Wachtell Stinnett) — and about the after-effects of the election we just had. “Captured” is a wonkish, earnest deep dive into the corrupting influence of corporate money on our politics and all three branches of government, which goes beyond campaign donations and super PACs to de facto control of executive agencies and stealth control of the judiciary. Whitehouse presents a Bernie Sanders-style argument about the necessity of major reforms to get money out of politics, albeit in more measured terms.
It was a fascinating conversation, well worth watching all the way through (see below) and touching on numerous topics, from an inherent flaw that Whitehouse perceives in the U.S. Constitution (whose authors never imagined the rise of corporate power) to the impending Senate confirmation hearings for Neil Gorsuch, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. Whitehouse himself had a distinguished legal career before coming to Washington, serving as both a U.S. attorney and state attorney general in Rhode Island and twice floated as a potential Supreme Court nominee under Barack Obama. Any political observer would identify Whitehouse as a likely “no” vote on Gorsuch, but as he explained, the reasons for such a decision might have little to do with the judge’s legal qualifications and everything to do with the slanted composition of a high court featuring five hard-line conservatives.