Trump's sad implosion is a good sign for Biden's agenda JOSH BARRO JANUARY 04, 2021 President Donald Trump. Pool/Getty Images As Joe Biden prepares to take office, Democrats are united and Republicans are arguing bitterly with each other. Trump's last desperate ploy to retain power — and the infighting it has caused within the Republican party — has strengthened Biden's governing position as he prepares to take office. Trump's grip on his own political party is waning, and will be even weaker once he leaves office. Mitch McConnell has also shown his own grasp over his caucus to be weaker than understood. When your side is united and the other side is in disarray, that's good for you. This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. In the last two weeks, the president had his veto overridden for the first time in his presidency. He threatened to block the bipartisan COVID relief and omnibus spending packages — the former negotiated by his own Treasury secretary — and then caved and signed them into law, having received no substantive concessions. And now, Trump's latest push to reverse the results of the election he lost has led to bitter infighting in his own political party. Some Republicans have heeded his call to object to the counting of electoral votes from swing states, and others have loudly denounced the move as pointless and anti-democratic. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell worked desperately, but unsuccessfully, to stop this ploy that would force his members to go on record either rejecting democracy or opposing President Trump. Instead, the party will fight over its commitment to Trump in an extremely public way. Republican Senators who oppose efforts to interfere with the vote count have not minced words about members of their caucus who plan to object to the Electoral College certification. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said the "egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic." Pat Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said it "directly undermines" the "right of the people to elect their own leaders." Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse called the senators intending to object "institutional arsonists." Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, one of the ringleaders of the drive to challenge the votes, hit back, whining that "we should avoid putting words into each other's mouths and making unfounded claims about the intentions of our fellow senators." I'm confused about why the collapse of the GOP into Trump-related infighting is supposed to make us less optimistic about the prospects for bipartisan cooperation in the Biden administration? When your opposition is weak and divided is the best time to split them and make deals. This isn't Trump's party anymore What we're seeing in the last few weeks is different from what we saw for the last four years. Yes, it's remarkable and depressing that large numbers of Republican members of Congress intend to vote to reject the result of the election we just had. When Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer tried this nonsense 16 years ago, she brought along no other Senators and just a few dozen House members, and her party's nominee didn't play along, reflecting a sense of democratic responsibility that is obviously absent in Trump and much of today's GOP. But it's also remarkable that so much of the party that he cowed into compliance for the last four years now intends to defy him — and isn't just intending to vote against him but is speaking publicly about why their colleagues are wrong to give Trump what he wants. Liz Cheney, Chip Roy, and Tom Cotton, who have all vociferously rejected the plan to try to steal the election, are not exactly RINO squishes. And members are making these objections loudly to each other, as repeated leaks of tense conference calls among Republican elected officials revealed. We've come a long way from impeachment, when the party stood almost entirely united. Then, Romney was the only Republican in either chamber of Congress willing to say the president's actions merited removal from office. Trump had taken over the Republican party, but now we're back to a condition kind of like May 2016, where Trump divides his party bitterly down the middle between officials who are on board his train and those who oppose his demands and feel emboldened to say so in public. Of course in spring 2016, Trump was in the process of consolidating power, and former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said on May 6 of that year he was "just not ready" to support Trump, came around within a matter of weeks. But now, Trump's power is dissipating. Republicans are already increasingly ready to ignore and override his wishes — as they did with the defense bill — and we haven't yet seen the greatest diminution of his power, which will come when he actually leaves office. Issues that unite your party and divide your opposition are good for you and bad for them I am under no illusion that Mitch McConnell is eager to work productively with President-elect Joe Biden, especially on a progressive agenda. But one of Democrats' big fears — of a highly disciplined Republican caucus that lines up behind McConnell on a shared strategy of denying the president any wins — has already been undermined by this week's news. McConnell has lost control of his caucus, and Republicans are at each other's throats. And Biden was never going to need the likes of Sens. Ron Johnson or Ted Cruz, both of whom will object to the Electoral College count, to work with him. What we have seen this week — the Republican members of Congress he does need to be able to work with standing up for his election win and criticizing their colleagues who question it — is a positive sign for his prospects for working productively with enough Republicans on Capitol Hill. Also a good sign is Biden's wise choice to stay out of this mess — why argue your case to Republicans when Pat Toomey will argue it for you? Over the next four years, I'm sure Trump will be shouting from the sidelines, urging Republicans to promote whatever he considers to be his current interests. But what we've seen this week is that, with less power, Trump goes from the unifying force holding the party together to a costly and divisive distraction. That intraparty division will only make it harder to keep Republicans united against Biden's agenda. Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification. " dir="ltr" style="color: rgb(68, 68, 67); font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro", Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", "Droid Sans", "Helvetica Neue", "PingFang SC", "Hiragino Sans GB", "Droid Sans Fallback", "Microsoft YaHei", sans-serif, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> President Donald Trump. Pool/Getty Images As Joe Biden prepares to take office, Democrats are united and Republicans are arguing bitterly with each other. Trump's last desperate ploy to retain power — and the infighting it has caused within the Republican party — has strengthened Biden's governing position as he prepares to take office. Trump's grip on his own political party is waning, and will be even weaker once he leaves office. Mitch McConnell has also shown his own grasp over his caucus to be weaker than understood. When your side is united and the other side is in disarray, that's good for you. This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. In the last two weeks, the president had his veto overridden for the first time in his presidency. He threatened to block the bipartisan COVID relief and omnibus spending packages — the former negotiated by his own Treasury secretary — and then caved and signed them into law, having received no substantive concessions. And now, Trump's latest push to reverse the results of the election he lost has led to bitter infighting in his own political party. Some Republicans have heeded his call to object to the counting of electoral votes from swing states, and others have loudly denounced the move as pointless and anti-democratic. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell worked desperately, but unsuccessfully, to stop this ploy that would force his members to go on record either rejecting democracy or opposing President Trump. Instead, the party will fight over its commitment to Trump in an extremely public way. Republican Senators who oppose efforts to interfere with the vote count have not minced words about members of their caucus who plan to object to the Electoral College certification. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah said the "egregious ploy to reject electors may enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our Democratic Republic." Pat Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said it "directly undermines" the "right of the people to elect their own leaders." Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse called the senators intending to object "institutional arsonists." Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, one of the ringleaders of the drive to challenge the votes, hit back, whining that "we should avoid putting words into each other's mouths and making unfounded claims about the intentions of our fellow senators." I'm confused about why the collapse of the GOP into Trump-related infighting is supposed to make us less optimistic about the prospects for bipartisan cooperation in the Biden administration? When your opposition is weak and divided is the best time to split them and make deals. This isn't Trump's party anymore What we're seeing in the last few weeks is different from what we saw for the last four years. Yes, it's remarkable and depressing that large numbers of Republican members of Congress intend to vote to reject the result of the election we just had. When Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer tried this nonsense 16 years ago, she brought along no other Senators and just a few dozen House members, and her party's nominee didn't play along, reflecting a sense of democratic responsibility that is obviously absent in Trump and much of today's GOP. But it's also remarkable that so much of the party that he cowed into compliance for the last four years now intends to defy him — and isn't just intending to vote against him but is speaking publicly about why their colleagues are wrong to give Trump what he wants. Liz Cheney, Chip Roy, and Tom Cotton, who have all vociferously rejected the plan to try to steal the election, are not exactly RINO squishes. And members are making these objections loudly to each other, as repeated leaks of tense conference calls among Republican elected officials revealed. We've come a long way from impeachment, when the party stood almost entirely united. Then, Romney was the only Republican in either chamber of Congress willing to say the president's actions merited removal from office. Trump had taken over the Republican party, but now we're back to a condition kind of like May 2016, where Trump divides his party bitterly down the middle between officials who are on board his train and those who oppose his demands and feel emboldened to say so in public. Of course in spring 2016, Trump was in the process of consolidating power, and former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said on May 6 of that year he was "just not ready" to support Trump, came around within a matter of weeks. But now, Trump's power is dissipating. Republicans are already increasingly ready to ignore and override his wishes — as they did with the defense bill — and we haven't yet seen the greatest diminution of his power, which will come when he actually leaves office. Issues that unite your party and divide your opposition are good for you and bad for them I am under no illusion that Mitch McConnell is eager to work productively with President-elect Joe Biden, especially on a progressive agenda. But one of Democrats' big fears — of a highly disciplined Republican caucus that lines up behind McConnell on a shared strategy of denying the president any wins — has already been undermined by this week's news. McConnell has lost control of his caucus, and Republicans are at each other's throats. And Biden was never going to need the likes of Sens. Ron Johnson or Ted Cruz, both of whom will object to the Electoral College count, to work with him. What we have seen this week — the Republican members of Congress he does need to be able to work with standing up for his election win and criticizing their colleagues who question it — is a positive sign for his prospects for working productively with enough Republicans on Capitol Hill. Also a good sign is Biden's wise choice to stay out of this mess — why argue your case to Republicans when Pat Toomey will argue it for you? Over the next four years, I'm sure Trump will be shouting from the sidelines, urging Republicans to promote whatever he considers to be his current interests. But what we've seen this week is that, with less power, Trump goes from the unifying force holding the party together to a costly and divisive distraction. That intraparty division will only make it harder to keep Republicans united against Biden's agenda. Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.