NY Times: ““It was very clear to me, I took an oath to defend the Constitution. I didn’t take an oath to defend Donald Trump. What he did was a frontal assault on the Constitution,” he said over coffee at Sunshine Pancake House in Loris, S.C., on Wednesday.
Now that vote threatens to end his career as he faces several potential primary opponents who strongly support the former president. And that race will have a broader meaning for his party, serving as a test case for whether a solidly conservative lawmaker, long popular in his district and loyal to the party, can be cast out by GOP voters for the lone sin of crossing Trump.
“What do you call somebody who votes with Trump 99 percent of the time? A traitor,” Rice said with a chuckle recalling a joke he had read several months ago.
Punchline or prophecy? His electoral fate will probably provide an answer.”