Between drinks, Republican starts to cry (5,2)
I believe the answer is:
tears up
'starts to cry' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'between drinks republican' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'republican' could be 'r' (abbreviation in US politics) and 'r' is found within the answer.
'drinks' could be 'teas' (tea is a kind of drink) and 'teas' is present in the remaining letters.
The remaining letters 'up' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tears up that I've seen before include "Shreds" , "Cancels" .)