Nothing that comes out of Trumpworld should surprise anyone anymore, but even people close to the president tell The New York Times they’re stunned that Trump is now privately claiming that it wasn’t him on the pussy-grabbing Access Hollywood tape. It gets curiouser. Trump has also been saying that he still believes Barack Obama’s birth certificate is a fake. Via The New York Times.
Trump is apparently willing to make any compromise necessary — with Republican senators, that is — to get his tax bill passed. And so Tuesday, when Trump said yes to as many changes as he could, was a very good day for the tax bill’s prospects. Via Vox.
It wasn’t quite as good a day for those hoping to avoid a government shutdown. On the morning before Trump was scheduled to meet with congressional leaders, he tweeted a put down of his onetime friends Chuck and Nancy, who canceled the meeting. By day’s end, both sides were already assigning who would get blame if shutdown does happen. Via Politico.
It’s still not clear how Republican Sen. Ron Johnson will vote on the tax bill, but party loyalty — to a party he believes abandoned him — may not be the deciding factor. Via The Washington Post.
North Korea fires an ICBM that, analysts fear, could potentially reach anywhere on the continental United States. Trump says he can handle it. Via The New York Times.
It took Nancy Pelosi three times to get her statement right on harassment charges against Rep. John Conyers, but she finally did it. Via The Atlantic.
From The National Review, Rich Lowry writes that Conyers is the albatross that the Democrats deserve.
Trump’s Pocahontas dig at Elizabeth Warren at an event honoring Navajo code talkers didn’t just raise the topic of whether the president had used a slur, but it brought up the longstanding issue of how the federal government has abused Native Americans. Via The Los Angeles Times.
The obvious question is whether Time, Inc., and its independent journalism can survive the Kochs’ ownership stake. But another question might be how the public views the Kochs and their ownership of a mainstream medica icon. Via The New Yorker.
Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe writes a Washington Post op-ed asserting that Trump doesn’t have the legal authority to name Mick Mulvaney as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Photo by Russ Sanderlin, via Flickr: Creative Commons
It still dumbfounds me that Republicans are still trying to normalize the behavior of this “President*”. The real mindbender is when they express faux outrage at the systematic uncovering and reporting of his nefarious deeds.
Again…everyone knew who Comrade Chump was before the election…and Republicans voted for him anyway. They need to own it. Forever.
In the meantime, if you must whine about the negative coverage of The Chump, try to ask yourself this question, and then try to muster the intellectual honesty to answer…what about this guy losing by nearly 3 million votes did you not understand? As much as Republicans would like to pretend otherwise, popular votes matter.
The beatings will continue.