Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who lost both her legs in combat in Iraq, denounces President Trump: “We don’t live in a dictatorship or monarchy. I swore an oath — in the military and in the Senate — to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, not to mindlessly cater to the whims of Cadet Bone Spurs and clap when he demands I clap.” That about covers it.
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) was one of the few Republicans to criticize Trump on his “treasonous” remark. “If we are numb to such words, then we will surely regret that we failed to defend our colleagues in the Congress against such a vile remark. But our silence will also mark the day that we failed to recognize that this conduct in an American president simply is not normal.”
Democrats will rightly vilify Republicans for wrecking the oversight process. “Intelligence oversight involving different branches of government is only effective if the institutional players have at least a baseline degree of trust. The congressional intelligence oversight committees were created in the late 1970s, around the same time as FISA, in order to provide an outside check on intelligence community activities. . . . The executive branch provides information to Congress about intelligence activities because these laws require it. But the efficiency of this process, and the extent to which the intelligence community cooperates in a timely and meaningful way, depends in some part on the community’s trust that the members of these select committees will handle the information properly.” So much for that.
Hey, didn’t Republicans excoriate Democrats a few weeks ago for. . . . yeah, nothing matters. “Trump: ‘I’d Love to See a Shutdown’ If Democrats Don’t Meet Immigration Demands.”
Next time Trump maligns the press, just remember: “Backers of President Donald Trump are sharing more ‘junk’ political news — ideologically extreme, conspiratorial, sensationalist and phony information — over Twitter and Facebook than all other groups combined, significantly magnifying the polarization in the American electorate, according to an analysis by British researchers.”
We shouldn’t knock bonuses for workers, but let’s get the whole picture. “The nation’s workers are getting woefully little, at least relatively speaking. Peeking beyond the PR, our analysis finds that major corporations are planning to spend more than 30 times what they are putting in the wallets of employees on buying back their own stock — a practice solely meant to lift the fortunes of shareholders.”
An endangered Republican rebukes Trump. “Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) criticized President Trump to his face on Tuesday for saying he would ‘love to see a shutdown’ during a meeting with lawmakers and administration officials. ‘We don’t need a government shutdown on this,’ Comstock said during the White House meeting with Trump, according to a pool report.” Good for her.