Social media has been at the forefront of political discussions this week so the staff at As The Donald Turns presents “Twitter Storm.”
• There has been so much Donald could have been talking about this week, like the healthcare bill skating through the Senate with no public hearings, any new workforce week plans he wants to make up, the release of Otto Warmbier from North Korea, or even the unfortunate shootings in Virginia and San Francisco Wednesday. Donald being Donald though, he spent Thursday in a Twitter Storm about how he is now the subject of a criminal investigation by the special counsel looking into the Russia allegations.
@realDonaldTrump 10h10 hours ago
“They made up a phony collusion with the Russians story, found zero proof, so now they go for obstruction of justice on the phony story. Nice”
@realDonaldTrump 9h9 hours ago
“You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history – led by some very bad and conflicted people! #MAGA”
@realDonaldTrump 1h1 hour ago
“Why is that Hillary Clintons family and Dems dealings with Russia are not looked at, but my non-dealings are?”
@realDonaldTrump 53m53 minutes ago
“Crooked H destroyed phones w/ hammer, ‘bleached’ emails, & had husband meet w/AG days before she was cleared- & they talk about obstruction?”
When you want to know why so little is getting by this administration in terms of actual signable legislation, you just have to look at how POTUS is spending his time. Clearly all of the stories about how much input Ivanka or Jared or others have on him are just plain gibberish. He continues to tweet against his own best interests. He is responsible for the investigation because he had no filter when it came to his comments. Shouldn’t he be in cabinet meetings or getting security briefings? And if he is, should we be concerned he is not paying attention? This is what the chaos theory looks like when put to real time in the West Wing, (the real one, not the outstanding TV show. President Bartlett never would have been this absurd).
• A quick shout out to my “colleagues” in the media. Now that we are discussing special investigations into the president, there is one person who is starting to get too much TV time, as in the fact he is getting any at all. Hey, CNN….when Ken Starr answers for this (https://www.nytimes.com/…/baylor-football-sexual-assault.ht…), then I will listen to what he has to say about political investigations. Otherwise, for now, he would do well to shrink into some heinous corner of shame and be quiet.
• Speaking of managing the messages, Wednesday night, the RNC sent out an internal advisory with talking points about the investigation. This was meant to deflect from the news that Robert Mueller was now looking at Donald for obstruction of justice violations. The talking points said that there is no obstruction of justice and that all of this comes from leaks that are, “inexcusable, outrageous and illegal.” In response to the Mueller news, Donald’s personal attorney Marc Kasowitz issued a statement. He called the real story the leaks and said they are “inexcusable, outrageous and illegal.” For the love of all that is holy in litigation land, Donald’s high paid legal eagle took his statement directly from the RNC memo. The great irony is that the talking points memo was leaked from the RNC to Philip Rucker of the Washington Post, who promptly tweeted it out.
• Speaking of high priced legal assistance, Vice President Mike Pence got a personal lawyer Thursday to deal with any fallout from the Russia investigation. There is no verification he has also hired an interior decorator for the Oval Office.
• Needless to say, The Three People on a Sofa Show on Fox was all over the Mueller story Thursday morning, and by that we mean repeating the talking points from the RNC memo about how there should be an investigation into Hillary and Loretta Lynch and maybe even Lester Holt and the cameraman for that interview. Ok, maybe that was a bit too far, but Doocey and company did their GOP best to take script right off the RNC memo.
• Hey, in case you missed it, Fox has announced it will no longer use the tagline of being “Fair and Balanced.” I mean they were never either so after 10 years of misusing it, it was time to retire it.
• There has been a long standing fear that Donald would look to ease the current sanctions on his personal ally, Russia, and Vladimir Putin. The Senate, in a quick rebuke of Comrade Trump, passed legislation Thursday that prevents Donald from unilaterally altering the sanctions. The vote was 98-2 to hold the reigns tight on Donald. Strangely enough the two dissenting votes were Rand Paul and Bernie Sanders. Rand Paul had a bad 24 hours thanks to Twitter. See folks, when you are famous and put something out there, even if you erase it, someone has a screen capture of it. Shortly after the horrific shooting in Virginia Wednesday, Paul was on television talking about the toxic political atmosphere leading to such events. He is not wrong. We just don’t want to hear it from him, not when it took about three minutes to find this tweet to Judge Andrew Napolitano last year:
✔ @RandPaul
“@Judgenap: Why do we have a Second Amendment? It’s not to shoot deer. It’s to shoot at the government when it becomes tyrannical!”
9:48 AM – 23 Jun 2016
Ouch indeed.
Anyway, as for the bill, it now goes to the House where it is expected to pass, and then it goes to the president’s desk for signature.
Yes, Donald is going to be expected to sign a bill that limits his own power. What are the odds that he signs it and holds it up for all to see that he just eliminated some of his own powers…and then tweets the picture of it.
