What Happens When a Presidency Loses Its Legitimacy?

Mounting evidence that Trump’s election was aided by Russian interference presents a challenge to the American system of government—with lasting consequences for democracy.


Carlos Barria / Reuters
DAVID FRUM JUN 23, 2017

Day by day, revelation after revelation, the legitimacy of the Trump presidency is seeping away. The question of what to do about this loss is becoming ever more urgent and frightening.

The already thick cloud of discredit over the Trump presidency thickened deeper Friday, June 23. The Washington Post reported that the CIA told President Obama last year that Vladimir Putin had personally and specifically instructed his intelligence agencies to intervene in the U.S. presidential election to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump.

Whether the Trump campaign knowingly coordinated its activities with the Russians remains uncertain. The Trump campaign may have been a wholly passive and unwitting beneficiary. Yes, it’s curious that the Russians allegedly directed their resources to the Rust Belt states also targeted by the Trump campaign. But it’s conceivable they were all just reading the same polls on FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics.

Trump himself passionately denounces the whole thing as a monstrous hoax, a “made-up story.” He has not yet lost all his true believers. But those believers do not include very many of the leading Republicans in Congress. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agrees it happened. So does House Speaker Paul Ryan. The House number two, Kevin McCarthy, has even joked that Russia pays Trump.

It’s not seriously disputed by anyone in a position of authority in the U.S. government—apart from the president himself—that Donald Trump holds his high office in considerable part because a foreign spy agency helped place him there. So now what?

Trump’s advisers urge the country to shrug the matter off, to focus on jobs and healthcare and let this compromised president continue to receive the most secret intelligence and control the nation’s armed forces. Another story in The Washington Post quoted this response to the latest shocking revelations from Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway:

“As his detractors suffer from this never-ending ‘Russian concussion,’ the president has been tending to business as usual — bilateral meetings, progress on health care, tax and infrastructure reform, and job creation. Conjecture about the mood and momentum of the West Wing is inaccurate and overwrought. The pace is breakneck, the trajectory upward.”

Business as usual? How would that work? It obviously cannot. And in fact, it is not.

The U.S. government is already osmotically working around the presidency, a process enabled by the president’s visible distaste for the work of governance. The National Security Council staff is increasingly a double-headed institution, a zone of struggle between Kushner-Flynn-Bannon types on one side, and a growing staff of capable, experienced, and Russia-skeptical functionaries on the other. The Senate has voted 97-2 to restrict the president’s authority to relax Russia sanctions. It seems the president has been persuaded to take himself out of the chain of command in the escalating military operations in Afghanistan. National-Security Adviser H.R. McMaster recently assured the nation that Trump could not have done much harm when he blabbed a vital secret to the Russian foreign minister in the Oval Office, precisely because the president was not briefed on crucial “sources and methods” information.

In their way, these workarounds are almost as dangerous to the American system of government as the Trump presidency itself. They tend to reduce the president to the status of an absentee emperor while promoting his subordinates into shoguns who exercise power in his name. Maybe that is the least-bad practicable solution to the unprecedented threat of a presidency-under-suspicion. But what a terrible price for the failure of so many American institutions—not least the voters!—to protect the country in 2016 from Russia’s attack on its election and its democracy.



https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/what-happens-when-a-presidency-loses-its-legitimacy/531447/?utm_source=fbb

"Trump’s election was aided by Russian interference"

Evidence?

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/chuck-grassley-trump-russia-dossier-justice-department-236768

Grassley presses Justice Dept. on Russian ties to firm behind Trump dossier
The Judiciary chairman asks how authorities are enforcing disclosure rules for foreign lobbying.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley wants information on how a Washington opposition research firm was apparently involved in a pro-Russian lobbying campaign at the same time that it was overseeing the unverified dossier about the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.

In a letter to Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente, Grassley demanded to know whether the Justice Department is looking into the firm, Fusion GPS, for alleged violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, known as FARA.

Grassley’s letter cites earlier reporting by POLITICO connecting Fusion GPS to a mysterious lobbying effort last year that tried to derail a human rights sanctions bill that irked the Kremlin.

The lobbying campaign occurred at the same time that Fusion GPS reportedly hired a former British spy to gather intelligence on Russia’s efforts to tamper with the 2016 presidential election and develop contacts with then-candidate Donald Trump and his associates.

“The issue is of particular concern to the Committee given that when Fusion GPS reportedly was acting as an unregistered agent of Russian interests, it appears to have been simultaneously overseeing the creation of the unsubstantiated dossier of allegations of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians,” Grassley wrote in the letter.

Fusion GPS said it was working for the law firm representing Prevezon, a Cyprus-based holding Russian company, in litigation and complied with disclosure rules.

"By the very nature of that work, Fusion GPS was working with a law firm to ensure compliance with the law,” the firm said in a statement. "Fusion GPS was not required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act."

BuzzFeed published the dossier in January after CNN reported that intelligence officials included its existence in a briefing to then-President Barack Obama and President-Elect Trump. Trump denied the allegations in the dossier.

The dossier’s author, Christopher Steele, used to head MI6’s Russia desk, and the FBI takes him seriously because he assisted with its corruption investigation into FIFA, according to the Washington Post. U.S. intelligence officials have corroborated some of the information in the dossier, according to CNN.

Steele was hired by Glenn Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who co-founded Fusion GPS, according to The New York Times.

While Steele was compiling the dossier last summer, Simpson was at the same time working for the U.S. law firm representing the Cyprus-based Russian holding company Perezov, which federal prosecutors in New York accused of laundering money in a massive tax fraud. The company is controlled by Denis Katsyv, the son of a former Russian transport minister.

Grassley = Trump toady

Floridatexan wrote:
Mounting evidence that Trump’s election was aided by Russian interference presents a challenge to the American system of government—with lasting consequences for democracy.

In their way, these workarounds are almost as dangerous to the American system of government as the Trump presidency itself. They tend to reduce the president to the status of an absentee emperor while promoting his subordinates into shoguns who exercise power in his name. Maybe that is the least-bad practicable solution to the unprecedented threat of a presidency-under-suspicion. But what a terrible price for the failure of so many American institutions—not least the voters!—to protect the country in 2016 from Russia’s attack on its election and its democracy.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/what-happens-when-a-presidency-loses-its-legitimacy/531447/?utm_source=fbb

Oh, please. America's had bad Presidents before and come through just fine. If democracy can't handle a bad President, then it ain't working.

Trump is reducing himself to a punch-line irrelevancy on late-night TV. We survived Nixon and Buchanan, this guy is about a dangerous as Gerald Ford.

del.capslock wrote:

Floridatexan wrote:
Mounting evidence that Trump’s election was aided by Russian interference presents a challenge to the American system of government—with lasting consequences for democracy.

In their way, these workarounds are almost as dangerous to the American system of government as the Trump presidency itself. They tend to reduce the president to the status of an absentee emperor while promoting his subordinates into shoguns who exercise power in his name. Maybe that is the least-bad practicable solution to the unprecedented threat of a presidency-under-suspicion. But what a terrible price for the failure of so many American institutions—not least the voters!—to protect the country in 2016 from Russia’s attack on its election and its democracy.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/what-happens-when-a-presidency-loses-its-legitimacy/531447/?utm_source=fbb

Oh, please. America's had bad Presidents before and come through just fine. If democracy can't handle a bad President, then it ain't working.

Trump is reducing himself to a punch-line irrelevancy on late-night TV. We survived Nixon and Buchanan, this guy is about a dangerous as Gerald Ford.

A better analogy would be George W Bush, and, yes, "we" did survive, but too many lost their lives, their limbs, their homes and their savings.

Floridatexan wrote:
A better analogy would be George W Bush, and, yes, "we" did survive, but too many lost their lives, their limbs, their homes and their savings.  

No, W was a bad president, Ford was a punch-line.

If by lives and limbs you're referring to the Iraq war, they were all volunteers, no one was conscripted into the military. Plenty of honorable, patriotic Americans left the country rather than fight in that war.

If by homes and savings you're referring to the financial crisis, the seeds for that were planted by Bill Clinton. when he signed Graham-Leach-Bliley which repealed Glass-Steagall.

del.capslock wrote:

Floridatexan wrote:
A better analogy would be George W Bush, and, yes, "we" did survive, but too many lost their lives, their limbs, their homes and their savings.  

No, W was a bad president, Ford was a punch-line.

If by lives and limbs you're referring to the Iraq war, they were all volunteers, no one was conscripted into the military. Plenty of honorable, patriotic Americans left the country rather than fight in that war.

If by homes and savings you're referring to the financial crisis, the seeds for that were planted by Bill Clinton. when he signed Graham-Leach-Bliley which repealed Glass-Steagall.

Again, because we've already had this discussion. That bill passed the predominately Republican Congress with a veto-proof majority...a Clinton veto would have been only symbolic. The bill's 3 sponsors were all Republicans.

Floridatexan wrote:

Again, because we've already had this discussion.  That bill passed the predominately Republican Congress with a veto-proof majority...a Clinton veto would have been only symbolic.  The bill's 3 sponsors were all Republicans.

He had the "Bully Pulpit" and was enormously popular. He could have pulled out all the stops working against. He didn't because he knew if he did, he never get a dime from Wall Street after he left office.

But I like the part where you admit that caving in to Wall Street back in the '90s caused the '08 crisis, not anything W did.

del.capslock wrote:

Floridatexan wrote:

Again, because we've already had this discussion.  That bill passed the predominately Republican Congress with a veto-proof majority...a Clinton veto would have been only symbolic.  The bill's 3 sponsors were all Republicans.

He had the "Bully Pulpit" and was enormously popular. He could have pulled out all the stops working against. He didn't because he knew if he did, he never get a dime from Wall Street after he left office.

But I like the part where you admit that caving in to Wall Street back in the '90s caused the '08 crisis, not anything W did.

I remember Clinton's presidency very well, thank you. He was dogged by one made-up scandal after another, throughout his presidency. I do think he caved to the extreme pressure. I admit that the repeal of Glass-Steagall was the stepping-off point, but Reagan, HW and W all had policies that bowed to Reaganomics...and, if you'll recall, all of them significantly raised the national debt. The word "conservative" should not even apply to the GOP. All their policies led to the crash.

PkrBum wrote:"Trump’s election was aided by Russian interference"

Evidence?

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/chuck-grassley-trump-russia-dossier-justice-department-236768

Grassley presses Justice Dept. on Russian ties to firm behind Trump dossier
The Judiciary chairman asks how authorities are enforcing disclosure rules for foreign lobbying.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley wants information on how a Washington opposition research firm was apparently involved in a pro-Russian lobbying campaign at the same time that it was overseeing the unverified dossier about the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.

In a letter to Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente, Grassley demanded to know whether the Justice Department is looking into the firm, Fusion GPS, for alleged violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, known as FARA.

Grassley’s letter cites earlier reporting by POLITICO connecting Fusion GPS to a mysterious lobbying effort last year that tried to derail a human rights sanctions bill that irked the Kremlin.

The lobbying campaign occurred at the same time that Fusion GPS reportedly hired a former British spy to gather intelligence on Russia’s efforts to tamper with the 2016 presidential election and develop contacts with then-candidate Donald Trump and his associates.

“The issue is of particular concern to the Committee given that when Fusion GPS reportedly was acting as an unregistered agent of Russian interests, it appears to have been simultaneously overseeing the creation of the unsubstantiated dossier of allegations of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians,” Grassley wrote in the letter.

Fusion GPS said it was working for the law firm representing Prevezon, a Cyprus-based holding Russian company, in litigation and complied with disclosure rules.

"By the very nature of that work, Fusion GPS was working with a law firm to ensure compliance with the law,” the firm said in a statement. "Fusion GPS was not required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act."

BuzzFeed published the dossier in January after CNN reported that intelligence officials included its existence in a briefing to then-President Barack Obama and President-Elect Trump. Trump denied the allegations in the dossier.

The dossier’s author, Christopher Steele, used to head MI6’s Russia desk, and the FBI takes him seriously because he assisted with its corruption investigation into FIFA, according to the Washington Post. U.S. intelligence officials have corroborated some of the information in the dossier, according to CNN.

Steele was hired by Glenn Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who co-founded Fusion GPS, according to The New York Times.

While Steele was compiling the dossier last summer, Simpson was at the same time working for the U.S. law firm representing the Cyprus-based Russian holding company Perezov, which federal prosecutors in New York accused of laundering money in a massive tax fraud. The company is controlled by Denis Katsyv, the son of a former Russian transport minister.

In essence:

The initial opposition research into Trump's background was reportedly sponsored by a group of "Never Trump" Republicans who were gathering information in hopes of denying Trump the nomination.

When it became obvious that this was a lost cause they dropped their support of Simpson's efforts. Simpson, wishing to continue his research reached out to Christopher Steel because he knew Steel had many contacts in Russia who could shed light on the Trump/Russia relationship. These activities were paid for by interested Democrats.

It is likely irrelevant whether the material held by the Putin forces is enough to bother Trump at this point. Given the blind support of his core constituents the revelation that he participated in or witnessed golden showers or what have you makes no difference. I don't think anything of that nature matters given the effective "hoo-hum" reaction to the P-grabber tape.

I think what will sink the Trump presidency will ultimately be an impeachment by a newly elected majority of Dems in the House in 2018 over financial dealings with unsavory foreign financial institutions. That may show a real reason for blackmail.



Further supporting evidence of Steele’s claims can perhaps also be found in the press reports of ongoing federal investigations. Three members of the Trump election team were mentioned in the dossier for their alleged ties to Russian officials—Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman; Carter Page, an early foreign-policy adviser; and Roger Stone, a longtime ad hoc adviser. All are under investigation, but no charges have been filed, and all three men have vehemently denied any wrongdoing. And according to The Washington Post, the F.B.I. in the weeks before the election grew so interested in the contents of the dossier that the bureau entered into a series of conversations with Steele to discuss hiring him to continue his research. Once the report became public, however, the discussions ended, and Steele was never compensated.

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/how-the-explosive-russian-dossier-was-compiled-christopher-steele

Floridatexan wrote:
I remember Clinton's presidency very well, thank you.  He was dogged by one made-up scandal after another, throughout his presidency.  I do think he caved to the extreme pressure.  I admit that the repeal of Glass-Steagall was the stepping-off point, but Reagan, HW and W all had policies that bowed to Reaganomics...and, if you'll recall, all of them significantly raised the national debt.  The word "conservative" should not even apply to the GOP.  All their policies led to the crash.

First off, his scandals weren't ALL made up, if you recall.

Secondly, the National Debt is nonsense. The Republicans know this--probably the only true thing Cheney ever said--and even mentioning the specter of it is following their party line. It's a bullshit fear tactic.

The one hope for American progress was Bernie's choice of Stephanie Kelton as his economics advisor. Naturally, the Clinton Cartel, because they're in deep thrall to Wall Street, had to make sure he didn't get nominated.

Floridatexan wrote:
Mounting evidence that Trump’s election was aided by Russian interference presents a challenge to the American system of government—with lasting consequences for democracy.


Carlos Barria / Reuters
DAVID FRUM  JUN 23, 2017

Day by day, revelation after revelation, the legitimacy of the Trump presidency is seeping away. The question of what to do about this loss is becoming ever more urgent and frightening.

The already thick cloud of discredit over the Trump presidency thickened deeper Friday, June 23. The Washington Post reported that the CIA told President Obama last year that Vladimir Putin had personally and specifically instructed his intelligence agencies to intervene in the U.S. presidential election to hurt Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump.

Whether the Trump campaign knowingly coordinated its activities with the Russians remains uncertain. The Trump campaign may have been a wholly passive and unwitting beneficiary. Yes, it’s curious that the Russians allegedly directed their resources to the Rust Belt states also targeted by the Trump campaign. But it’s conceivable they were all just reading the same polls on FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics.

Trump himself passionately denounces the whole thing as a monstrous hoax, a “made-up story.” He has not yet lost all his true believers. But those believers do not include very many of the leading Republicans in Congress. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agrees it happened. So does House Speaker Paul Ryan. The House number two, Kevin McCarthy, has even joked that Russia pays Trump.

It’s not seriously disputed by anyone in a position of authority in the U.S. government—apart from the president himself—that Donald Trump holds his high office in considerable part because a foreign spy agency helped place him there. So now what?

Trump’s advisers urge the country to shrug the matter off, to focus on jobs and healthcare and let this compromised president continue to receive the most secret intelligence and control the nation’s armed forces. Another story in The Washington Post quoted this response to the latest shocking revelations from Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway:

“As his detractors suffer from this never-ending ‘Russian concussion,’ the president has been tending to business as usual — bilateral meetings, progress on health care, tax and infrastructure reform, and job creation. Conjecture about the mood and momentum of the West Wing is inaccurate and overwrought. The pace is breakneck, the trajectory upward.”

Business as usual? How would that work? It obviously cannot. And in fact, it is not.

The U.S. government is already osmotically working around the presidency, a process enabled by the president’s visible distaste for the work of governance. The National Security Council staff is increasingly a double-headed institution, a zone of struggle between Kushner-Flynn-Bannon types on one side, and a growing staff of capable, experienced, and Russia-skeptical functionaries on the other. The Senate has voted 97-2 to restrict the president’s authority to relax Russia sanctions. It seems the president has been persuaded to take himself out of the chain of command in the escalating military operations in Afghanistan. National-Security Adviser H.R. McMaster recently assured the nation that Trump could not have done much harm when he blabbed a vital secret to the Russian foreign minister in the Oval Office, precisely because the president was not briefed on crucial “sources and methods” information.

In their way, these workarounds are almost as dangerous to the American system of government as the Trump presidency itself. They tend to reduce the president to the status of an absentee emperor while promoting his subordinates into shoguns who exercise power in his name. Maybe that is the least-bad practicable solution to the unprecedented threat of a presidency-under-suspicion. But what a terrible price for the failure of so many American institutions—not least the voters!—to protect the country in 2016 from Russia’s attack on its election and its democracy.



https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/what-happens-when-a-presidency-loses-its-legitimacy/531447/?utm_source=fbb

What Happens When a Presidency Loses Its Legitimacy?

It’s not seriously disputed by anyone in a position of authority in the U.S. government—apart from the president himself—that Donald Trump holds his high office in considerable part because a foreign spy agency helped place him there. So now what?


The thing to remember, the thing to keep in mind as pointed out in the topic of this thread is that Putin wanted Trump in office because he could control and influence him.

Annnnnnd... http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/27/trump-cnn-retracts-story-239988

CNN’s decision to retract a story published last week tying a member of President Donald Trump’s transition team to ongoing Russia investigations offered the president an opportunity Tuesday morning to attack perhaps his favorite media target, which he labeled “fake news” and questioned for publishing “phony stories.”

The story in question, published late last week, reported that the Senate Intelligence Committee was investigating the head of a Russian investment fund who met before the inauguration with Anthony Scaramucci, a financier and high-profile member of Trump’s transition team. CNN also reported that the Senate committee was looking into whether or not Scaramucci had suggested that sanctions against Russia might soon be lifted.

In addition to the story’s retraction, three CNN employees, including a Pulitzer Prize-winner, resigned from the company.

Edit: Btw... I had a nothing burger for lunch today with a glass of leftist tears. Delicious... lol.

Ah, another mental Xmas-tree-bulb-wattage mind, falling for that "Project Veritas" bullshit.

John Bonifield is a CNN Health producer.. He has fuck-all to do with stories about Trump or Russia. He's a conservative expressing his opinion on those stories without inside knowledge of them, calling them bullshit because he wants to believe in Trump... the same as you do. It's like some guy who works in the parking garage of the New York Stock Exchange telling you, "All them stock trades is rigged!" He works at the stock exchange, yeah, but he's got no inside info about what's done in that area of the building. It's got about that much weight.

But the Project Veritas guy doesn't tell you that. He counts on you to just swallow this shit down without checking up on it, because it's what you'd like to believe. And you oblige him, because you care about having what you want to think propped up... not the truth. They have a history of tricking you... and it works, because you like to be tricked.

If you had listened... which it's obvious that you didn't... he described the editorial meetings too. The directive was there... facts be damned. So much so that they just had to fire (OK snowflake... "resigned") three fake journalists. Nice work... lol. Keep that hair on fire... evidence is coming any minute... lol.

What Happens When a Presidency Loses Its Legitimacy?

The Administration and its partisan supporters lose all credibility and no one pays attention to their bullshit anymore.

The supporters become very frustrated with this and tie themselves in knots trying to distract attention away from the Administration's blunders and incompetence with Bolshevik-style misdirection and disinformation.

Eventually, after members of the Administration start going to jail for lying and obstruction of justice, the supporters lose all credibility and the respect of their peers. You saw this with Nixon's supporters, you hardly hear a peep out of them anymore.

del.capslock wrote:What Happens When a Presidency Loses Its Legitimacy?

The Administration and its partisan supporters lose all credibility and no one pays attention to their bullshit anymore.

The supporters become very frustrated with this and tie themselves in knots trying to distract attention away from the Administration's blunders and incompetence with Bolshevik-style misdirection and disinformation.

Eventually, after members of the Administration start going to jail for lying and obstruction of justice, the supporters lose all credibility and the respect of their peers. You saw this with Nixon's supporters, you hardly hear a peep out of them anymore.

All very true -- an astute answer to the thread's initial question.  

And as to the CNN story, it should be noted that CNN has stated they aren't saying the story was false -- and it may yet be proven correct -- only that proper vetting guidelines weren't followed.   It's to their credit that this was caught and quashed before the story was largely circulated on mass media.

A president losing his legitimacy can be easily measured by elections... starting w midterms and down ticket.

See: Obama

PkrBum wrote:A president losing his legitimacy can be easily measured by elections... starting w midterms and down ticket.

Are all racists this stupid? Loss of legitimacy occurs AFTER the election. DUH!

That was a rhetorical question, by the way. Since you're too ignorant to be familiar with that term, here's this:

rhe·tor·i·cal ques·tion
noun
a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer.
"the presentation was characterized by impossibly long sentences and a succession of rhetorical questions"

Racists are easy...    lol.

And stupid...       lol.

If there was any legitimacy left to Trump's presidency (and there wasn't), then he just set it on fire and pissed on the ashes.

I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017

...to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 29, 2017

That's the President of the United States, making fourth-grader insults about someone because they don't flatter him enough on TV.

Just in case you had any doubts, that's about as un-Presidential as it gets.

When someone acts like that, it's not the fault of "the media" that people are disgusted with them.  I don't need any commentator's spin to tell me that's flat-out embarrassing behavior, unfitting both the office of president and any 70-year-old adult.  It's not the "media" making Donald Trump look bad... it's just facts.   He looks bad because he is bad.  He engages in petty squabbles.  He turns a blind eye to Russian hacking of our election because it benefited him and so Democracy can just go fuck itself, I guess.  He lies again and again and again.  I don't need a pundit to tell me that -- I see it.   His supporters are just mad at the media for turning cameras on him.  Hell, even his own White House has figured out they have to cover up for him -- that's why they're afraid to let reporters into his speeches now.  Transparency is this guy's worst enemy, because the more you see him, the more you realize he's incompetent and completely unfit for office, and he's turning our once-proud country into an absurd joke in front of the entire world.  

Eventually -- and, honestly, I think we're way past that time already, but some of you are real fucking stubborn -- people who voted for this guy are going to have to quit making excuses, shifting blame, hunting scapegoats, and admit that you elected a mentally ill embarrassment who lies constantly, has no self control, and is disgracing our country by holding its highest office.   You can cling to denial all you want to avoid having to admit you have lousy judgement and made a HUGE mistake despite being given plenty of warnings, but in all honesty you're only going to look sillier the longer you hold out.

America's not being made "great" by this.  It's just being embarrassed.  You can't hide from that anymore.  "The media" isn't an excuse.  "But Obama..." isn't an excuse.  There is no excuse.

Joe and Mika should send him a thank-you note for driving UP their Ratings points/Share. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if both skyrocket tomorrow. Good for them.

Mika pushed back by tweeting this:

del.capslock wrote:Joe and Mika should send him a thank-you note for driving UP their Ratings points/Share. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if both skyrocket tomorrow. Good for them.

Yeah, I think I may even have to start watching Morning Joe, just out of spite. And, man, I hate doing that.

The White House stood by Trump’s tweets Thursday. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the president’s principal deputy press secretary, said Trump “fights fire with fire.”


Trump’s tweets came after Scarborough harshly criticized the White House over a Politico report detailing the way Secretary of State Rex Tillerson yelled at top Trump aides for undermining him and holding up State Department appointees. Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, reportedly told another top aide after the incident it was “unprofessional.”

“What Rex Tillerson did was not unprofessional,” Scarborough said. “What Rex Tillerson did was patriotic and way overdue. This White House ― because Donald Trump wants his son-in-law to be the de facto secretary of state and anybody going in there knows that he wants Jared to be the de facto secretary of state, so they have cut Rex Tillerson off at the knees every single day. They don’t let him put in qualified people at the State Department.”

Brzezinski referred to Kushner as “the guy with no experience.”

Earlier this morning, Dan Scavino, the White House’s director of social media, called Brzezinski “dumb as a rock” on Twitter:


Trump’s tweets also came a day after Fox News’ Sean Hannity, a Trump ally, ripped Scarborough’s coverage of Trump.

“It’s a sad day for America when the president spends his time bullying, lying and spewing petty personal attacks instead of doing his job,” MSNBC said in a statement Thursday.

Mark Kornblau, the senior vice president of NBCUniversal News Group, tweeted Thursday that he thought it would be beneath his dignity to respond to Trump’s comments.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-morning-joe_us_5954fcb8e4b05c37bb7c6d0a?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

Everybody, please stop talking about Trump's misogyny. it's distracting the GOP from the hard work of denying healthcare to kids with cancer. - Jeff Tiedrich

Trump has now spent more time talking about Mika Brzezinski's "low IQ and bleeding facelift" than defending us against Russian cyberwarfare. - Seth Abramson

Travel ban tip: a reservation at a Trump Hotel on your first night here should establish a bona fide connection to the USA. Book now! - Richard W. Painter

Billionaire Warren Buffett revealed that he would save nearly $700,000 in taxes if the GOP healthcare bill passes, and said Republicans should just rename it the "Relief for the Rich Act."