Wednesday, November 7, 2018

Dems Win; Trump Starts to Panic

Democrats romped yesterday, picking up 34 seats and taking control of the House of Representatives-- guaranteeing a stop to any further Trump craziness and beginning the long-overdue oversight of Trump's excesses.

In a move of complete desperation, Trump committed an immense tactical mistake the very next morning by firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions and installing Robert Mueller’s arch-nemesis to oversee the Russia probe.

Everybody expected Trump to fire Sessions, and for sure Mueller has contingency plans in place in case Trump made such a move to shut down his investigation.   From a purely political standpoint, Trump just made his own corruption impossible for Democrats to ignore as they prepare to assume their oversight role in January. Right on cue, the incoming chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a statement about Sessions’ firing-- calling for the House to investigate the real reason for this termination, confirm  that Acting AG Matthew Whitaker is recused from all aspects of the Special Counsel’s probe, and ensure that the Department of Justice safeguards the integrity of the Mueller investigation.

The craziness didn't stop there.  Just hours later, Trump insulted a Japanese reporter during a live press conference and then suspended the White House press credentials of CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta and barred him from the White House grounds.

The move follows a heated exchange between Acosta and an angry Trump at that eventful White House press conference. Trump objected to Acosta's pointed follow-up questions and attempted to have a White House intern take the microphone away from him.  Sarah Huckabee Sanders tried to claim that Acosta "placed his hands" on the intern,  but live video of the event clearly shows that to be a flat-out lie. It was the intern who initiated contact by grabbing several times at Acosta's arm; other than retaining control of the microphone, Acosta made no other motions.

Who knows what other signs of desperation are ahead-- there a couple of months until the new Congress is sworn in.  Stay tuned.

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