Let’s be clear: McConnell is not the loser here, not until and unless enough Americans vote the Republican party out of the Senate. McConnell wins because he averted another shutdown and yet he still basically rode the Trump train as far as he possibly could. Trump is going to declare an emergency with or without his support. McConnell didn’t endorse Trump’s emergency, but all he has to do is get out of the president’s way and he knows that.
Mitch McConnell…does…not…lose.
Well, why not? Can’t find a cite but it has been asserted nearly half of his supporters believe that Donny Two-scoops has never lied to them. Can shooting a par 38 or does not shit be far behind?
McConnell did endorse the national emergency:
**
“I indicated to [Trump] I’m going to support the national emergency declaration,” McConnell said. “So, for all of my colleagues, the president will sign the bill.”**
My guess is that Mitch got a call from Moscow telling him that if he did not back Trump up on this,the photos of him being pegged by a leather clad dominatrix would be released to the press.
Well, yeah, its true that only the House can appropriate funds, but only when it is appropriate. If it isn’t, then the President can appropriate other funds for the appropriate purpose.
Then the Majority Leader has done us all a favor…
Please tell me that there are going to be lawsuits out the wazoo over this emergency declaration and that there will likely be an injunction or something soon. Oh please.
N/m
Ugh.
#BuildTheFirewall!
Trump himself seems to believe this will be the case, per his speech this morning.
Speaking of which, this was an especially weird Trump appearance, even by his lofty standards. Check out the bizarre sing-songy cadence he goes into at about 22:15:
This goes on for several minutes.
Then there was his nearly weeping nostalgia for China’s habit of summarily executing suspected drug dealers, his apparent belief that a wall on the Mexican border would somehow have stopped the Uzbeki guy who ran those people down in Central Park, and the railing about “MS-13 gang monsters”. Good times…
So has he signed the budget bill then? I haven’t seen where he did. Wouldn’t put it past him to declare the emergency, and then refuse to sign the budget just because…something.
If there isn’t an injunction and his plan proceeds, then he has to either pull money from disaster relief or the military. His base will let him get away with yanking money from Puerto Rico, but that won’t cover everything. He’s stuck with bad, very unpopular choices at that point.
Declaring an emergency and then having it blocked is the best-case outcome for him. He gets to show his base that he tried, and he gets to blame its failure on liberal activist judges.
As much as I’d love some conspiracy about McConnell being blackmailed, I think it’s the same simple calculus for him.
'Course, his base isn’t changing; that hard core of supporters that really wouldn’t abandon him under any circumstances. He solidifies something that’s already really really solid, but I’m not convinced it brings up his overall numbers.
Yup. FiveThirtyEight has a little piece on this today - he seems to think that success lies in playing to his base, without realizing his base will support him no matter what. His first shutdown didn’t push the needle much with Republicans or Democrats, but it swung it significantly with independents. The emergency declaration has been even less popular in recent polls.
If they’d had Alec Baldwin do that on SNL, I would’ve thought, “aw, you’re better than that; just do a decent impression of the guy and make fun of him for what he actually does. Why make this up? Trump’s not that ridiculous; sing-songy on every fifth word? What’s being parodied? What’s the gag? I don’t get it.”
And yet, here we are.
In his speech today regarding the need to declare an emergency, he said “I want to do it faster. I could do the wall over a longer period of time. I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.”
That’s quite a gift to everyone planning on challenging this in court.
If this “national emergency” bullshit is eventually allowed to fly by the Supreme Court, I suggest that the very next time there is a Democrat president, that he/she immediately declare a national emergency and and take every cent from the defense budget and allocate it to Climate change mitigation. If there is any bitching about this, then declare a 2nd emergency and enact a complete ban on firearm sales.
Thanks Republicans!
Oh that’s delightful. It’s right up there with, “I’ll be proud to own this shutdown. I won’t blame it on you.”
Trump doesn’t care about any damn infantry marching in his jerk-off military parade. Trump likes the BIG boom-booms.
My money’s on that cadence is some traditional Russian thing.
And his multiple statements in public about his ban being a ban on Muslims while he argued in court it wasn’t.
:eek: