November 8, 2018
After a momentous election which saw both heartbreaking losses (Beto, Gillum) and inspiring firsts (Sharice Davids, Ayanna Pressley, Lucy McBath) our relief was tempered by our losses in the Senate. In addition to Texas, we lost Indiana, North Dakota and Tennessee and the jury is still out in Florida and Arizona. Our joy at seeing an incoming Congress filled with record numbers of women and welcome diversity was muted by the realization that the structural disadvantage built into the Senate will make it frustratingly difficult to elect a Democratic Senate majority for the foreseeable future.
That said, the importance of Tuesday’s election results should not be understated. Everything from having Maxine Waters chair the Banking Committee to Adam Schiff chair the House Intelligence Committee means that for the first time since his inauguration, Trump and his toadies will face real Congressional oversight. The gravity of that fact may not have been immediately apparent to us, but, as his erratic and impulsive actions yesterday made abundantly clear, it is apparent to Trump.
In a rambling, disjointed press conference yesterday, Trump tried to blackmail the incoming Democratic House majority, stating that he would work with them on infrastructure IF they didn’t investigate him. What passed for a conciliatory facade evaporated instantly, once Trump was confronted with tough questions from the assembled journalists. He accused African American journalist Yamiche Alcindor of asking a “racist question” when she asked whether his proud self-description as a “nationalist” was emboldening white supremacist violence. Trump reserved his worst ire, though, for his longtime foe, CNN’s Jim Acosta. After Acosta challenged him, asking why he mischaracterized the migrant caravan as an “invasion,” Trump excoriated Acosta as a “rude, terrible person” and sent one of his junior fascists in pumps over to wrest the microphone from him. The White House’s coup de grace was to revoke Acosta’s White House Press credentials as punishment for his persistence (Source: “ ‘You’re a very rude person.’‘That’s enough.’ ‘Sit down.’ Trump’s news conference turns hostile,” by Lindsey Bever, The Washington Post, 11/7/18).
We barely had time to catch our breath from this naked assault on the First Amendment when we learned that Trump had fired Jeff Sessions, in an obvious gambit to gain control over the Mueller investigation. While nothing gives us greater pleasure than seeing this cruel, diminutive martinet and committed racist humiliated, we know that Trump’s only objection to Sessions was his sole honorable act –recusing himself from oversight of the Russia investigation. Trump clearly acted out of desperation, ignoring the normal line of succession to install Matthew Whitaker, Sessions’ former chief of staff, as Interim Attorney General. Whitaker’s claim to fame seems to be that he played on the losing team in the Rose Bowl in the early 90’s, and his main qualification for the job is that he is on the record criticizing the Mueller probe as “going too far,” (Source: “What We Know About Matthew Whitaker, man who replaces Jeff Sessions,” by Bill Hutchinson, abcnews.com, 11/7/18).
The sword of Damocles has fallen. We are at the moment we have been dreading since Mueller’s appointment 18 months ago. Trump’s malfeasance has been protected by a Congress full of sycophantic racists who prefer authoritarianism if a Constitutional democracy means sharing power with people of color, women and LGBT people. That’s why our reaction to the election results was a sober one. Tuesday was not the end. It was only the beginning.
Go to act.moveon.org for the protest to protect Mueller near you TODAY at 5:00 p.m.
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