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Friday, January 29, 2021

Good Read On the Mitch - Trump Feud

I'm always cautious with Michael Snyder, but this is an interesting read on an important topic. My working assumption is that, whatever personal animus and political convictions Mitch may have brought to his feud with Trump, there were moneyed interests behind him pushing him. See what you think. One thing is for sure, by now Trump knows who his enemies are. This is a small part of a considerably longer article, so check it out:


Mitch McConnell really wanted to convict Donald Trump and ban him from ever running for office again, but he was forced to back off.  In fact, he just voted for a motion that declared that convicting Trump at this point would be unconstitutionalThat represents a stunning reversal by McConnell, because earlier this month he was telling other Republicans that he wanted Trump gone.  Putting the pieces together, it appears that McConnell really did try to get to 67 votes so that Trump would be convicted, but political reality forced him to back down in a major way.  Now a weakened McConnell will try to move forward as the minority leader in the Senate, and the future of his political career is very much in doubt.

Once the riot at the U.S. Capitol happened on January 6th, McConnell decided that he was done with Trump and never wanted to speak to him again

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he never wants to speak to President Donald Trump again following a violent insurrection at the US Capitol on Wednesday, The Washington Post reported.

But of course at that point they had already not spoken for quite some time.

According to McConnell, the last time the two spoke was all the way back on December 15th

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that he hasn’t spoken to former President Trump since the middle of December, confirming news reports that the Senate GOP leader has cut off personal contact with the former president.

“The last time I spoke with him was the day after I declared that Biden had obviously won the election after the Electoral College [voted on] Dec. 14. It would have been Dec. 15,” McConnell told reporters.

Not content to keep his feud with Trump private, McConnell took it to the floor of the U.S. [Senate].

...

So why did Mitch McConnell change his mind so dramatically?

There are three main reasons.

First of all, it became clear that there wouldn’t be a way to get to 67 votes.  ...

Secondly, Trump was threatening to start his own political party if he was convicted.

...

Thirdly, other Republicans in the Senate were threatening to boot McConnell from his position as minority leader if he voted to convict Trump

“No, no, no,” Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican and Trump ally, told CNN when asked if he could support McConnell if he voted to convict Trump, calling such a vote a “dangerous precedent” and adding: “I don’t even think we should be having a trial.”

“If you’re wanting to erase Donald Trump from the party, you’re going to get erased,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said on Fox News Wednesday. “This idea of moving forward without Donald Trump in the Republican Party is a disaster for the Republican Party.”

McConnell is a political survivor, and he could see the writing on the wall.

So he backed off. 

However, the last thing the country needs at this juncture is a leaderless GOP in Washington. The country and the GOP very much need strong leadership. McConnell--incredibly for one with his political experience--fundamentally miscalculated his role. Notice who the two Republican senators who spoke for attribution were--Johnson and Graham have been close to McConnell and have a status as elders in the Senate. Whether their support of Trump was genuine or not, their words demonstrate that they realize the transformation of the party that Trump has wrought--and that McConnell's actions were leading the GOP over a political cliff. These are things that someone with McConnell's experience should have realized on his own. That he failed to do so--and this egregious lapse in judgment happened in public--is what is behind the unprecedented public pushback McConnell received. He broke a trust he's likely going to be unable to ever regain.

But if he could figure out a way to get rid of Trump without any consequences, he would pull the trigger in a nanosecond.

Unfortunately for McConnell, now that everyone knows what he tried to do, he has been greatly weakened politically.

He may survive for a while, but the days remaining in his political career are definitely numbered.

If the Republicans are not able to regain control of the Senate in 2022, I have a feeling that Senate Republicans may decide that it is time for a new standard bearer.

Of course a lot could still happen between now and then, and my regular readers already know that I am not optimistic about America’s future at all.

The rot and decay in Washington is simply a reflection of the rot and decay that is growing throughout our society as a whole.

Our country is literally falling apart all around us, and decades of incredibly foolish decisions by our leaders are now catching up with us in a major way.


16 comments:

  1. Chamber of commerce and other oligarchs that support the eGOP/McConnell HATE Trump.

    My assumption is only after Trump defeated 3 sitting senators in the midterms did McConnell give Trump the tine of day. And that was grudgingly, hence the Grennel DNI confirmation debacle. And the losses that McConnell caused with horrible candidates and not passing the $2k stimulus also weakened him.

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  2. It just plain sucks to read all of this...especially the part concerning America's future, sigh. Have we truly reached a tipping point? I fear for my children and continue to set aside as many assets as I can in the event they are no longer employable due to their "whiteness"...I hope it's enough and that I don't live long enough to witness the end of a once great country.

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    1. @HH

      One of my sons works in the golf industry. I have been thinking that whiteness shouldn't be a problem there...am I wrong? :-)

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  3. Look back at what the GOP did to the Tea Party. They coopted and then corrupted those like Paul Ryan and the others opposed. Of course, Obama used the might of the federal government to oppose them.

    Ya wonder why I am not exactly enamored with the GOP, to put it mildly.

    Trump is the only reason I will R again and that is entirely on Trump’s platform and his successes and attempts to enact his platform.

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  4. Meanwhile….Why Biden didn’t want to answer Peter Doocy’s question about his call to Putin? What they talked about?

    The last remaining nuclear-arms treaty between the U.S. and Russia is on track for a five-year extension. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to extend so-called New START in their first exchange since Biden took office on Jan. 20. Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, had sought to renegotiate the deal, which is due to expire on Feb. 5. He wasn’t alone, as policy makers across the political spectrum have called for improvements.

    The Big Guy goes it alone - told Putin “fine”. No conditions or changes. Putin had to have approval of his parliament, which he got on 1/27. China watching closely.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-28/why-new-start-nuclear-treaty-split-biden-from-trump-quicktake

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  5. "...incredibly foolish decisions by our leaders are now catching up with us in a major way."

    The incredibly foolish decision was by people who should know better calling those people "our leaders", like European royalty and aristocrats, rather than "our representatives" who should have been thoroughly dressed down and/or fired for failing to be.

    The only "Great Reset" will occur when people quit looking to the Imperial Capital for the Blessings of Heaven, quit treating the Swamp Creatures as "Elites" and the Presidency as our Sovereign Lord and Master.

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    1. My Leader remains only Christ.

      All others are subject to recall, or worse.

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    2. And he is in control. Hallelujah!

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  6. I think the real reason for Mitch to back of has a lot to do with the backstage negotiations on the foot thick dossier Trump threatened to declassify. Recall Lindsey saying Trump hold his side of the bargain and now it's Mitch's turn, a short while ago.

    Trump and his family will be left relatively alone, in return Trump will let the deep state keep doing what they've been doing.

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  7. It clearly seems the GOPe thought they had Trump on the ropes. Hence bad decisions by McConnell and McCarthy. Had they understood the base they would have immediately called out the fraud in the elections. The fact they they were silent gave the signal to the SCOTUS to stay clear as well.

    This is the same GOPe that let the Russian Hoax drag on for ultimately 4 years of Trump's administration.

    I for one am tried of supporting the current GOP. I will support very selectively pick individual candidates to support the Trump agenda.

    On more thing its time for the never trumpets to find a new home.

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  8. @Mark
    "One thing is for sure, by now Trump knows who his enemies are."

    This is part of the somewhat under-appreciated genius of Trump. In poker terms, his opponents always show their hands. Trump, almost never.

    On McConnell, why isn't there more speculation that the normally politically astute McConnell miscalculated because of something Trump said/did to Mrs. Elaine Chao McConnell? That's another Trump specialty. He throws his adversary so far off balance that they miscalculate. Look at what he did to Nancy Pelosi. She is now a certifiable basket case.

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  9. Mitch is 78 years old. I did not realized he was divorced, former wife then became a feminist scholar. So this is probably his last term.

    Another influence could be Elaine Chao’s family business China relations.

    Trump is doing an amazing job of unmasking the corruption and back room dealing in dc.

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  10. *Cough*

    RoJo entered the Senate and began raising Hell immediately. After about 12 months, McConnell shut him up totally. Don't know how, don't care.

    Rest assured, Ron Johnson hates McConnell with a red passion. But there's stuff RoJo cannot do or say--right now.

    They are not "allies."

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    1. Thanks for the clarification. For some reason I had always had the impression that he was at least on the McConnell team. Same with Lindsey. I didn't mean that they necessarily have the same goals, but that they could be counted on for support by McConnell. This certainly shows that some bridges are just too far and, remarkably, throwing Trump overboard is one of those bridges that's way too far. They both have a better grasp of where the GOP is now.

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  11. Mitch is a corrupt, deep swamp, self indulging, wealth beats patriotism, politician. Trump is a patriot. There is no other argument.

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