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Republicans lost the majority in the House of Representatives because of Donald Trump. Americans were hoodwinked by Trump in the 2016 presidential election, but in this year's midterms, enough voters realized that they were not going to be suckered in to accepting Trump's offensive and often racist rhetoric.
A majority of Americans have proven that by changing the color of the House from red to blue, they are fed up with Donald Trump's lying, narcissistic, misogynistic, xenophobic, homophobic, anti-Semitic, racist, inhumane, delusional, destructive agenda where his only desire is to make the rich richer. With Trump, if you're not a wealthy white male, you're not worth diddly-squat. That is except for white women who he can use for extra-marital affairs and then pay off to remain silent. So not only is Trump unfit to be president, he is morally unfit. Yet during his Wednesday, November 7th press conference, Trump labeled himself..."a great moral leader." And I'm Bob Woodward.
The vote in the 2018 midterms was a vote against bigotry and prejudices of all kinds. Plus, Americans this year went to the polls in history-making droves for midterm elections in order to oppose the venomous hatred that Trump and some congressional Republicans have been spewing over the last two years. To flip the House was a definite "blue wave." The people of the United States have verified that the bedrock principle of American democracy is our freedom of speech and our right to vote.
All throughout the campaign Donald Trump offended, degraded or belittled everyone from a federal judge to a Gold Star mother and father...from a Vietnam prisoner of war hero turned U.S. Senator to a Miss Universe beauty queen...from a disabled male reporter to a female news anchor...and so many others who did not deserve Trump's attacks. Nevertheless, Republicans and right-leaning Independents cast their ballots for Trump...and they're some of the same people who initially helped to boost him on to his political pedestal. Even after the infamous 2005 Access Hollywood video was released in October 2016, just days before the election, women voted for Trump. They continued to support him after Trump bragged to television host Billy Bush that he could sexually assault women because "when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab 'em by the p---y. You can do anything." For some strange reason, it didn't bother certain women - or certain men, for that matter - to elect someone who used vulgar verbiage about females. They actually preferred a president who treated others in a plethora of despicable ways instead of Hillary Clinton who was completely exonerated by a bipartisan congressional committee and by the F.B.I. Any criminal allegations against the former secretary of state were found to be false. But for the 2018 midterms, Trump's viciousness towards prominent Democrats...his rally rants that Democrats are "the party of crime"...and his favorite phrase that the media are "the enemy of the people"...are not what most Americans want to hear from the nation's president. Therefore, voters didn't want to give Trump any more power with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives. And with Nancy Pelosi presumably at the helm, Democrats will put Trump in his place.
Except for people who are die hard Trump supporters, nobody else wants to hear him infer that he wants to be treated as if he was our country's dictator. Remember that in June 2018 - in an interview with Fox News - Trump seriously stated that he would like Americans to revere him like North Koreans do for Kim Jong-un. "He speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same." The White House tried to spin it that Trump was merely kidding around, but that was just another lie. After speaking or tweeting more than 6,400 falsehoods - according to The Washington Post Fact Checker since Trump took the presidential oath of office on January 20th, 2017 - then the easy way to get out of a difficult situation...at least for Donald Trump...is to lie.
In a pre-recorded interview with Axios - part of which was released on October 30th - Trump took his ego to a new level when he announced his plan to end birthright citizenship by his signature on an executive order. "We're the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And it has to end." According to Politifact, the U.S. is not the only nation that grants birthright citizenship. At least thirty-two other countries offer some form of birthright citizenship. So, as usual, Trump doesn't have his facts straight. Plus... legal and constitutional scholars say Trump cannot in any way end birthright citizenship. The Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution spells out the law in clear, concise words. "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." That Amendment was ratified on July 28th, 1868. Therefore, the law has been plain as day for 150 years. As for the U.S. Supreme Court's take on the law, The Washington Post says justices in 1898 decided that citizenship belonged to anyone who is born on American soil. So Trump cannot - no president could - change the U.S. Constitution on his own by merely a stroke of his pen. The complete Axios interview aired November 4th on HBO.
Only one-third of our nation - or, at times, a little bit more - agree with Trump's xenophobia and racism. About asylum-seeking migrants who are walking in a caravan from Central America towards the U.S./Mexico border, Trump in a November 1st speech declared that if any migrant approaches our soil and hurls rocks, they will be shot. "I will tell you, anybody throwing stones, rocks, like they did to Mexico and the Mexican military, Mexican police, where they badly hurt police and soldiers of Mexico, we will consider that a firearm." But Trump's sickening comment was walked back the next day. However, he did equate rocks to guns...and not Trump nor his advisers can put that genie back into the bottle. On November 2nd he tried, though, when Trump vowed that migrants would only be "arrested."
The bottom line is that most Independents - many of whom voted for Trump two years ago - now believe he has gone too far and has crossed the line of decency. It amazes me that they even accepted him as a candidate because he was incompetent to be president when he was the GOP nominee.
The United States has been painted with such ugly colors since Donald Trump moved in to The White House. He and his henchmen have used The Oval Office as a means to promote lies about Democrats. Trump and most Republicans in Congress will do anything and everything to attack liberals and progressives even when their accusations are fact-checked as false.
I remind you that, at this point, Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort...Trump's former national security adviser, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn...Trump's former personal lawyer and so-called "fixer," Michael Cohen...Trump's campaign aide, who was Manafort's longtime business partner, Rick Gates...and Trump's foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos...have all either been convicted on felony charges or have pleaded guilty for committing crimes. Birds of a feather may flock together...or may not...but it might soon be proven that Donald Trump is the most dangerous bird of all.
I have written in more than one column over the last two years that if Donald Trump is forced to resign the presidency, or if he is impeached by the House of Representatives then convicted and removed from office by the Senate, that there's the possibility for evidence to reveal that Mike Pence has perhaps been complicit in a criminal cover-up. If that were to ever happen and Pence is also forced to resign, or is impeached, convicted and removed from the vice presidency, the Republican administration of Trump and Pence would sink and be drowned, while a Democrat would swim to The White House. As speaker of the House and second in the line of succession - should she indeed get the nod - Nancy Pelosi would become president of the United States...America's first woman president.
In his post-midterm press conference - which lasted about an hour and a half - Trump told reporters..."This was a great victory for us"..."close to a complete victory"..."a tremendous success." Trump attempted to convince everyone that he is "extraordinarily happy," despite the Democrats flipping the House. He initially talked of bipartisanship. Trump thinks Pelosi should be speaker, now that the Democrats won. Trump praised Pelosi calling her a "very capable person" and "I really believe she deserves that position." Trump, at first, seemed optimistic in working with Democrats. "I think we'll get a lot done." But Trump also referred to Pelosi's party as "the angry Democrats." When the topic of subpoenas and investigations was brought up, Trump threatened "warlike posture" if Democrats continue with their witch hunts. He proclaimed that if Pelosi, Schiff, et al get in to his face and launch more investigations, the federal government will "come to a halt." It didn't take long for Trump's lovefest to turn back to being a hatefest. If Trump doesn't want his legislative agenda to be doomed - not to mention his entire presidency - he needs to shut his mouth and stop his evil ways.
Donald Trump can take all the victory laps he wants, but he's going to pull a hamstring doing it because it's the Democrats whose big win in the House is what's going to make a huge difference to Trump over the next two years. That is, of course, if he even remains in office throughout the remainder of his term.
Makeup of the new House of Representatives hasn't been fully decided as 8 of the 435 races are yet to be settled. As this column is published, Democrats hold 228 seats while Republicans have 199, come the new year, and Democrats only need 218 to take control. It is also too soon to engrave the Senate scorecard in granite as the races in Arizona and Florida have not yet determined winners. And there'll be a runoff election in Mississippi. Right now, the Democrats in the new Senate will hold 46 seats while the Republicans keep their majority with 51. It's possible the final split will be 51 to 49, which is what the current configuration is...and that's if the Democrats win the aforementioned three states. The worst case scenario for the Democrats would be if the Republicans take all three seats thus giving the GOP a total of 54 on the right side of the aisle to 46 on the left for the Democrats.
More women are headed to Congress. A history-making 102 women won seats in the House, including 35 who were elected for the first time. Prior to 2018, the Congressional Research Service says the most females to serve in the House of Representatives at a given time was 85. Furthermore, 12 women won seats in the Senate, including 2 freshmen. There are also 10 other female senators who were not due to run for re-election this year as their terms were not coming to an end.
Voters showed that diversity is a virtue not a vice. Americans elected African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian-Americans, Jews, Muslims, and members of the LGBTQ community to hold state and national offices. Of the women elected to the House of Representatives, 40 are non-Caucasian.
Trump's top goals have been to build a wall on the U.S./Mexico border and to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. But Americans overall do not advocate construction of Trump's "wall of hate." Confidence that such a border barrier would never see the light of day has been my view since Trump first suggested it during the 2016 campaign...and I stand firm that the nearly 2,000-mile wall will never be built. But immigration security is not the most important matter of national concern for voters across the country. The number one issue in the midterms - according to exit polls - was healthcare. Trump has failed over and over again to destroy President Obama's signature piece of legislation. And now...there is no chance that Trump will get Congress to do away with "Obamacare." Americans with pre-existing conditions have nothing to worry about as Republicans will not be able to come up with a measure that could affect us in such a frightening and possibly deadly manner.
While some professional athletes have boycotted visiting past presidents, it's not common for full teams to turn down an invitation from The White House. Donald Trump did host some team visits in year one of his term, but none so far in 2018. The champion Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association and the National Football League Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles refused to accept Trump's original offers to visit The White House. It's now been two weeks since the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, but the Major League Baseball champs have yet to decide whether they will go to Washington, DC to meet Trump. Historically, professional sports clubs - after winning a championship - are honored to accept an invitation to visit the president. Since teams have no desire to break bread with Trump this year, he should take that as a clue that he needs to change his ways. But not Donald Trump. He changes for nobody.
And that's The Controversy for today.
I'm Gary B. Duglin.
"We'll talk again."
The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions. Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.
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Photo credits: Reuters (Donald Trump #1), Mark Wilson/Getty Images (House Minority Leader/former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi), Lauren Victoria Burke/Associated Press (Congressman Jerry Nadler), Associated Press (Senator Ted Cruz), Bill Pugliano/Getty Images (Senator Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader and Senator Mitch McConnell, Senate Majority Leader), Joe Skipper/Reuters (former President Barack Obama), Justin Sullivan/Getty Images (former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton), Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press (Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker and Special Counsel Robert Mueller), CNN Screenshot (Congressman Adam Schiff), Jonathan Ernst/Reuters (Donald Trump #2) and Associated Press (Donald Trump #3)
Copyright 2018 Gary B. Duglin and TheControversy.net. All Rights Reserved.
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