It’s been another history-making week in our nation’s capital! Lawmakers have succeeded in ending the longest SCOTUS vacancy in history, forever changing some Senate rules, and—oh, yeah—lobbing a few missiles at a Syrian airbase. All in a week’s work! Although no week since January 20 has been dull or uneventful, Week 11 has been particularly significant for everything from changing international relationships to more leaks from the White House and lots of daily drama on Capitol Hill.
From this reality TV-worthy week, here are a few of the highlights.
- Early in the week, Jared Kushner traveled to Iraq as a White House envoy, accompanying Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in what the Washington Post calls a “further expansion of [Kushner’s] role as shadow diplomat.” Aside from the obvious problem of Kushner’s lack of any relevant experience whatsoever, this incident also further highlighted Trump’s ignorance of protocols and security concerns. According to the Post, Trump confirmed reports of the trip before the plane had landed. Normal protocol is to give confirmation only after arrival, to prevent incidents such as the one in 2007 when “the Taliban, having gained knowledge of Vice President Dick Cheney’s visit to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, carried out an attack on the base, killing more than 20 people” (Washington Post). I guess that wasn’t covered in Presidenting for Dummies.
- Running as a thread throughout the week was the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to fill Antonin Scalia’s Supreme Court seat. First came the filibuster. On Monday, Democrats achieved the 41-vote minimum necessary to sustain a filibuster; Republicans needed 60 votes to end the filibuster; they had only 56 as of Monday afternoon (that total includes four Democrats). So Monday ended in gridlock.
- The floor debate on Gorsuch’s confirmation began on Tuesday and continued through Wednesday. In between, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), opting for a more traditional type of filibuster, held the Senate floor for more than 15 hours in an all-night protest of Gorsuch’s nomination. Neither party emerged from this standoff unscathed: there’s been plenty of criticism and blame for both parties as well as for individual players.
- The SCOTUS debacle ended on Friday in a lose-lose. On Thursday, the Senate took a series of votes which culminated in a permanent rule change, known as the “nuclear option.” Never again will a party be able to stage an effective protest against a SCOTUS nominee, regardless of his/her qualifications or lack thereof; from now on forever, a simple 51-vote majority is sufficient to confirm any nominee to our highest court. And on Friday, for the second loss, the Senate voted to confirm Gorsuch, helping to preserve the court’s conservative majority for several more decades. Mitch McConnell left the Senate chamber with a big smile and a thumbs up, and millions of people worldwide dreamed Friday night of punching that smile off his turtle-ish face.
- Because anything put in place by President Obama MUST be reversed, Attorney General Jeff Sessions this week “ordered a review Monday of all police reform agreements and investigations initiated by the Justice Department, part of an effort to cut back on federal oversight of local law enforcement” (USA Today). The Obama administration investigated many local law enforcement agencies and made court-enforceable agreements with them to improve their tactics, especially in their use of deadly force and dealing with minority communities. Sessions says, “It is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies.” It’s the federal government’s job to be sure racism in all its forms is allowed to flourish, eh Jeff?
- Because Trump has never met a brutal authoritarian ruler he didn’t salute, he welcomed Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to the White House Monday, in yet another reversal of President Obama’s policies. Because of the Egyptian president’s long record of human rights abuses, Obama never invited him to the White House, expressed his disapproval of el-Sissi’s human rights record, and briefly suspended military aid. Trump, on the other hand, told him, “You have a great friend in the U. S. and in me.” Just makin’ America great again.
- Did you hear the one about Trump declaring the month of April Sexual Assault Awareness Month and then defending scumbag Bill O’Reilly for whom $13 million has been paid out in settlements to five of his accusers? This would be a great joke if it were not so disgusting and tragic. The “president” of the United States said, “I think he’s a person I know well — he is a good person. I think he shouldn’t have settled; personally I think he shouldn’t have settled. Because you should have taken it all the way. I don’t think Bill did anything wrong.” Bullies defend bullies, even when one of them lives in the White House.
- In a move for which Trump received some praise even from intelligent people, he removed Steve Bannon from the National Security Council and replaced him with some of the people who should have been there in the first place. I must admit to being skeptical of the motives at first, but now it’s being widely reported that Bannon’s future as a White House adviser is increasingly uncertain. Perhaps there is just one bit of good news from Week 11.
- Devin Nunes has stepped down from his role in leading the House intelligence committee’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. He is calling the accusations against him untrue and biased, but he feels it to be in the country’s best interest for him to turn over the investigation to others so that he can “expedite the dismissal of these false claims.” Meanwhile, the investigation is now in the hands of Representatives Mike Conaway, Trey Gowdy, and Tom Rooney. Gee, I can hardly wait to see whether Trey Gowdy will be nearly as passionate in his pursuit of truth about possible election interference by a hostile foreign power as he was about possible email violations.
- And finally, as the whole world knows, Trump ended his 11th week in office by ordering the launch of 59 Tomahawk missiles at an airbase in Syria, in response to Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons earlier this week to kill 100 of his own citizens of all ages. Response to Trump’s decision has been all over the map, and the attack raises a number of possible repercussions, none of which are good. Much more to come on this subject in the weeks and months ahead.
As a side note, I just have to ask, am I the only one who is offended by 45’s seeming disdain for the White House? First families have always made our national house their home, not a hotel for the president to stay in during the work week while his family remains in their private home. And visiting dignitaries have been received and entertained at the White House, not at the president’s private home or club. I shuddered at the thought of that family of cretins moving into the White House and spray painting everything gold, but I think I’m even more offended by their utter lack of reverence for the home and its history.
And so Week 11 comes to an end with a cliffhanger: Who is in and who is out among the contentious White House staff? Is Trump preparing for another shake-up? Is Bannon out? Will Priebus survive the cut? Will Gary Cohn be the new Chief of Staff? Will Jared and Ivanka get the boot? HA! Just kidding! Doddering Donald needs his family caretakers to watch after him, so the Kushners are safe. But odds are that other heads are about to roll.
It’s bound to be another busy week! Stay tuned for Swamp Report, Week 12.