S*** the President Says – 11/11/2018

Ladies and gentlemen, behold, the S*** the President of the United States said during the past week:

• “I don’t know Matt Whitaker.” 11/9/2018, at the White House, claiming not to know the man he just put in charge of the entire United States law enforcement apparatus. This is likely to be a very consequential lie.
• “I know Matt Whitaker.” Last month, in an interview with Fox News. Reminder: people generally don’t lie for no reason.

• “You know, I’ve actually kept more promises than I’ve made.” 11/5/2018 rally in Cleveland, OH. Yes, it is impossible to keep more than you make. But forget about that. Remember a promise to unveil a secret plan to defeat ISIS within 10 days? Build the wall? Make Mexico pay for the wall? Eliminate the deficit and the entire national debt? Sue all the women that accused him of doing that thing he bragged about doing? Improve our trade deals? Release his tax returns? Crack down on corruption? Improve our infrastructure? Provide great health care for everyone? Be presidential? You get the point.
• “If the Democrats think they are going to waste Taxpayer Money investigating us at the House level, then we will likewise be forced to start investigating them for all of the leaks of Classified Information, and much else, at the Senate level. Two can play that game!” 11/7/2018 Trump tweet. Look, if there is evidence of foul play by anybody, by all means let’s get to the bottom of it. What is ridiculous is this idea that a crime worthy of investigation was identified, but Republicans will hold off on following up in any way until Trump is investigated for some unrelated thing. This is a bad attempt at blackmail, and it won’t work.
• “And we saw the candidates I supported achieve great success last night.” 11/7/2018 White House press conference. Somewhere from 21-28% achieved great success. The rest lost. This is a terrible win rate, especially considering the average partisan rating for the areas Trump endorsed was R+7.6.
• “On the other hand, you had some [Republicans] that decided to ‘let’s stay away. Let’s stay away.‘ They did very poorly. I’m not sure that I should be happy or sad, but I feel just fine about it.” 11/7/2018 White House press conference. Here, the President is expressing some satisfaction at losses among some in his own party that didn’t “embrace” him. Well, if you care at all about governing, actually implementing your agenda, you should feel sad that they lost. If all you care about is yourself, though, maybe you’d “feel just fine about it.”
• “I think I have that solution, and nobody else does.” Also the 11/7/2018 press conference, this time asserting he alone can resolve the age-old disagreement between pro- and anti-abortion rights folks. Claiming to hold the key to impossible issues, then refusing to tell anyone, is a trick most of us haven’t tried since we were kids.
• “When you’re in the White House – this is a very sacred place to me. It’s a very special place. You have to treat the White House with respect. You have to treat the presidency with respect.” Again from 11/9/2018 at the White House. Look, this isn’t a crazy thing to say, but the problem is Donald Trump doesn’t believe a word of it. Let none of us forget Trump’s first full day in office, shamelessly politicizing CIA headquarters, lying gratuitously in front of a wall of men and women whom died serving their country anonymously. Donald Trump disrespected his office that day, and every day since.
• “Law Enforcement is looking into another big corruption scandal having to do with Election Fraud in #Broward and Palm Beach. Florida voted for Rick Scott!” 11/8/2018 Trump tweet. No one has yet presented a shred of evidence of corruption in Broward or Palm Beach. Votes were still being counted (and will now be recounted), so no one knows whether Florida voted for Rick Scott. It’s not even clear as to what previous “corruption” Trump was referring, because while Broward County has indeed shown incompetence in past elections, none of its previous issues have involved any corruption whatsoever.
• “There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!” 11/10/2018 Trump tweet. Ok, a few things. First, it is disgusting to lash out like this while the fires are still burning, people are still dying and seeing their livelihoods destroyed. Second, raise your hand if you think Donald Trump knows anything about proper forest management. Nobody? Nobody. Third, California is a net donor to the federal budget every year. Meanwhile, guess who are net recipients? The South.

That’s enough for one week. As always, be sure to follow the links to find out where all these quotes and claims come from, and thanks for reading. See you next week.