SAVE Act Switcheroo
In his latest act of self-debasement to win President Trump’s endorsement, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on Wednesday penned a cringing op-ed in the New York Post in which he agreed to drop his longtime support for the Senate filibuster.
He professed that the change of heart was prompted by radical Democrats pledging to nuke the filibuster whenever they hold power again.
So it’s just coincidence, by Cornyn’s lights, that he steadfastly opposed filibuster abolition right up until last week when his runoff opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), promised to drop out of the race if Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) lowered the 60-vote threshold to allow for passage of the GOP’s voter restriction bill, the SAVE America Act.
Paxton’s move was a fairly transparent effort to redirect Trump’s anger away from him after he’d refused to preemptively drop out of the race.
Despite his alleged heel turn, Cornyn is a student at the Mitch McConnell school of Senate procedure: He knows that the filibuster doesn’t block Republican priorities — tax cuts and confirmations — and does block Democratic ones. He sees the value in both ensuring that Democrats never make good on their policy promises (a successful effort that has left the Democratic Party in deplorable standing) and in protecting elected Republicans from having to act on the unpopular whims of their hard-right base.
A possible Trump endorsement, though, called louder.
Still, playing the lickspittle isn’t always fun for a big, important U.S. senator. He got a mite peevish Wednesday when NBC reporter Brennan Leach pushed him on his flexible principles.
“What would you say to those who say you just changed your mind to win the President’s endorsement?” she asked.
“I would say that’s not true,” he replied with a wry smile.
“You also said—” she began, before he interrupted, shoving a hand in her camera and saying: “I think we’re through. Go away.”
Spinelessness — it’s harder than it looks.
— Kate Riga
We’re the Bad Guys
As expected after remnants of the missile were discovered, a preliminary (and ongoing) military investigation has found that the United States is responsible for the strike on the Iranian elementary school that left, per Iranian officials, over 175 people — mostly children — dead.
The strike seems to have been the result of old data, which showed the school as part of a nearby base.
Trump, never one to shrink from responsibility, was asked for his reaction to the findings Wednesday as he departed the White House: “I don’t know about it,” he said. He previously blamed the Iranians.
— Kate Riga
Senate Republicans Block Dem Effort to Fund DHS Without ICE, CBP
Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) sought unanimous consent on the Senate floor Wednesday to pass legislation to fund every agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — except Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Office of the Secretary.
Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) blocked Murray’s request, making it clear the Senate GOP would rather continue the ongoing shutdown instead of funding some of the programs under DHS.
The Washington Democrats’ bill would have made sure TSA and the rest of the programs under the DHS umbrella, including FEMA, Coast Guard and the Secret Service, were funded through the fiscal year while negotiations for meaningful ICE reform — which Dems have been calling for in exchange for their votes to fund ICE — continue.
“Republicans are not only dragging their feet on the basic reforms — they are refusing to fund TSA, FEMA, and other important DHS functions while these negotiations continue,” Murray said during a Wednesday floor speech.
Murray’s effort comes as the DHS-specific shutdown, which started on Feb. 14, approaches a month with no end in sight. With spring break kicking off and TSA agents set to miss their first paycheck since the shutdown started, airports across the country have been warning of hours-long security lines.
Congressional Democrats and the White House have been exchanging largely private proposals for a few weeks now, but the two sides have not made much progress as Republicans and the Trump White House refuse to enact several key reforms Democrats are demandingDemocrats are demanding to rein in ICE agents’ recent lawless actions.
— Emine Yücel
Hope, Change, ‘This Job Sucks’
The former Justice Department prosecutor who told a judge that her job “sucks” while in court defending the administration’s deportations is now running as a Democrat to challenge Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), per the Washington Post.
Julie Le said that she’d never supported Trump, and thought that if she stayed with ICE, she’d be in a better position to defend her family’s legality if any of them got arrested.
She added that she’s challenging Omar not because she doesn’t think the congresswoman is “doing the job,” but for what she, personally, “could bring to the table.”
— Kate Riga
Clown Show, Clown Shoes
Trump is reportedly buying all the men in his circle ill-fitting dress shoes — and they’re “afraid” not to wear them.
The fear is such that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has apparently been donning a pair much too big for him.
“You know you can tell a lot about a man by his shoe size,’” Vice President J.D. Vance recalled Trump saying during a podcast appearance, before triggering the gag reflexes of all in earshot by adding: “We won’t ask the second lady for comment on that particular topic.”
— Kate Riga
In Case You Missed It
Morning Memo: Ed Martin Clowns Himself Into Bonus Ethics Charges
The Backchannel: Borderline Personality Trump and the Uses of Press Myopia
The Josh Marshall Podcast featuring Kate Riga heads to Austin: Alright Alright Alright! TPM Is Heading to Austin
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
Pam Bondi’s US Attorney Gambit Smacked Down by Judge as Unconstitutional
What We Are Reading
Report: President Donald Trump Is Giving “All The Boys” Dress Shoes That Don’t Fit Right — David Roth, Defector
The media is structurally pro-Trump — Elias Isquith, The Necessary Fictions
Joe Rogan Says Trump’s Supporters Feel ‘Betrayed’ by Iran War — Tim Balk, The New York Times
The “Reverend Jim Jones” mandated his followers own just 1 pair of shoes, the same as his. It was later revealed that he owned 7 pair, one for each day of the week.
“Desperate people do desperate things.”
That they will resort to desperate acts to curry favor with Donnie is pretty damned pathetic (and desperate…..).
34 months and 9 days until this S*it show is over…
You would think he would just privately get them exchanged for the correct size. I don’t think CF has them fitted with a transmitter. But then maybe Steve Miller does.
MY recollection is that the 1st uses of “Trump Derangement Syndrome” was to call out those followers, supporters and sycophants that blindly believed anything Trump told them. The administration uses TDS to describe people that reflexively oppose Trump…maybe my recollection is wrong or maybe they just have flipped the script.
ANYWAYS, these men that are wearing ill fitting shoes to avoid Trump’s possible wrath is truly derangement. I mean even if that was a worry, they are apparently NOT custom shoes, so go buy a pair that effing fits, as @ladyfair pointed out.
WTAF?!? The most likely “explanation” to me is that Trump is doing this deliberately just to be able to laugh at all of them behind their backs. Rather than shooting someone on 5th Avenue and get away with it, he can provide them with a gift of “clown shoes” and they will actually wear them…IN PUBLIC