The decision this week by President Donald Trump to revoke the security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan continues to reverberate, being an unprecedented break with longstanding bipartisan tradition to strike back at one of the administration’s more potent critics. Trump’s original threats to revoke clearances for his critics was laughed off by House Speaker Paul Ryan as “trolling,” but nobody’s laughing now.
They’re normalizing:
Cory Gardner, chairman of the NRSC, tells us this of Trump move to retaliate against Brennan: “I think what John Brennan has said about this country over the past several months has been disgraceful.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 16, 2018
That’s Colorado’s own Sen. Cory Gardner, defending the decision to revoke a former CIA director’s security clearances, acknowledging that the action was taken because of things John Brennan said about the President. We get that Brennan has no right to a security clearance, and the the President necessarily has the authority to revoke them.
But this is not how American presidents behave. This is how petty thugs with no checks on their power behave.
At least for the purposes of this interview, though, Gardner was all game face–CNN’s Manu Raju continues:
Gardner says this of the Omarosa ‘dog’ comment: “I would not have made that comment.” And when asked if those distractions impact GOP bid to keep Senate majority, he said: “If you look at red-state Democrats, they are all trying to be the president’s best friend.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) August 16, 2018
To summarize, the United States is the in the grip of an unprecedented political and moral crisis because Donald Trump is disgracing his office at such a rapid pace it can barely be catalogued. He is alienating our allies, emboldening our enemies, dividing the American public, and misusing his power as President to lash out against his critics. His serial mistreatment of women is setting back gender relations in this country by decades. Donald Trump is unquestionably one of the worst Presidents in American history, perhaps the worst, and the damage Trump is doing will take years after he leaves office to undo.
And now we know with certainty: Cory Gardner is not going to lift a finger to stop it.
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And come 2020, is Cory going to distance himself from Trump because he knows Colorado didn't support him in 2016 and Trump's approval rating in Colorado is abysmal?
He'll try to have it both ways, because that's how he rolls.
Trump's approval in Colorado is at 44% despite Democrats throwing the kitchen sink at him for three years. You're in for a big surprise on Election Day!
You realize that 44 < 50, right?
Our little MAGAt doesn't do math so well. That's why he thinks he got a lot of money from the tax scam bill.
Do you think he’s thrown all of his #NeverTrump bumper stickers away?
He's waiting until the impeachment begins to bring them out.
Or Omarosa reveals her next tape.
Uh. Since when is 44% a good number for a sitting President to have? God you are one desperate MAGAt!!!
I’m pretty sure he pulled that 44% number out of his FauxNews’ arse (he wouldn’t dare quote stoopid Floyd). There’s way too many big words and charts in this analysis, but maybe he can get someone at Joy’s picnic to #foxsplain it to him.
Where did you get the 44% number for popularity?
Trump only got 43% of the Colorado vote in 2016 to Clinton's 48% (Wikipedia). Five percentage point win. Not a big win, but a win nonetheless. If Gardner matches that performance it will be a Democrat going to the Senate from Colorado, Senator Perlmutter?
I'm still trying to figure out how he decided that 44% approval was a great number.
It's a hair better than the 43% Trump got in CO in Nov. '16.
Morning Consult has a July poll of Colorado showing Trump approval / disapproval at 43% / 53%. In January, 2017, it was 45% / 44%, a net change of -11.
And that's WITH major gains in the stock market (for his first year in office), continued declines in unemployment to historic lows, no major shooting wars abroad, give-aways in tax rates, low inflation, and fulfilling his campaign promises on judicial appointments.
So what could be getting in the way of Trump's approval? Gallup says: "Americans are most likely to say a president's ability to manage the government is the biggest factor in their evaluations of him, of three possible leadership characteristics. Thirty-seven percent choose government management, while 29% say the president's issue positions are most important and 21% say his moral values." Any of those three going to improve between now and November, Moderatus?
FiveThirtyEight has Trump with a similar decline in popularity between Jan. 2017 and now, but in a shiny graph form. 48% approval on day 6 to 44% now. The bigger problem was jump in disapproval from 43% to 52%.
That said, if he is compared to recent presidents without a giant terrorist attack in their first term, he's not that extraordinarily unpopular. Both Obama and Clinton were at 48% disapproval on this day of their presidency. Both went on to be reelected after big losses during the midterms.
The president is unpopular and is on track to lose the house and possibly the Senate as well if the Democrats get lucky. As long as he keeps his base he keeps the presidency and may (much less likely) even win reelection because of the electoral college and Russia.
To your point about approval ratings in comparison th Clinton and Obama, he has never had the kind of numbers either had at the height of their popularity. Thus far, his ceiling seems to be 45%.
You are right that Clinton and Obama both had higher upsides during their presidencies. During his first year in office Obama was at a net positive approval the whole time, something Trump only managed for his first 12 days in office. Clinton had just two points in his first 574 days where he was as underwater as Trump as been for basically his whole presidency.
That said I think he is not any more unpopular than he was when he was elected. He got the presidency with 46% of the vote.
Notice how the shape of a banana is similar to a penis?
Some people are saying that Cory sucks The Dumpster®'s dick, but I am just observing.
He’ll have to cut in line ahead of Sheriff Joe.
And our own little MAGAt brain.
And Trump is eager to please Putin. Just saying.
You have to wonder is Gardner is even going to run for re-election in 2020 based on these kinds of lame answers. The ads just write themselves with this oaf as the central villain.
What did Trump promise Gardner? That's what I'm going to ask when I make my phone call.
I just tried an email on Gardner's senate site, and the site was "down for maintenance". Hopefully because it's been overloaded with outraged constituents.
His office phones are still taking calls, however. Light them up, people!
Amazing that Sen. Gardner (and other Republicans) would join with Democrats to adopt a resolution on the press.
Free Press Gets a Boost With Senate Resolution Declaring It Is Not the Enemy
Action comes on same day newspapers coordinate on free press message