Even his base can’t trust him now

Joan McCarter of Daily Kos reported that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she will not run for House Democratic leadership in January. This comes after Republicans won enough seats to take over the House. Pelosi will continue to serve as the representative from San Francisco. She had led the House Democrats for about 20 years under four presidents (though she didn’t mention the nasty guy) and that gave her two stretches of serving as Speaker. Pelosi said it is time for a younger generation (she’s in her 80s) to take over the leadership. Following her lead, #2 Steny Hoyer and #3 Jim Clyburn will also step down. McCarter liveblogged Pelosi’s announcement speech. She was the first woman to hold the job as Speaker and did a very good job of it, keeping her caucus in line during the nasty guy years (something her GOP replacement probably won’t be able to do with the same size caucus). Elwood Down of the Kos community posted those slated to be voted in as the leadership team on Nov. 30. They are Hakeem Jeffries, a black man, Katherine Clark, and Pete Aguilar. Jeffries had done a great job as a manager of the Democratic case during one of the nasty guy’s impeachment trials. Papo tweeted an image of Pelosi being hugged by the Constitution, saying she has always been about protecting the people. It’s a great image. But I don’t think it is entirely accurate and someday soon I plan to pull another voice or two about that. For now I’ll say there are several things she didn’t do that could have helped our country and democracy. She has also been corrupted through donations from corporations and even Russians. Yeah, Republicans have taken control of the House. Stephen Wolf of Kos Elections said the reason why the were able to do so is simple – gerrymandering. In a margin this small who drew the districts made enough of a difference. Republicans were more successful at it after the 2020 census and more able to avoid having courts overturn their maps. And Republicans weren’t restrained by an election law calling on every state to use an independent citizens redistricting commission because Joe Manchin made sure that law didn’t get passed. McCarter reported that Republicans, now that they will control the House, have announced their predictable agenda. No mention of policy – Walter Einenkel of Kos reported they didn’t answer those kinds of questions. Nothing about inflation, gas prices, violent crime (the issue they ran on), or immigration. There is one thing on the agenda: vengeance. For what? It doesn’t matter. One could start with: taking the White House away from the nasty guy or actually having a government that attempts to fix or relieve the problems of citizens. So they’ve already sent letters to various government officials warning them to be ready for upcoming investigations and document subpoenas. They’re not interested in making government work. Which means Democrats have December to get important things done. At the top of the list is pushing through electoral count reforms and getting rid of the debt limit so the bomb throwers in the House can’t hold the economy hostage. There’s also a COVID relief bill and restoring child tax credits as monthly payments. And what are Democrats doing? McCarter reported that Dick Durban, #2 Democrat in the Senate, said his chamber, which will remain in Dem hands, will be focused during December getting progressive judges passed. Yo, Dick! You can do that next yer because judges don’t have to go before the House and the House isn’t going to be sending over any bills anyway. Defusing the debt limit can’t wait. McCarter reported the vengeance will start with Hunter Biden’s laptop. Yeah, because Benghazi worked so well for Republicans. Then there’s Dr. Fauci. And they’ll come up with a reason to impeach Biden, even though their reason won’t be true. The nasty guy has announced he is running for president in 2024. Hunter of Kos reported there was a story in the Washington Post the day before saying sources said the nasty guy took all those top secret document to Mar-a-Lago not because he wanted to profit from them but because he just wanted to keep them for some ego reason. Hunter wrote, first, there are way too many unnamed sources in the Post’s story. Second, the reason for the theft is irrelevant. Third, this isn’t news, though the timing of this story might be.

The "news" is that it's still an absolute certainty that Donald Trump stole classified national security documents, some of them in the top ranks of classification, and that he possessed them illegally, lied about it, and violated laws yet again by stacking them in insecure locations in a building known to attract foreign intelligence agents. But there's no evidence he committed actual espionage! Everybody make sure you report that, on the day before Donald's Big Important History-Shaking Announcement! No provable espionage!

Jen Hayden of Kos reported the Rupert Murdoch news organizations have kicked the nasty guy to the curb. Fox News showed a display of thirteen other Republicans who are potential candidates in 2024. The *New York Post* ran a cover of *Trumpty Dumpty*. The day after the announcement the NYP had a line at the bottom of the front page that said something like, “Florida retiree makes an announcement, see page 26.” Sarah Longwell, publisher of The Bulwark, tweeted a link to an article there about the announcement. The tweet quotes from the article:

Bored, people tried to leave before Trump was even finished speaking. Others simply turned their back to him and talked through his remarks. Keep in mind, these attendees were ostensibly among his most dedicated and connected aides and supporters.

Other reports expanded on that “tried to leave” bit – the exits were blocked because the nasty guy didn’t want cameras to show the room was emptying. It’s not often bouncers keep people in. Hayden posted again with more details of the speech and the reaction to it. More importantly, the Pandemic Prince and Princess were not there. She issued a statement saying love my dad, but I’m going to prioritize my children and will stay out of politics. Hayden included an image of the short article on page 26. Ed Mazza of Huffpost reported that various Evangelical leaders are not going to back the nasty guy a third time. They now say such things as “He can’t even save himself,” and “He used us.” They will no longer close their eyes to the things he said that horrified them. Greg Dworkin, in a pundit roundup for Kos, quoted Gary Abernathy, a previous nasty guy defender, writing for WaPo. Abernathy wrote that DeSantis of Florida and Youngkin of Virginia are both nasty guy progenies. The base loves them and considers them natural heirs to the movement.

But attacking DeSantis and Youngkin is different than taking on Jeb Bush. It’s as though Trump suddenly started mocking Don Jr. or Ivanka. If Trump will turn on his proteges, his followers are realizing, he’ll turn on any of his acolytes. Even his base can’t trust him now.

Adam Zyglis of the Buffalo News tweeted a cartoon of the nasty guy riding an elephant and hitting the wall running. Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweeted a cartoon of a defendant at trial saying

Yo, Judge, before the verdict’s read, I’m officially announcing my run for president...

Ed Hall tweeted a cartoon of an elephant holding a sign saying “2022 Midterms” and the elephant saying, “How could we have lost so badly?” Behind him is a list of 20 nasty guy companies that have failed.