On Sunday's AM Joy, the panel talked about Trump's insistence this week on building his infamous southern border wall, even if it requires shutting down the government to get it approved.
It's just one in a long line of items that shows that 45 has little to no idea as to how government functions and more importantly, doesn't care to learn. As someone who operates almost entirely on pure id, his calculus is little more than insisting on his way, consequences be damned.
And frankly, it's those consequences that the congressional GOP should be thinking about, Milquetoasty tweets that condemn concepts without directly name checking Trump mean nothing (looking at you, craven Paul Ryan). Trying to distance yourself doesn't mean anything either (Sorry, Rex). Leaking out that you thought about resigning because you were so upset but decided against it just doesn't cut it (Swing and a miss, Gary Cohn)
Trump's limited mental and emotional faculties demand that the congressional majority use their constitutionally-mandated checks and balances. As he mows over more and more small-d democratic norms, with little to no checks on his behavior, the more this becomes the bell around the necks of all of the GOP.
Bustle's chief correspondent Karine Jean-Pierre spells it out. Though she is speaking directly to the boondoggle of the wall, it also applies to everything happening. If they don't do something about it, they OWN it.
They own the Nazi apologia.
They own the white supremacy.
They own the contempt of the rule of law.
They own the wasteful expenditures for little return.
They own the self-dealing.
They own the corruption.
They own the collusion with Russia.
They own it all.
I think that if Donald Trump really sticks to this and shuts down the government, it really does hurt the economy. But I want to step back for a quick second. We have to remember the reason that the “build a wall” kind of line came into play is because Donald Trump couldn’t understand immigration policy. So then his aides gave him that line and so he took it and ran with it and it became this crying (clarion?) call, every day of his rallies for eighteen months. And now he wants to turn this awful policy, this failed policy into reality. And so that’s what we’re seeing here in real time. But at the end of the day, Republicans hold all the cards on this. If they allow Donald Trump to shut down the government over this failed policy, they own it. They’ve enabled him, continuously. They will…They own everything from last week, from him defending white supremacy all the way to pardoning Arpaio. It’s time for them to stand up here.
