With all the chaos and Democratic triumphs last week, most of the nation missed out on some weighty news just before Donald Trump opened the government back up after caving to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday evening. The 35-day shutdown was the longest in American history.
The Washington Post reports Republican members of the Senate met for lunch on Thursday and began pointing fingers at each other as to who was responsible for the disastrous shutdown. Vice President Mike Pence and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were in attendance and McConnell took a big hit from Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. According to several witnesses, Johnson who was frustrated with failed votes to reopen the government, darted at McConnell,
“This is your fault.”
McConnell fired back,
“Are you suggesting I’m enjoying this?”
It’s unknown how or if Johnson responded, but I’ll go out on a limb and say the majority of the country would answer with, “Yes, Mitch. This is your fault and you are enjoying this, because that’s how you roll, you corrupt, lying, self-serving, vile, pathetic little man.
Reports from anonymous attendees said there were several “heated moments” before Thursday’s vote was taken between Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, which was presented to Trump—and later deemed a waste of time.
Clearly, the outbursts by GOP members are caused by fears of being blamed by constituents for the disastrous shutdown, which placed devastating burdens on hundreds of thousands of Americans—all due to an illegitimate president, who failed to keep a promise to his supporters after telling them he could make Mexico pay for his divisive, chest-thumping, self-named border wall.
Friday evening, Trump surprisingly agreed to open the government until mid-February while forfeiting his demand of $5.7 billion in funding for the wall. For months Trump threatened he would accept nothing less than what he demanded for the wall and threatened a government shutdown, with which he followed through—without any concern for the people it would negatively.
As it turns out, he conceded to the demands of a savvy, experienced, intelligent and powerful force in the Democratic party, Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who brought Trump to his knees twice in one week. The first buckle came when Pelosi refused to let Trump use the House chamber to give his State of the Union Address while the government remained shut down. On Friday, Pelosi strong-armed Trump into re-opening the government without giving him one cent towards his wall. It’s no wonder Republicans are turning on each other. Fear can bring out the worst in us—and for the GOP, that’s a lot. They’ve been on a wild, flippant grab for two years, and they hardly know what just hit them—or what’s to come.
It was a good week. It’s a new day. There’s a train a-comin'.