Part One (I wrote this as an afterthought to what I posted early this morning, below).
Donald Trump has been trying to insult Mitch McConnell calling him an old crow at least since since 2021. While there’s no way of knowing how he came up with this my hunch he was thinking of the bird rather than of the bourbon. The later was not lost on McConnell. This is from July 13, 2021:
Former President Donald Trump took a whack at Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell last weekend, calling him an "Old Crow" as he railed against the Kentucky Republican.
On Tuesday, McConnell took it in stride.
"Actually, it's quite an honor," McConnell told CNN. "Old Crow is Henry Clay's favorite bourbon."
McConnell, who has long revered Clay, a fellow Kentuckian, was responding to Trump's attack of the
retiring GOP senator from Alabama, Richard Shelby…
CNN
In December of 2021 he called him a broken old crow.
"Mitch McConnell, the Broken Old Crow, has just conceded, for absolutely nothing and for no reason, the powerful Debt Ceiling negotiating block, which was the Republicans' first-class ticket for victory over the Democrats," said Trump in a statement. "He was afraid to play that card even though without question, they would have completely FOLDED on the Build Back Worse Bill, which will destroy the fabric of our Country and virtually anything else that the Republicans wanted." MSN
Part Two (the original diary)
)
From the Rupert Murdoch New York Post:
I checked this out so you don’t have to gift their website with a click. For them the story is that Trump shot back at Pence.
Here are the quotes from Trump that they published in their article:
-
“Just saw Mike Pence’s statement on the fact that he had no right to do anything with respect to the Electoral Vote Count, other than being an automatic conveyor belt for the Old Crow Mitch McConnell to get Biden elected President as quickly as possible.”
- “Well, the Vice President’s position is not an automatic conveyor if obvious signs of voter fraud or irregularities exist. That’s why the Democrats and RINOs are working feverishly together to change the very law that Mike Pence and his unwitting advisors used on January 6 to say he had no choice.”
- “The reason they want it changed is because they now say they don’t want the Vice President to have the right to ensure an honest vote.”
- “In other words, I was right and everyone knows it. If there is fraud or large scale irregularities, it would have been appropriate to send those votes back to the legislature to figure it out. The Dems and RINOs want to take that right away.”
The bias of the right-wing N.Y. Post is demonstrated in this sentence from the article strongly suggesting that the reason Pence is coming out against Trump is that he wants to run against him:
At a gathering of the Federalist Society in Orlando Florida this week, Pence, who may be eyeing a 2024 presidential campaign, said he has “no right to overturn the election.
It is impossible to know whether or not the former vice president whose worshipping looks at Donald Trump with his facial expression conveying that he was having a religious vision were captured in uncountable photographs has finally “seen the light” and realized he was working for The Master of Lies and Deception, aka in his circles called Satan or The Devil. Perhaps, or let me suggest one may hope, that he has been looking to the many relevant Bible verses and realizing that there is no blame for being taken in by such a masterful liar adept at getting people to believe lies, for example:
Jesus Warns of Deception in the Last Days
- Matthew 24:4-5 – And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.”
- Matthew 24:11 – Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
- Matthew 24:24 – For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Reference
The description of Satan as the "father of lies" comes from a passage in the Gospel of John. Jesus was addressing a group of religious leaders in Israel, who were accusing him of being from Satan. He responded by telling them that they were liars, and that proved that they, not He, were of the Devil. Jesus said: "When he (Satan) lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44c). He also told the group of accusers that they were the children of the Devil because they were spreading lies about Him and refusing to see the truth. So, Satan is not only the father of lies, but of those who suppress the truth.
From the beginning, Satan has been a liar. He told his first lies to Eve, to deceive her and draw her away from God (Genesis 3:1, 4). He was the first liar, which makes him "the father of lies" in the same way that Hippocrates is the father of modern medicine. He was the first to think "I'm going to say the opposite of what is true" and to carry out that action. God speaks the truth and Satan says the opposite, and man is confused. Ever since the garden of Eden, this has been happening. Satan uses the world system to disseminate his lies (1 John 5:19), and the lies are always growing in number and complexity.
Now the unanswered question is whether Pence believes that if he is going to stand any chance of becoming president he can’t count on Trump not running whether for health, legal, or political reasons and that he has to be willing to break with him and hope enough Republicans agree Trump would be bad for the party and vote for him instead.
Another question is whether Pence feels a calling from God to serve his country and, recognizing how close Trump and his minions, he included, came close to destroying our constitutional democracy.
What do you think?
Saturday, Feb 5, 2022 · 4:37:09 PM +00:00 · HalBrown
From last night in The Washington Post:
The significance of Pence’s rebuke of Trump
The events of the past several months — culminating with Trump’s statements Sunday and Monday — show that Trump isn’t going to let this go any time ahead of 2024. He even suggested Monday that Pence should be investigated (for what, it’s not really clear).
Pence would’ve been kidding himself to think this would all blow over one day, but the continued focus on Jan. 6 — by Trump and by the House’s select committee, which has significantly ramped up — has apparently made Pence realize he can’t keep hoping against hope for that.
It seems highly unlikely that Republicans will ever take his side in this or any other clash with Trump, but Pence’s political future rests on them at least understanding where he was coming from — and no longer pretending this is something that can be put to bed with a few offhand comments. Trump certainly hasn’t let it lie, even as Pence had avoided directly going after him.
Pence declining to go along with Trump’s gambit on Jan. 6 was surely him clearing a very low bar when it comes to political courage; such was the extreme nature of what Trump wanted him to do. And now, at least, Pence is acknowledging with a little more clarity just how ridiculous and “un-American” what Trump asked him to do was.