Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona announced Tuesday that he will not run for reelection in 2018, attributing the decision to the GOP's "changing tide" toward our current "president" Donald Trump.
"None of these appalling features of our current politics should ever be regarded as normal," Flake said in a speech on the Senate floor. "We must never allow ourselves to lapse into thinking that is just the way things are now. If we simply become inured to this condition, thinking that it's just politics as usual, then heaven help us."
He continued with the flames: "Reckless, outrageous, and undignified behavior has become excused as telling it like it is when it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and undignified," he said, firing straight at Trump. "And when such behavior emanates from the top of our government, it is something else. It is dangerous to a democracy."
According to Vox, Flake was given a standing ovation from other Republicans in the room, including John McCain and Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who had his own contentious moment with Trump Tuesday.
In an interview with NBC'S Today, Corker said Trump's aggressive comments toward North Korea are derailing his secretary of state's diplomatic efforts with the country. "When you send out tweets into the region to raise tensions, when you kneecap—which is what he's done publicly—when you kneecap your secretary of state, whose diplomacy you have to depend upon… you really move our country into a binary choice which could lead to a world war," Corker said.
Trump, in return, tweeted this:
Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn't get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts....
...Corker dropped out of the race in Tennesse when I refused to endorse him, and now is only negative on anything Trump. Look at his record!
He later referred to Corker as a "lightweight,” and called him "liddle Bob Corker."
Which brings me to the point of this entire post: Donald Trump is gonna fuck around and get himself tossed out of the White House with his ceaseless, inane pettiness. Not through impeachment—one could only hope—but through the 25th Amendment. Per Vanity Fair:
According to two sources with knowledge of the conversation, former chief strategist Steve Bannon told Trump that the risk to his presidency wasn't impeachment, but the 25th Amendment—the provision by which a majority of the Cabinet can vote to remove the president. When Bannon mentioned the 25th Amendment, Trump said, "What's that?" According to a source, Bannon has told people he thinks Trump has only a 30 percent chance of making it the full term.
Tbh, it's pretty annoying that Republicans are just now realizing what a petty piece of shit the Donald is. But, better late than never, I suppose. For the rest of us, we been knew how dude worked. I present, Exhibits A through E:
Exhibit A: Trump goes in on Arnold Schwarzenegger
On Jan. 6, Trump took it upon himself to shit all over former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had taken the reins at Celebrity Apprentice in the wake of Trump's election:
Wow, the ratings are in and Arnold Schwarzenegger got "swamped" (or destroyed) by comparison to the ratings machine, DJT. So much for....
being a movie star-and that was season 1 compared to season 14. Now compare him to my season 1. But who cares, he supported Kasich & Hillary
Months later, as president, Trump kept twisting the knife:
Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger did a really bad job as Governor of California and even worse on the Apprentice...but at least he tried hard!
Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to great show
Schwarzenegger, ever the gentleman, took the high road:
Hey, @realDonaldTrump, I have some advice. See you at Hart Middle School? Here's more info about #afterschool: https://t.co/NOgdhBHyyp pic.twitter.com/NQI2OdVqtF
Exhibit B: Trump goes in on media organizations
Trump made it abundantly clear early on that he did not believe in the integrity of journalism. He did so without an ounce of integrity, choosing to go in on publications on Twitter on a regular basis:
Here are some of his tweets from this month alone:
It is finally sinking through. 46% OF PEOPLE BELIEVE MAJOR NATIONAL NEWS ORGS FABRICATE STORIES ABOUT ME. FAKE NEWS, even worse! Lost cred.
His favorite target, by far, is CNN. In July, he went at the company with the help of a WWE GIF that had been edited to feature Trump, an actual guest on the show, laying the smack down on a wrestler with the CNN logo plastered over his face:
Real mature, Donald.
Exhibit C: Trump goes in on Snoop Dogg
In mid-March, Snoop released a video for the BADBADNOTGOOD remix of his song "Lavender."
It surprisingly took Trump a few days to see the video, but when he did, he flew right to Twitter to cry about it:
Can you imagine what the outcry would be if @SnoopDogg, failing career and all, had aimed and fired the gun at President Obama? Jail time!
Exhibit D: Trump goes in on Steph Curry
In one of my personal favorite moments of Donald's pettiness blowing up in his face, just last month, he decided to take back his White House invitation to Steph Curry, who was leaning toward opting out anyway.
Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team.Stephen Curry is hesitating,therefore invitation is withdrawn!
It didn't take long for the entire Twitterverse to come to Steph's defense, including his biggest rival, LeBron James, who posted perhaps the most fire tweet of 2017:
U bum @StephenCurry30 already said he ain't going! So therefore ain't no invite. Going to White House was a great honor until you showed up!
#UBum all day, every day.
Exhibit E: Trump goes in on San Juan mayor
Last, but not least, Trump has been a particularly petty piece of trash toward Carmen Yulín Cruz, mayor of Puerto Rico capital San Juan. The U.S. territory is still struggling mightily in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
Today, in Puerto Rico, 33 days after Maria:
82% of the island is without power
26% is without water
It’s 85 degrees there today.
Instead of offering Cruz words of advice or support, Trump instead decided to lay into her:
The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump.
...Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They....
...want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.
Thankfully, Cruz sent shots right back at Trump, even giving him an incredible new nickname:
@POTUS your comments about Puerto Rico are unbecoming of a Commander in Chief they seem more to come from a “Hater in Chief”.
AHEM, I'd like to make a request: more clapbacks, please. President Petty truly deserves it.
