The Worst Day For A US President Since August 25, 1814

johnmac13
johnmac13
Jul 28, 2017 · 2 min read

On August 25, 1814, British troops burned the White House. That day was arguably the worst day for a US president (although one could build a case that the date of Richard Nixon’s resignation, August 8, 1974 takes the honor) until yesterday (which spilled over until the early morning hours of today).

Yesterday, July 28, 2017:

o Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) announced that he will introduce legislation prohibiting a President from discharging a special prosecutor charged with investigating alleged misdeeds of the Executive Branch. Graham further said that attempts by President Trump to fire special counsel Robert Mueller could mean the end of his presidency.

0 Senator Chuck Grassley (R-N), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, stated that the committee would not consider any nomination for replacement of Attorney General Jeff Sessions in calendar year 2017. Senators have already indicated that they will procedurally block any attempt for a recess appointment (as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell did with President Obama).

o The Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford announced that there will be no changes to the current policy surrounding transgenders serving in the military until (when and if) such policy comes down from Department of Defense — presently transgenders can serve openly in the service. This statement undermines Trump’s tweet that transgenders would no longer be allowed to serve. Additionally, the fact that no one in the Defense Department was aware of such a policy change contracts the President’s statement that he had consulted with “my generals” and defense experts in reaching such a decision and with White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s statements that this was purely a “military decision”.

0 The latest attempt to “Repeal (or “Repeal and Replace”) the Affordable Heath Care (“Obamacare”) regulations was defeated in the Senate when Senator John McCain (R-AZ) cast the deciding vote killing the attempt. McCain, had flown from a cancer operation recovery to Washington to participate in the voting, a move that President Trump called “courageous”, at the time (of course, this is the same Donald Trump who demeaned McCain during the campaign saying he was “a hero (only) because he was captured”).

This morning on “Morning Joe”, Rick Tyler, Senator Ted Cruz’s former Communications Director, went Lindsay Graham one better, saying “I think this presidency is effectively over.” On August 25, 1814, President James Madison had fled the White House — may we only hope that someone will tell the current occupant of the White House of Tyler and Graham’s words and recount to him Madison’s action (without revealing that Madison came back) and pray that he goes off as half-cocked as usual.

Copyright John F, McMullen 2017

Written by

johnmac13

Poet, author, professor, radio host, consultant, and denizen of cyberspace — www.johnmac13.com -- the Amazon Author Page link is http://t.co/BWsHjYGTG1

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