President Trump held court with the White House media pool spray this morning, defending his obstinate refusal to re-open the government and sparring with reporters over the increasing hardship that his self-imposed shutdown, now well into its third week, is inflicting on federal workers and our nation at large with no sign of relief in sight.
Nearly 800,00 federal workers are trudging through their jobs without pay and without any kind of assistance to make up for the sudden loss of income, putting their ability to keep food on tables and roofs above heads in jeopardy.
So far, the government has offered up callous and absurd “advice” to their workers, like “negotiate with their landlord” and offer manual labor like carpentry or painting in lieu of rent payments. For his part, President Trump has bragged that he “emphasizes” with the workers and insists that they support him in his standoff, which is almost certainly untrue.
I just had a furloughed worker come visit me in my office.
“I work for HUD,” he said. “My family is hurting now that I’m three weeks without a paycheck,”
“but please – please don’t give into a wall. I don’t want the political tool of withholding my paycheck to be legitimized.”
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) January 8, 2019
Which is why ABC News’ White House Chief Jon Karl asked the president this morning as to why he didn’t just sign a bill to just pay the furloughed workers without opening the rest of the government, Trump exploded in fury and lashed out in a whiny outburst:
Jon Karl asks Trump why he won't sign bills to get fed workers paid during the shutdown.
Trump just attacks Karl: "Would you do that if you were in my position? Because if you would do that, you should never be in this position, because you'd never get anything done." Via CBS pic.twitter.com/oZALkMEt8W
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 9, 2019
It’s obvious at this point that Trump cares as little for the workers going without pay than he does any other segment of the American people, but the vehemence of his response makes it clear that he’s growing increasingly desperate and frustrated with having back himself into a corner.
Last night, we were treated to the President performing an Eight Minutes Hate on national television to justify an enormously expensive and damaging government shutdown is about to break records for the longest in American history, all because the rotting worms in the president’s brain won’t let him back down until he gets his wall.
Somebody clearly stayed up too late watching television last night. This is as ridiculous as it is repulsive, and we have to get him out of office as soon as we can.