A Tough Week for #TheResistance

In many ways, this week proved quite a disappointment for the so-called “Resistance”, especially when you consider that they thought they had a very good week last week; when President Trump’s Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn plead guilty to lying to the FBI and indicated that he would “cooperate” with the Special Counsel investigation.  Yet their fortunes began to change when a producer handed The View’s Joy Behar a note that suggested that President Trump directed Flynn to make contact with the Russians.  Behar reacted with glee, thinking that this news proved the left’s theory that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians in order to win the elections.  However, ABC News’s Brian Ross, who wrote that report, initially neglected to mention that President Trump directed Flynn to contact the Russians after he had already won the election.  ABC News, in an effort to ensure that they did not win the President’s promised “fake news trophy”, suspended Ross for one month and announced that he would no longer cover stories involving President Trump.       

 

#TheResistance went into panic mode when the Republican-led Senate, which had found itself unable to pass a repeal bill for Obamacare, passed its tax reform bill by a 51-49 margin.  The bill got absolutely no support from Democrats.  Vice President Pence did not even need to cast the tie-breaking vote, as only one of the 52 Republican Senators, Trump critic Bob Corker (R-TN), voted against the measure. 

 

#TheResistance suffered another major setback on Monday when the Supreme Court granted a stay on a judge’s order blocking President Trump’s travel ban, which includes six Muslim-majority countries, North Korea and Venezuela.  While liberals can always count on their friends on the Ninth Circuit to come through for them, they could not even count on two reliably liberal justices to vote in favor of striking down the travel ban as unconstitutional.  Justices Breyer and Kagan joined with the four conservative justices and Anthony Kennedy in lifting the stay, while liberal justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor argued that the ban should have stayed in place.

 

For a while on Tuesday night, it looked like Atlanta may have elected its first Republican mayor in more than a century.  Atlanta may still have a chance, as Mary Norwood, the De Facto Republican in the race, has asked for a recount.  Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms and Independent Mary Norwood came in first and second, respectively, in the November 7 “jungle primary”; advancing to Tuesday’s runoff.  Bottoms, who had received the support of the city’s Democratic machine, has declared victory.  Current returns show Bottoms leading Norwood by a margin of 759 votes. If #TheResistance was as successful as its proponents claim, surely Bottoms would have defeated Norwood by a much larger margin.

 

The Democrats had to say goodbye to two of the most prominent voices in the progressive movement.  88 year-old Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), announced his resignation from Congress after multiple women had come forward with sexual misconduct allegations against the most Senior Member of the House of Representatives.  Conyers represented Michigan’s 13^th Congressional District, the most Democratic district in the state.  Conyers has already endorsed his son, John Conyers III, as his successor.

 

Senator Al Franken (D-MN) announced his resignation from Congress three weeks after LA Radio Host Leeann Tweeden posted a picture of Franken with his hands on her breasts while she slept on a plane ride back from a 2006 USO tour.  Many other women came forward in the days and weeks that followed, saying that Franken had either touched them inappropriately or kissed them against their will. In the day leading up to his resignation, more than two dozen Senate Democrats called on him to resign.  In the short term, Franken’s resignation will not have electoral consequences for the Democrats as Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Mark Dayton will appoint a replacement who will serve until a special election takes place.  The special election could result in a Republican representing the Land of 10,000 Lakes, as the state swung hard to the right in 2016.  Hillary Clinton only won the state by 1.5 points while President Obama won by a margin of about 8 points in 2012.  The special election will take place on Election Day next year, when Minnesota’s other Senator Amy Klobuchar will stand for re-election and a successor to the term-limited Governor will be chosen.  Prior to these allegations, Franken had enjoyed folk hero status on the left as he has written numerous books attacking conservatives and gave Jeff Sessions quite a hard time during his confirmation hearing and subsequent appearances before the Senate Judiciary Committee in his capacity as Attorney General.  A question from Franken ultimately led to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from all things related to the Russia investigation.         

 

#TheResistance had high hopes for President Trump’s impeachment.  House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy introduced a motion to table the articles of impeachment filed by Rep. Al Green (D-TX). An overwhelming majority of House Democrats joined the Republicans in voting to table the bill.  Only 58 House Democrats voted in favor of impeachment.  Green cited the President’s statements following the events at Charlottesville, his statements on the NFL protests, and his criticism of Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) as just a few of the reasons he warrants removal from office.  These actions do not fall into the category of “high crimes and misdemeanors” required for impeachment.  We get it, Al.  You don’t like the President.  Your dislike of the man does alone not justify impeachment.     

 

They have also had to say goodbye to the legitimacy of the Clinton e-mail investigation and the Russia probe.  Many conservatives had previously raised questions about the Russia probe, as many of the lawyers hired by Special Counsel Robert Mueller had donated to Democrats.  Revelations came out showing that Mueller removed FBI Agent Peter Stzrok from the Russia probe earlier this year after becoming aware of a series of Anti-Trump text messages Stzrok sent his mistress, an FBI lawyer.  It just so happens that Stzrok had worked on both the Clinton e-mail investigation and the Russia probe.  Stzrok recommended that FBI Director James Comey use the phrase “extreme carelessness” rather than “grossly negligent” when describing Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server.

 

It looks like Andrew Weissmann, another member of Mueller’s “A-team” may have a conflict of interest as well.  Judicial Watch obtained an e-mail Weissmann wrote to Sally Yates, who briefly served as Acting Attorney General during the first ten days of the Trump Administration.  In the e-mail, Weissmann praised Yates for her decision not to defend President Trump’s first travel ban in court, which led the President to fire her.  The new information about Weissmann and Stzrok certainly helps Team Trump put together a case that the whole Russia Investigation is nothing more than a politically motivated witch hunt.  As Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) pointed out, “If you kicked everybody off of Mueller’s team who was anti-Trump, I don’t think there’d be anybody left.”  

 

#TheResistance hopes that better days lie ahead.  They hope that pro-abortion Democrat Doug Jones will win the special election to finish the remainder of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ term in the Senate in overwhelmingly pro-life Alabama.  Should Republican Roy Moore, who has faced a series of sexual assault allegations, win the election, the Democrats feel that their decision to purge Franken and Conyers from the party will give them the moral high ground to demand that Moore resign.  Should Moore refuse to resign, the left has already concocted a scheme to use him to paint the entire Republican party as sympathetic to “child molesters” and sexual abusers.  Hopefully, their scheme will backfire, allowing President Trump and the Republicans to enact their “Make America Great Again” agenda that swept them into office last year.