President Donald Trump, on Jan. 9, 2018. (Photo: AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
DISCLAIMER: the following is an opinion piece and does not necessarily reflect the views of KSL Newsradio or its ownership.
How much farther can national politics sink?
On April 30, I was delighted to read this CNN news item:
Democratic congressional leaders announced after a meeting with President Donald Trump that an agreement had been reached on the price tag for a potential infrastructure plan: $2 trillion.
Fantastic. Progress, at last. But then midweek there was this from the Associated Press:
President Donald Trump abruptly stalked out of a White House meeting with congressional leaders, flatly declaring he would no longer work with Democrats unless they drop all investigations in the aftermath of the special counsel’s Trump-Russia report.
After that, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had something to say: “[Trump] pulled a stunt. He has a bag of tricks. He was not prepared, so he used some excuse to go out the door. The president is almost self‑impeaching because he is, every day, demonstrating more obstruction of justice. I wish his family, his administration, his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country.”
President Trump obviously couldn’t let that go. If you challenge him, he will attack. He responded to Pelosi this way: “Did you hear what she said about me, long before I went after her? She made horrible statements. She said terrible things… Crazy Nancy. I’ve been watching her for a long period of time. She’s not the same person. She’s lost it. I haven’t changed very much. Very consistent. I’m an extremely stable genius.”
“I know you are but what am I?” “I know you are but what am I?” “I know you are but what am I?” “I know you are but what am I?”
And the childish behavior just keeps on coming:
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, defended sharing a doctored, slowed-down video (just one version was shared more than 2.5 million times on Facebook) of Pelosi slurring her words and sounding drunk by tweeting: “She should first stop, and apologize for, saying the President needs an ‘intervention.”
The former mayor of New York City is sharing Fake News.
Who’s right? Who’s wrong? WHO CARES? People are celebrating this infantile behavior. We should all be embarrassed and weeping over who we are allowing to represent us.
Are you Proud to Be an American?
Am I crazy? Am I wrong to expect a marked difference in behavior from the leaders of the free world, instead of this juvenile, playground bickering?
Pelosi and Trump are both desperately, outrageously out of line. No high ground. No adult behavior. Are they thinking about this nation first or about themselves?
Am I too naive to expect both Pelosi and Trump to put aside their puerile mudslinging for the sake of infrastructure for this country, for the will and importance of the people?
Trump could have done this: I’m going to take this meeting with Dems about infrastructure first, and then, complain about how they assassinated my character. I’m going to take the higher road.
But no.
Trump should do the work of the American people while being investigated. Just hack it. But, instead, he’s choosing to do nothing for the American people while whining about being investigated?
For Pelosi: If you’ve got any agreement with the White House, for example, infrastructure, then ZIP IT.
Jay Mcfarland hosts the JayMac News Show, weekdays from 12:30 to 3 p.m. on KSL Newsradio, as well as the fictional podcast, Hosts of Eden. KSL Newsradio is part of Bonneville Media and based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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