DONALD TRUMP JR. CONTINUES TO BE AN ASS, JUST LIKE HIS FATHER

…Arizona Senator, Jeff Flake

“I think we all can agree that @DonaldJTrumpJr is an uncaring, narrow-minded idiot.”

I really hope that Senator Jeff Flake finally decides which side he is on, being that he is retiring at the end of his term and he is no longer required to fall in line with the GOP’s talking points.

Flake has been talking tough about Trump and about doing the right thing for a long, long time.  He did it again when the Kavanaugh accuser came forward, but then that was all that he did.

He also lashed out at Donald Trump Jr. after the president’s son appeared to mock the woman who accused the Supreme Court nominee of sexual assault.  The day after Trump Jr. made the Instagram mocking statement against the accuser, Flake rightfully called Trump Jr.’s comments “sickening.”

“No one should make light of this situation,” wrote Flake.

However, Trump Jr. is often quick to lash out at those critical of his father and his father’s political agenda. One Slate blogger wrote that Trump Jr. is, “unofficially, his father’s liaison to crude, internet-based ‘alt-right’ Trump supporters.”

No matter your take on the accusations against Brett Kavanaugh, I think we all can agree that @DonaldJTrumpJr is an uncaring, narrow-minded idiot.

Joe Walsh, a former jerk of a Republican congressman from Illinois, was less tempered in his criticism.  “I think we all can agree that @DonaldJTrumpJr is an uncaring, narrow-minded idiot,” Walsh wrote on Twitter.    

(One of the first times I have ever agreed with Joe Walsh.)

…Caricature of Donald Trump Jr.

But then, when it came time for Flake to support the accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and her request for an FBI investigation, (as had occurred in the 1991 Anita Hill / Clarence Thomas situation), Flake joined those imploring Ford to go ahead without an investigation and to testify next Monday…?

In the days since Trump Jr. posted his mocking, even the White House Senior Adviser, Kellyanne Conway showed support for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the author of the confidential letter to Senator Feinstein that detailed the assault allegations against Kavanaugh, who has of course, denied the accusations.

Without directly referencing Trump Jr., Conway said Ford “should not be insulted, and she should not be ignored.”

As Flake had criticized Trump Jr., Junior took to Twitter to attack the Democrats for not pushing for an investigation of the abuse allegations against Keith Ellison, the Democratic nominee for Minnesota attorney general. Junior also retweeted other accounts accusing liberals and the media of overplaying the allegations against Kavanaugh.

Flake, had said previously that “We can’t vote until we hear more,” and he was one of the first Republicans to call for the hearing’s delay.

The split between Trump Jr. and Flake illustrates the differing approach that Republicans have taken in addressing Ford’s accusations.

Through her lawyers, Ford had said she wouldn’t speak to the committee until the FBI investigates the incident, which allegedly occurred while Ford and Kavanaugh were in high school.

The Post’s Robert Costa has reported that Republicans were proceeding cautiously.  Beyond the Senate, Republicans are bracing for the impact of Monday’s scheduled hearing and the political consequences of an unpredictable and likely emotional session that could expand a Senate matter into a defining moment for the party, especially if Grassley or other Republican men aggressively question and badger Ford about her personal life and the alleged assault.

GOP leaders fear a repeat of the 1991 hearings for nominee Clarence Thomas, when Republican lawmakers sparked outrage in the US by finally confirming Thomas despite Anita Hill's credible accusation of sexual harassment

The Washington Post reported that Trump himself is being advised to avoid challenging Ford’s credibility:  Privately, Trump is being cautioned extensively by White House advisers to stay out of the fight over Kavanaugh, and so far Trump has tempered his language. He has told those advisers that he is skeptical of Ford’s account and the timing of the allegation.  Trump continues ad nauseam to mention Kavanaugh’s academic degrees and his intellect, as if that's an excuse for the alleged assault.

“We just have to be so much better than we’ve been in the past in recognizing what’s appropriate and what’s not, in terms of the process,” Flake said in the Costa report. “Some of us are trying to be fair and do the right thing, to not jam it through, but obviously it’s been a challenge.”

Senator Flake is correct with this statement.  But I still ask, why if he feels that way, did he say that Dr. Ford should go ahead without an FBI investigation and testify on Monday…..?

Copyright G.Ater  2018