Day: December 16, 2020

Fraction of 900 Invitees Showed for Pompeo Party

Buck Banks

900

“Only a tiny fraction of the more than 900 guests invited to an indoor holiday party hosted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan showed up on Tuesday following an outcry from public health officials and U.S. lawmakers warning that the reception bore all the hallmarks of a super-spreader event,” the Washington Post reports. “Pompeo, whose name was on the invitation and who was scheduled to speak at the event, canceled his speech and tapped a substitute speaker. … Roughly 70 people RSVP’d for the event as of Monday night and even fewer showed up.”

Obama Labels Repoblicans the ‘Minority Party’

Buck Banks

“They have certain built-in advantages around power given their population distribution and how our government works. But the truth of the matter is that 60 percent of the people are occupying what I would consider a more reality-based universe, and those are the constituents we’re speaking to and that is a more diverse group.”

— Former President Barack Obama told the Daily Show that the Republican Party is “the minority party in this country.”

Former Republican Schmidt Registers Democrat

Buck Banks

“I spent 29 years as a Republican, I’ve spent two and a half as an independent, and later this afternoon I will register as a member of the Democratic Party. Because in America today, it’s only the Democratic Party—which is the oldest political party in the world—that stands for the ideas and ideals of American liberty.”

— Longtime GOP strategist Steve Schmidt announced on his podcast that he is registering as a Democrat after nearly 30 years with the Republican Party.

Palm Beachers Don’t Want Trump as a Neighbor

Buck Banks

“Next-door neighbors of Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Fla., that he has called his Winter White House, have a message for the outgoing commander in chief: We don’t want you to be our neighbor. … That message was formally delivered Tuesday morning in a demand letter delivered to the town of Palm Beach and also addressed to the U.S. Secret Service asserting that Trump lost his legal right to live at Mar-a-Lago because of an agreement he signed in the early 1990s when he converted the storied estate from his private residence to a private club.”

— Washington Post

Virginia Candidate Calls on Trump to Declare Martial Law

Buck Banks

“Fair elections we can accept but cheating to win; never. It’s not over yet. So thankful President Trump has a backbone and refuses to concede. President Trump should declare martial law as recommended by General Flynn.”

— Virginia state Sen. Amanda Chase (R), who is running for governor, called on President Trump to declare martial law to keep Joe Biden from being sworn in as the next president, The Hill reports.

The Human Wreckage of the Trump Years

Buck Banks

“Every presidential administration chews up and spits out one or two people. There are always guys who enter an administration looking like normal, upstanding citizens and exit having been revealed as hucksters, frauds, or criminals. G. Gordon Liddy. Pat Buchanan. Cap Weinberger. John Poindexter. Sometimes the people who get rendered by a president are good guys who catch a bad break, like Mike Espy. … But the sheer number of people who had their lives and/or careers destroyed over four years of swimming in Donald Trump’s slipstream is kind of staggering.”

— Jonathan Last