Year: 2017

John Dean: It Won’t End Well for Trump

Buck Banks

“How does it all end? Not well for Trump. I’m not too good at the tea leaves, I don’t think anybody is. I just can’t believe that there isn’t something there on the Russia matter, with Trump doing all that he’s doing. He’s throwing every signal out that he’s got a problem, and he’s trying to make it go away. So that’s why I say I can’t imagine it ending real well for him.”

— Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean, in an interview with New York Magazine.

Trump Headed Down Path to Despotism

Buck Banks

“A President enabled by a spineless and supine Congress that fails to exercise its oversight powers isn’t a weak executive at all: he is a potential despot. Using his authority to hire and fire federal officials, he can rapidly remake the government to his own design, appointing loyalists to key positions, eliminating potential threats, and undermining alternative repositories of power. … Authoritarian leaders in foreign countries seize and maintain power this way. And, despite his bungling start, this is the project that Donald Trump appears to have embarked upon.”

— John Cassidy

Black Voter Turnout Fell for the First Time in 20 Years in 2016

Buck Banks

59.6%

Pew Research: “The black voter turnout rate declined for the first time in 20 years in a presidential election, falling to 59.6% in 2016 after reaching a record-high 66.6% in 2012. The 7-percentage-point decline from the previous presidential election is the largest on record for blacks. (It’s also the largest percentage-point decline among any racial or ethnic group since white voter turnout dropped from 70.2% in 1992 to 60.7% in 1996.) The number of black voters also declined, falling by about 765,000 to 16.4 million in 2016, representing a sharp reversal from 2012. With Barack Obama on the ballot that year, the black voter turnout rate surpassed that of whites for the first time. Among whites, the 65.3% turnout rate in 2016 represented a slight increase from 64.1% in 2012.”

Most Disagree with Trump’s Firing of Comey

Buck Banks

51%

A new NBC News/Survey Monkey poll finds 54% of Americans think President Trump’s dismissal of FBI Director James Comey was not appropriate, while 38% say it was appropriate. In addition, 46% think Trump fired Comey due to his handling of the Russia investigation, another 24% think the dismissal was due to the Clinton email investigation and 22% said it was something else.