Kelly Regrets Decision to Resign, Says He Warned Trump

“I said, whatever you do — and we were still in the process of trying to find someone to take my place — I said whatever you do, don’t hire a ‘yes man,’ someone who won’t tell you the truth — don’t do that. Because if you do, I believe you will be impeached.” He added: “That was almost 11 months ago, and I have an awful lot of, to say the least, second thoughts about leaving. It pains me to see what’s going on because I believe if I was still there or someone like me was there, he would not be kind of, all over the place.”

— John Kelly warned President Trump that hiring a “yes man” to succeed him would lead to impeachment and, in hindsight, regrets his decision to resign, the Washington Examiner reports.

Budget Deficit Soaring

$1 trillion

“The U.S. government’s budget deficit ballooned to nearly $1 trillion in 2019, a $205 billion increase from a year earlier, as America’s fiscal imbalance widened for a fourth consecutive year despite a sustained run of economic growth,” the Washington Post reports. “The country’s worsening fiscal picture runs in sharp contrast to President Trump’s campaign promise to eliminate the federal debt within eight years. Since taking office, Trump has endorsed big spending increases and steered most Republicans to abandon the deficit obsession they held during the Obama administration.”

Trump’s Averaging 36 Tweets Per Day

36

In the week before Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) launched an impeachment probe, President Trump was tweeting an average of 18 times per day. But the start of the inquiry has led Trump to double that to an average of 36 tweets a day, the Washington Post reports. Trump set his single-day tweeting record of his presidency just five days after the impeachment inquiry began with 48 tweets. He then set another record last Friday, “hitting 59 total tweets, including 33 in just 20 minutes.”

Everybody’s Got Trump Fatigue

“The truth is, Trump fatigue is a condition that knows no party, and many Republicans are as tired of this shit as anybody else. That’s not to say they’re outraged, or motivated to Make a Difference. They’re just tired. You can live inside the right-wing bubble in a state of depression, resigned to the fact that, yeah, every five minutes or so, the president is probably going to do something norm-shattering or potentially impeachable, and no, you probably won’t or can’t do anything to change that. Sad!”

Olivia Nuzzi

Voters Skeptical of Trump’s Healthcare Promises

95%

A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds 95% of Democrats and 61% of independents say they are not confident President Trump will follow through on his promises to propose a new health care plan. In fact, just 37% of those polled were even aware that Trump had promised to release a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. However, 81% of Republicans are somewhat or very confident Trump will deliver on his health care promises.

Trump Is Ramping Up His Lying Rate

13,435

“As President Trump approaches his 1,000th day in office Wednesday, he has significantly stepped up his pace of spouting exaggerated numbers, unwarranted boasts and outright falsehoods,” the Washington Post reports. “As of Oct. 9, his 993rd day in office, he had made 13,435 false or misleading claims… That’s an average of almost 22 claims a day since our last update 65 days ago.”

General: ‘There Is Blood on Trump’s Hands’

“There was no chance Erdogan would keep his promise, and full blown ethnic cleansing is underway by Turkish supported militias. This is what happens when Trump follows his instincts and because of his alignment with autocrats. … I said there would be blood, but could not have imagined this outcome.”

— Gen. John Allen, the former commander of American forces in Afghanistan, told CNN that there is “blood on Trump’s hands for abandoning our Kurdish allies.”