Trump wants it to be one way. He may soon learn it’s the other way.
Less than 12 hours after Trump debuted his rhyming threat, ripped from the dialogue of a straight-to-television mob movie, Democrats have asked Trump to walk it like he recently talked it.
“If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation,” Trump said last night to audible groans from Democrats in attendance. Trump’s effort to link any semblance of an active congressional session to the cessation of myriad investigation into his businesses and campaign operations seem to have fallen on deaf ears. By Wednesday morning, House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, who was seen stifling disapproval in the audience during Trump’s address, announced a new inquiry into Trump’s finances and their power over decisions made by the administration.
Schiff claimed the inquiry would “allow us to investigate any credible allegation that financial interests or other interests are driving decision-making of the President or anyone in the administration.” The investigation, which will look “beyond Russia,” will still include a continuing look into Russia’s activity during the last presidential election, as well as any potential contact between then-candidate Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin.
And, lest insult be parted from injury, Schiff’s committee, which met Wednesday for the first time in the new Congress, voted to send more than 50 transcripts from its Russia investigation interviews to Robert Mueller.
Trump, fresh off of the debut of his newest bit of tough talk, backed off entirely. In a muted response to the very evil he took the time to decry before a joint congressional session, Trump told reporters Schiff had “no basis to do that.”
“He’s just a political hack trying to build a name for himself,” Trump said in the Roosevelt Room. “It’s called presidential harassment and it is unfortunate.”
After two years of watching Trump, the man whose birth certificate shenanigans led to his sound undressing during a White House Correspondents Dinner, navigate an unending storm of political attacks, we may have finally seen what he absolutely cannot stand for. Competence.