This is why most of America despises Donald Trump:
President Donald Trump blasted "dishonest and corrupt" people Thursday morning at the National Prayer Breakfast, bashing his impeachment at the nonpartisan event with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just steps away....
In an apparent shot at both Pelosi, D-Calif., and [Senator Mitt] Romney, Trump said: "I don't like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong. Nor do I like people who say, 'I pray for you,' when they know that that's not so." ...
Trump did not raise his hand when Harvard University professor Arthur Brooks asked those in attendance to raise their hands if they love someone whom they disagree with politically....
Nearing the conclusion of his address, Trump said people of faith sometimes "hate" people, adding, "When they impeach you for nothing, then you’re supposed to like them? It’s not easy folks."
And this:
At a jampacked ceremony in the East Room of the White House that veered back and forth between celebration and condemnation, the president complained about the “crooked politics” that had resulted in his impeachment and trial on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress....
“It was evil,” Mr. Trump told the roomful of supporters from Congress and his administration in a long, rambling, stream-of-consciousness talk, tossing aside the text that had been so carefully prepared for him by his staff. “It was corrupt. It was dirty cops. It was leakers and liars and this should never ever happen to another president, ever. I don’t know that other presidents would have been able to take it.”
He ... suggest[ed] that the “top scum” at the F.B.I. had plotted to stop him from serving as president.
... “It was all bullshit,” he said, a rare presidential use of profanity on camera in the East Room....
He assailed Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Adam B. Schiff, both Democrats from California. “They’re vicious and mean,” Mr. Trump said. “Adam Schiff is a vicious, horrible person. Nancy Pelosi is a horrible person.”
He ridiculed Ms. Pelosi for saying that she has prayed for the president even while opposing him. “She may pray but she prays for the opposite,” Mr. Trump said. “But I doubt she prays at all.”
I hope this is what I predicted yesterday -- Trump taking center stage once again and being as vicious, vengeful, and polarizing as he knows how to be, because vengeance is the greatest joy in his life and because he's under the mistaken impression that acting this way will get him reelected.
Maybe it will get him reelected. But I suspect that this is the aspect of Trump's presidency that disgusts voters more than his corruption or his policies. I can't prove this, but over the past few months, when approximately half of poll respondents repeatedly said that they believed Trump should be convicted and removed from office, I think what came to mind, at least for many of them, was something other than the specific crimes in the articles of impeachment. I think they wanted him out (and still want him out) because he's such an asshole.
Democrats look awfully hapless right now. I don't know if they can seize on this opportunity. But it's there for the seizing.
Published with permission of No More Mr. Nice Blog
