Republicans humiliated amid budget chaos - Another Day - Brian Tyler Cohen

[TexasTowelie]

A Republican bucks his party and you
know what that means? Time to retire.
This is just another day.

As opposed to most people enjoying the
outdoors this summer, Congress had one
of those indoor weekends and with it
came a little surprise. A shakeup in the
Senate as two-term North Carolina
Senator Tom Tillis calls it quits. The
GOP lawmaker announced in a Sunday
statement, "It's not a hard choice and I
will not be seeking reelection." All
right. Easy, Tom. No need to get cocky
like the guy waving his gold watch
around at his retirement party. But it
does raise the question, why is North
Carolina's Tom Tillis leaving the
Senate? I mean, the guy's in his mid60s,
which in Senate years is practically the
zygote stage. What gives? Before
Tillis's announcement, the president
warned of a potential primary challenge
against him, calling him a talker and
complainer. Um, talker and complainer.
Donald Trump is the world champion of
those things. I'm surprised Trump hasn't
slapped his name on talking and
complaining and sued Tillis for
copyright infringement. Trump calling
somebody a talker and complainer is like
JD Vance calling somebody an eyeliner
wearing pope killer. But sorry, not
sorry for my lack of gratitude toward a
member of the Republican party who
finally found the courage to stand up to
Donald Trump just as he was heading out
the door. Tillis has been sounding the
alarm for weeks that Donald Trump's bill
will kick hundreds of thousands of
people in his home state of North
Carolina off of Medicaid, not to mention
millions more around the country, which
is why he can't vote for it. And he gave
an impassioned bolo tiefilled speech
over the weekend. So what do I tell
663,000
people in two years or three years when
President Trump breaks his promise by
pushing them off of Medicaid because the
funding's not there? Um, what are you
supposed to tell them? I guess you could
tell them that Donald Trump breaking a
promise is the least unexpected thing
since Matt Gates signed up to be
Countryside High's new cheerleading
coach. But you also might want to
mention that you got them into this
predicament by backing an ego maniacal
liar who you not only witnessed try and
overthrow the government after losing an
election, but wholeheartedly threw your
support behind in 2024. I believe the
quote was, "Our ability to get a
majority in the Senate is intrinsically
linked to Trump winning. So, we're like
one team, one vision." Which not only
sounds like something that a terrible
cheerleading coach would say, but also
sounds like the words of a man who put
his pursuit of power over doing what's
right for his country. Now, I don't mean
to talk and complain so much, but it
seems to me like you have two choices
when you're a member of the current
Republican party. Make Daddy Trump happy
or retire. And this level of autocratic
intimidation, one where anything less
than total feelalty is seen as betrayal,
is not only being accepted by some, it's
just being debated as the new norm.
Let's look at the political implications
here. What consequences could GOP
senators face for not backing the big
beautiful bill? And let's start with
specifics because the consequences to
Tom Tillis are kind of now null and
void. He said, "I'm not running. I'm
going to go get a consulting job or
retire." You know, he'll get a
consulting job or retire regardless of
whether he votes for this. I'm looking
at Rand Paul. And so, so David, the
question becomes, would Donald Trump
actually primary or use his mechanisms
to primary Rand Paul? Would Trump do
that? You mean the guy who did this?
Senator Ran Paul, who who is accusing
the White House of immaturity and petty
vindictiveness, his words. This after he
and his family were disinvited from the
annual White House picnic. You're
wondering if Donald J. Trump, a man who
sent Rand Paul and his family a
disinvitation to a picnic because he
disagreed with the senator politically,
would be so petty as to primary the guy
for not voting for his bill. Oh, who's
to tell? I got to ask, is this the type
of democracy that everybody's cool with?
One where the president of the United
States publicly threatens to end your
political career if you happen to have
an issue with part of his agenda?
Apparently, if you are a member of a
Republican party that is so up Trump's
ass, they literally dress like him, the
answer is a resounding yes. All but a
few members of the GOP are so wholly
owned by this president that they're
willing to abandon any principles they
used to have in deference to him. And
whether it's motivated by admiration or
intimidation, both scenarios are
terrible. And so we're now left with
some dystopian definition of heroism
where members of Congress or the US
Senate decide that they're going to grow
a pair all around the same time that
they're also retiring, which deserves
the same level of gratitude as the kid
who finally tells the high school bully
to leave the kids alone, but does it on
graduation day. And Tillis's
announcement was not a one-off. Here's
former Senator Bob Corker. At the
beginning of Trump's first term, the two
had a great relationship and Corker was
even on the short list to be Trump's
Secretary of State. Now, that is not a
joke about Bob Corker's height, although
it could be. But after Trump's
disgusting response to the attacks in
Charlottesville, Corker voiced his
discontent, saying, "This president has
not demonstrated the that he understands
the character of this nation." A notion
that was confirmed by Trump's subsequent
tweet saying, "Strange statement by Bob
Corker considering that he is constantly
asking me whether or not he should run
again in 18. Tennessee not happy." But
not long after, what do you know? Corker
decides he won't be seeking re-election.
And that's when the courage kicks in.
You would think he would aspire to to be
the president of the United States and
act like a president of the United
States, but uh you know, that's just not
going to be the case. Corker responded
on Twitter saying, "Same untruths from
an utterly untruthful president." You
said he's an untruthful president. Are
you calling him Are No question. Yeah,
no question. I mean, I don't We grew up
in our family not using the L word.
Wait, Bob Corker's family made him say
the L word instead of liar. That is one
strict household. Also, I have a feeling
that the entire Corker fam was really
taken back when this show hit the air.
Wait, this is all just women scissoring.
Where's all the lying? But there's more.
Here's former Arizona Senator Jeff
Flake, who you may remember best for his
guest starring role during his Brett
Kavanaaugh hearing as guy in elevator
who gets his ass handed to him by
protesters. Well, while Flake may have
flaked by approving Trump's pick for the
Supreme Court, and while he may have
voted in lock step with Trump a
staggering 92% of the time, it's also
important to note that he was not afraid
to speak out against their leader. Mr.
president. It is a testament to the
condition of our democracy that our own
president uses words infamously spoken
by Joseph Stalin to describe his
enemies. It bears noting that so fraught
with malice was the phrase enemy of the
people that even Nikita Cruchef forbade
its use, telling the Soviet Communist
Party that the phrase had been
introduced by Stalin for the purpose of
quote annihilating such individuals
unquote who disagreed with the Supreme
Leader. Wa! Look at that. Harsh words,
but I think we might have cut that sound
bite off a little bit early. Senator
Flake is retiring at the end of his term
this year. Hey, there it is. Speaking
truth to power when you have no more
power. Or how about former Pennsylvania
Senator Pat Tumi? He's what you would
call a Republicans's Republican. He too
voted with Donald Trump and his party
over 92% of the time. voted to repeal
Obamacare, voted against gun
legislation, even voted to let the air
out of Biden's bike tires to make sure
he'd fall that day. The point is that
Tumi was a loyal member of the
Republican party, who rarely had a harsh
criticism of Trump during his first
term. But after this happened in 2020,
well, today, Senator Pat Tumi says he
will not be running for reelection for
2022, that's when Tumi suddenly started
raising his voice. The president's
speech last night was very disturbing to
me because he made very, very serious
allegations without any evidence to
support it. I think the best thing would
be a resignation. Both of Pennsylvania
senators, Democrat Bob Casey and
Republican Pat Tumi, voted to convict
former President Trump. Yes, a true
profile and courage to see Tumi finally
willing to clap back at Trump from the
moving van as he's leaving town. When
the only time you can truly criticize
the leader of your party is when you are
not running for reelection. What does
that say about your party? It says
Donald Trump has fostered an environment
where he expects total filty, slavish
devotion, and instead of standing up to
him and asserting their autonomy as
representatives in a co-equal branch of
government, all these chicken
Republicans simply acquies to his
demands. And that's nothing to cheer
for, even from this guy.