Mike Pence's Rabbit, And Other Dissonant Tones.
Good morning, all. If you had yesterday off for Martin Luther King Jr. day, I hope your time was restful and reflective, especially if you spent the days before attacking civil rights leader Congressman John Lewis of Georgia on Twitter. Oh wait, that was what the PEOTUS Trump did? Attacked “one of the most respected men in America” (as stated by Republican Senator John McCain,) a man who was brutally beaten by State Troopers during the Selma to Montgomery March, and who continues to work with bipartisan leaders decades after the sit-ins, marches and bus integrations he led to fight segregation? Great.
As expected, liberals condemned Trump’s tweets. And for those keeping track, Republicans like Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.), Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) also spoke out with a Twitter hell no. But some, including members of Trump’s transition team, “scolded” Lewis for his initial comments on the illegitimacy of Trump’s presidency.
In the end, Trump cancelled a previously scheduled MLK Day visit to the new Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture. As Seth Meyers said, the Trump transition has been like a “spooky version of pop goes the weasel that you’d hear in a horror movie” - and by the way, Seth Meyers’s bullshit hypocrisy detector is as sharp as ever - just when you think it can’t get any weirder, it does.
And while we are all *justifiably* aghast at those PEOTUS tweets, let’s keep our eye on the prize: on Friday, Trump will be inaugurated. This is real life. And it will have real consequences, as we’ve already seen with the Affordable Care Act repeal So yay! Once again “conditions” like pregnancy and depression may be determined as “pre-existing,” and oh my god I can’t believe we’re having this conversation again.
But hey, Mike Pence and his family have a rabbit named Marlon Bundo, which is basically the only fact I know about him that I like.