Donnie Two Scoops and Jim Acosta

President Trump and his supporters had been predicting that the 2018 midterms would be a "red wave" (of course attempting to flip the Democratic use of "Blue Wave". Most analysts predicted that the Democrats would take over the majority in the House of Representatives and that the Republicans would retain control of the Senate. The Republicans would pick up 4-5 Senate seats, with Democrats in states that Trump won in 2016 particularly vulnerable. The results were not that different than foreseen, with the Democrats doing better than thought. At most, the Republicans will have a net gain of 2 seats, assuming that the recount in Florida and the special election in Mississippi both go to Republicans. Democrats have netted an additional 35 seats, with a possible 39 when all the votes are tabulated. Democrats also picked up seven governorships. This was not a good election for the Republican party.

So what does Donnie Two-Scoops say about it? He calls it a "great victory". He whines about "the people not being told" about the Republicans increasing their Senate majority from 51-49 to 53-47 (maybe). He muses that other presidents have lost more House seats. The man is delusional in so many categories.

From a certain angle, you can look at the Senate results as a victory. Retaining the Senate majority means that Trump can still appoint federal judges, and even additional Supreme Court justices if the need arises. This is no small thing. The map, however, did favor Republicans. 23 Democrats were up for re-election versus only 9 Republicans (plus afew open seats). Most of the Democrats were running in states that Trump won comfortably in 2016. Four of those were voted out, but two Democrats won in previously Republican states. Democrats won 2/3 of the Senate elections. (The situation is reversed in 2020). There's no way that the House election can be viewed as anything less than a tremendous defeat. Notwithstanding the fact that President Obama suffered a much more stinging loss in his first midterms, the loss of so many Republican seats will guarantee that Trump will accomplish nothing legislatively these next two years. 

Of course, Trump is pretending that this is an opportunity for bipartisan cooperation. This might be the case if he and his Republican allies hadn't done all that they could to shut the Democrats out of any decision making, or if Trump's idea of bipartisanship wasn't limited to the other party giving in to his demands without any concessions on his part.

And now there's CNN's lawsuit on behalf of Jim Acosta. If this were any other president, I'd characterize Acosta's demeanor as rude and overly aggressive. And, even considering the White House's occupant, he's often over the top. But Trump has made his own bed. He's been rude and insulting to virtually everyone - not only the press, but legislators, our allies, even his own cabinet. Trump also seriously misunderstands the role of the press in a democracy. Their job is not to prop up the nation's politicians, nor to produce "positive" coverage, but to serve as an unofficial check and balance to the government, to ask the tough questions, to research and report on things that most of us don't have the time nor expertise to do. Trump does not like to be questioned, he bristles when his lies are called out and characterizes those who shine a spotlight on him as "enemies".

It will be interesting to see how the new White House "rules of polite behavior" plays out