Imagine a presidency where any one of these things happened at some point during four years of an administration, yet they all occurred within the past week.
Staff Secretary Rob Porter and speechwriter David Sorensen both resigned from the Trump administration over allegations of spousal abuse.
Chief of Staff John Kelly repeatedly lied and kept changing his stories about when he found out about the charges of Rob Porter's abuse, all the while asking other Trump staffers to support his lies to cover up why Porter was kept on staff, before Kelly was finally contradicted by the FBI.
A report that 130 Trump staffers have been working in the White House without permanent security clearance, including some who have been handling the highest code-level national security documents.
Trump's person lawyer admitted paying $130,000 in hush money to a porn actress.
After a mass shooting where 17 schoolchildren and teachers were massacred in their high school, the Trump administration is blasted for his cold, empty response of "thoughts and prayers" and a photo op with first responders showing Trump with a smile and a big "thumbs up."
And all of those may not have even been the worst story, for its long-term ramifications. (Certainly the school shooting was the most horrific and deeply impactful. That shows you how bad this other story is in its deep level of national importance.)
Bringing us to the Special Counsel turning in 16 indictments and one guilty plea on Russian efforts to attack the United States with cyberwarfare.
The thing is, what is so profoundly awful about this is not the meticulous details uncovered about the attack, nor that the nation's intelligence experts say that such operations are continuing and will be ratcheted up for the 2018 elections -- both of which are profoundly awful each on their own merits.
No, what takes this to almost unimaginable levels of reprehensible is that Trump, the president of the United States, wasn't outraged by the charges by his own Justice Department that the country was attacked...and is still being attacked. He didn't say how he'd act to defend the country during this attack. He didn't immediately enable the sanctions against Russia which both houses of Congress passed almost unanimously. Instead, he blamed others for what he claims (wrongly, by the way, though that's no surprise) that they supposedly didn't. Never once addressing that, as president of the United States, having sworn an oath to "protect and defend" the country, and being presented with evidence that the nation is being attacked by Russia, he has failed to act and is unwilling to act.
It's been a horrific week for Trump. But what sick for the country is that this is par for the course. And it seems reasonable to figure that such weeks will continue.
And as dismal a week it was for Trump, it's worse for the country.
But the one thing that must continue to be repeated is this -- that it is no longer about Trump, but about the elected officials of the Republican Party who continue to enable him.
Staff Secretary Rob Porter and speechwriter David Sorensen both resigned from the Trump administration over allegations of spousal abuse.
Chief of Staff John Kelly repeatedly lied and kept changing his stories about when he found out about the charges of Rob Porter's abuse, all the while asking other Trump staffers to support his lies to cover up why Porter was kept on staff, before Kelly was finally contradicted by the FBI.
A report that 130 Trump staffers have been working in the White House without permanent security clearance, including some who have been handling the highest code-level national security documents.
Trump's person lawyer admitted paying $130,000 in hush money to a porn actress.
After a mass shooting where 17 schoolchildren and teachers were massacred in their high school, the Trump administration is blasted for his cold, empty response of "thoughts and prayers" and a photo op with first responders showing Trump with a smile and a big "thumbs up."
And all of those may not have even been the worst story, for its long-term ramifications. (Certainly the school shooting was the most horrific and deeply impactful. That shows you how bad this other story is in its deep level of national importance.)
Bringing us to the Special Counsel turning in 16 indictments and one guilty plea on Russian efforts to attack the United States with cyberwarfare.
The thing is, what is so profoundly awful about this is not the meticulous details uncovered about the attack, nor that the nation's intelligence experts say that such operations are continuing and will be ratcheted up for the 2018 elections -- both of which are profoundly awful each on their own merits.
No, what takes this to almost unimaginable levels of reprehensible is that Trump, the president of the United States, wasn't outraged by the charges by his own Justice Department that the country was attacked...and is still being attacked. He didn't say how he'd act to defend the country during this attack. He didn't immediately enable the sanctions against Russia which both houses of Congress passed almost unanimously. Instead, he blamed others for what he claims (wrongly, by the way, though that's no surprise) that they supposedly didn't. Never once addressing that, as president of the United States, having sworn an oath to "protect and defend" the country, and being presented with evidence that the nation is being attacked by Russia, he has failed to act and is unwilling to act.
It's been a horrific week for Trump. But what sick for the country is that this is par for the course. And it seems reasonable to figure that such weeks will continue.
And as dismal a week it was for Trump, it's worse for the country.
But the one thing that must continue to be repeated is this -- that it is no longer about Trump, but about the elected officials of the Republican Party who continue to enable him.
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