October 2, 2019

Pelosi and Schiff, Simply Appearing on TV, Spark Another Meltdown. That’s a Win for Pro-Impeachers.

The president loses it over a rather unremarkable press conference.

Evan Vucci/AP

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced late Tuesday that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, would be making a special appearance at her weekly press briefing, setting off a wave of intrigue among avid impeachment-watchers.
 
“Please be an impeachment inquiry into Pence, Barr, and Pompeo, or any combination of the above,” Louise Mensch, the former British MP prone to conspiracy theories, prayed. “Gonna be a busy, busy, busy, busy day,” a CNN reporter predicted. “Checks watch. Sets alarm.”
 
Alas, the press conference Wednesday morning turned out to be rather underwhelming. “Does anybody in this room care about the cost of prescription drugs?” Pelosi asked reporters, knowing full well that the answer was in fact, nah.
 
But President Donald Trump appears to have witnessed something entirely different. Rather than find relief in the nothing-burger briefing, the exceedingly thin-skinned president logged onto Twitter to fire off a series of furious tweets.

Trump then ranted before reporters in the Oval Office, spewing a stream of false attacks against his political enemies. 

Failing to achieve catharsis with the Oval Office tantrum, Trump continued to lash out at a joint press conference. It was spectacular:

The reaction could be considered a small, but meaningful victory for Democrats. By simply goading the president into a predictable meltdown over nothing, the case for his unfitness for office grew even stronger. 

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

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