U.S. President Donald Trump looks up as he participates in a roundtable on antifa on September 22, at the White House (REUTERS)
Republican strategist Rina Shah says there are very clear reasons President Donald Trump got dunked by his own party on Wednesday, and he has no one to blame but himself.
House Republicans, for the first time in months, failed to block a Democratic effort to halt the Iran war. The four Republican defectors who joined Democrats in tanking the GOP shutout are the latest sign that members of the president’s own party are willing to buck him on key policies.
The Wednesday loss, the latest in Trump’s recent losing streak, was made possible by swing district Republicans Tom Barrett of Michigan, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, and Warren Davidson of Ohio, joined by Tom Massie (R-Ky.), who Trump got tossed from a GOP primary by endorsing his Republican rival.
The 215-208 bipartisan vote is mostly symbolic, considering Trump will likely veto legislation that restricts his authority. However, the message the vote sends to the White House is likely coming in loud and clear.
When Burnett asked Shah if Trump’s coalition is finally falling apart Shah answered “I think so, and it's because the G cubed: gas, groceries, geopolitics.”
“To me, it's the war that's done it completely,” added Shah. “Trump promised no more wars, no more endless wars. And there's an entire swath of the Republican Party that is keeping mum and just saying, ‘we could take it all, the ballroom, even a slush fund, even J6 …. But when you start to talk democracy, you lose people, especially Republican voters. So you have to talk hard costs. The hard costs of this conflict have been tremendous.”
“And what we saw on Monday, the reports out of that call with [Israeli leader] Netanyahu, have been really shocking to members of congress who are Republicans,” said Shah, citing an irate phone conversation with Trump dressing down Netanyahu for aggravating violence in southern Lebanon as Trump desperately seeks an offramp to his Iran war disaster.
“Independent Americans Podcast” host Paul Rieckhoff agreed that the Republican vote shaving Trump’s power on Tuesday is a result of a convergence of U.S. voter anger.
“This is really, really an important crossroads for America in a new phase of what could be a new forever war, because it's bigger than Iran,” said Rieckhoff. “But, but this has been amazing in that it's unified America against Trump. Republicans, Democrats, everybody in between, especially Independents, are deeply opposed to the Iran war. It's unauthorized, it's unwise, and it's deeply unpopular. And I think the politicians are actually behind the country on this. … The problem is that Trump has been all gas and no brakes, and nothing has stopped him until now.”