In the tradition of the Clintonometer and the Trump Apocalypse Watch, the Impeach-O-Meter is a wildly subjective and speculative daily estimate of the likelihood that Donald Trump leaves office before his term ends, whether by being impeached (and convicted) or by resigning under threat of same.
Under ordinary circumstances, in the year 2017, one wouldn’t think it necessary to have the United States Senate take time out of its legislative day to point out that the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis are contemptible and deserving of scorn. But these are not ordinary times. Real estate developer turned reality TV show star Donald Trump is the president of the United States now, after flirting with the white nationalist vote during his campaign for the presidency. White supremacists got the drift and newly emboldened by the winks from the West Wing, affiliated hate groups are publicly on the march. As such, its probably best to employ the there’s no such thing as too many condemnations of white supremacist groups standard.
On Monday, the Senate did just that in passing a joint resolution by unanimous consent condemning white supremacist groups writ large. The resolution was introduced last week by Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and was cosponsored by 55 Senators in all, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. In total, seven Republican joined 48 from the Democratic caucus to pass the bill procedurally without a formal vote.
The resolution paused to issue its own condemnation of the white supremacist hate groups involved in the weekend’s violence on Aug. 11th and 12th in Charlottesville, which it described as a “domestic terrorist attack.” It also urged the president to act more like a president and less like himself.
“[Congress] urges the President and his administration to speak out against hate groups that espouse racism, extremism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and White supremacy; and use all resources available to the President and the President’s Cabinet to address the growing prevalence of those hate groups in the United States…”
It’s a timely and unfortunately necessary reminder to the president of the United States. The Senate is still optimistic about Trump’s “moral pivot.” The pivot away from things like white supremacy is one of the many pivots that get bandied about that will never happen. Unfortunately, it’s well known the only psychology this president responds to reverse psychology. Trump’s pivot foot remains unused in perpetutity and the meter remains unchanged!
Photo illustration by Natalie Matthews-Ramo. Photos by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, Win McNamee/Getty Images, Chris Kleponis-Pool/Getty Images, Drew Angerer/Getty Images, and Peter Parks-Pool/Getty Images.
