Trump’s new low: Swiping at McConnell’s childhood polio

Posted on by Alex Samuels

President Donald Trump insulted Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and questioned his childhood battle with polio after the senator opposed anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation Thursday to be the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. 

When asked by a reporter whether McConnell’s past bout with polio influenced his “no” vote, Trump responded, “I have no idea if he had polio. All I can tell you about him is that he shouldn’t have been leader.”

The president added, “[McConnell’s] not voting against Bobby, he’s voting against me.” He later called McConnell “a very bitter guy.”

McConnell has voted against several of Trump’s recent Cabinet picks, including Tulsi Gabbard (for director of national intelligence), Pete Hegseth (for secretary of defense), and Kennedy. In the cases of Gabbard and Kennedy, McConnell was the only Republican to buck the president. With Hegseth’s vote, however, two other Republican senators—Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska—joined him in voting against Trump’s nominee.

In addition to calling Trump a “despicable human being,” a “narcissist,” and “stupid” in a recent biography, McConnell has blasted Trump’s sweeping use of tariffs. He said they were “bad policy” and would raise prices.

Trump’s “aggressive proposals leave big, lingering concerns for American industry and workers,” McConnell wrote in a Wednesday op-ed for Louisville’s Courier-Journal.

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky

McConnell wasn’t always this big of a thorn in Trump’s side, though. At the beginning of Trump’s first term, the senator helped Trump confirm hundreds of judges and fill three Supreme Court vacancies—moves that will shape the judiciary for a generation. (Notably, in 2016, McConnell helped block Merrick Garland, whom then-President Barack Obama nominated to the Supreme Court, from getting a hearing.) McConnell was also instrumental in Trump’s 2017 effort to pass sweeping tax cuts for the wealthy.

Despite minor disagreements, the Republicans’ relationship didn’t turn icy until the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. McConnell called Trump “practically and morally responsible” for the insurrection, but ultimately, he did not vote to convict the president.  

The two also squabbled over the party’s failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act during Trump’s first administration. (More recently, McConnell said the repeal effort against the law seems “largely over.”) And they have traded a fair share of nasty personal attacks. Despite this, McConnell still endorsed Trump’s reelection bid. 

McConnell, who will turn 83 this month, is up for reelection in 2026, but it’s unclear whether he’ll run again. He’s suffered a series of falls as of late, including two last week. A spokesperson for the senator suggested that “the lingering effects of polio in his left leg” contributed to it, but said the fall would not disrupt McConnell’s “regular schedule of work.”

It makes sense, then, that McConnell would vote against Kennedy, an alleged animal abuser with a history of attacking vaccination and promoting bogus conspiracy theories. Shortly after his confirmation, Kennedy appeared on Fox News and confirmed there were plans to cut the number of HHS employees. Notably, Kennedy said those who have been “involved in good science” (whatever that means!) have “nothing to worry about.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine nut now in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services

“If you care about public health, you’ve got nothing to worry about. If you’re in there working for the pharmaceutical industry, then I should say you should move out and work for the pharmaceutical industry,” he said.

On Thursday, Trump questioned McConnell’s mental acuity and said “he’s not equipped” to lead the GOP. This is the Trump way: viciously attack anyone who doesn’t do your bidding, regardless of how they’ve helped you in the past. It’s also a classic authoritarian tactic, and given that Trump is a petty narcissist, it’s not shocking that he’s going after McConnell.

That said, McConnell doesn’t deserve a pat on the back for voting against just a handful of Trump’s awful nominees. The senator’s pushback is not just politically convenient—he’s no longer Senate majority leader—but it also comes far too late in the game. 

Maybe McConnell feels guilty for elevating Trump and is voting against the Cabinet picks as a way to make up for his past transgressions. Either way, given how much he helped Trump to get to where he is now, he’s just as complicit in the downfall of American democracy. 

McConnell doesn’t get a pass.

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Nancy Pelosi will skip Trump’s inauguration

Posted on by Alex Samuels

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, will not attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, her spokesperson confirmed to Daily Kos. 

Pelosi is the second big-name Democrat to announce that they won’t attend. Earlier this week, former first lady Michelle Obama said she also plans to skip the event, which will take place on Monday. Other Democratic lawmakers who will play hooky that day include Reps. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

News of Pelosi’s pending absence was first reported by ABC News. 

Pelosi’s spokesperson didn’t elaborate on why she won’t make the pilgrimage to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., this go-around. Her absence may be because Pelosi is still recovering from hip surgery she underwent in Germany following a fall in December. It’s also possible that, like most Democrats, she just hates Trump. 

No one would blame her if that were the case. The two have long had a tumultuous professional relationship. Since Trump’s first administration, their disdain for one another has seemingly only increased. Pelosi famously spent the final days of Trump’s first term trying to oust him from the Oval Office after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump, for his part, spent much of his first term avoiding Pelosi, even as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged states and lawmakers attempted to work together to deliver aid.

Since then, Trump has called Pelosi “crazy,” “crooked,” “evil,” and “sick,” among other abhorrent things. In November, he nearly called her a bitch during a campaign rally, though he stopped himself from saying the word outright. 

Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally on July 29, 2023, in Erie, Pennsylvania.

“She’s a bad person, evil. She’s an evil, sick, crazy—” Trump said at a rally in Michigan amid his 2024 campaign, sounding out the letter “B” but stopping just short of uttering the obscenity. “It starts with a ‘B,’ but I won’t say it. I wanna say it.”

Pelosi’s inauguration absence marks a break in tradition for the octogenarian. In addition to attending Trump’s first inauguration, in 2017, ABC News reports that Pelosi has gone to 11 presidential inaugural events.

Senior leaders of both parties typically attend presidential inaugurations, regardless of the incoming president’s party. But Trump has no room to complain about Pelosi’s absence: He famously skipped President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021.

In reality, Trump probably won’t notice that Pelosi’s gone. He’ll be too busy trying to impress his trio of tech-bro sugar daddies—Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg—who have been rewarded with plum seats at the inauguration. (All three men also donated at least $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.)

Meanwhile, while they will attend Monday’s inauguration, former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama will skip Trump’s inaugural luncheon. According to NBC News, both Obama and Clinton were invited but declined. Bush’s office told the outlet that he never received an invite.

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Biden to leave office less popular than Trump

Posted on by Alex Samuels

Americans are giving President Joe Biden harsh reviews before he leaves office in less than two weeks, on Jan. 20. And worse than that, they appear to be judging him even more harshly than his two most recent predecessors, Donald Trump and Barack Obama.

According to a survey released on Friday by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, just one-quarter of U.S. adults (25%) said that Biden was a “good” or “great” president, compared with Trump, whom 36% of U.S. adults gave the same ranking after his first term in office ended, in 2021. (Notably, though, Trump had slightly higher “poor” and “terrible” ratings than Biden.)

Datawrapper Content

Even more remarkable is that the survey about Trump was conducted shortly after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. And this is backed up by other polling as well. For instance, between Jan. 7-20, 2021, Trump’s approval ratings dropped from 42% to 39%, according to 538’s average. But at present, Biden’s job approval ratings sit at about 37%, according to 538’s average.

The result of this past November’s election, where Trump got very close to earning a majority of the popular vote, showed that voters preferred a return to Trump versus a continuation of Democratic rule, perhaps especially one tied to Biden. But now we have even more verification of the degree to which voters, after seeing both men govern, simply (if slightly) prefer Trump to Biden.

According to a national tracking poll by Civiqs, just 38% of registered voters have a favorable view of Biden. In fact, he has been below 40% since Nov. 10, making the odds of a rebound ahead of Trump’s inauguration pretty slim. Meanwhile, 45% of voters have a favorable view of Trump, according to Civiqs, and his favorability has been steadily increasing since about February 2023.

Civiqs Results

These data points starkly illustrate just how tarnished Biden’s legacy has become, despite an impressive domestic record. Not only did he pass landmark legislation, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, to help combat climate change, but Trump is also inheriting a strong economy, for which he has Biden to thank.

The issue? Polling suggests voters either don’t know this or believe Biden was insufficient in other ways. The AP-NORC survey found that only 2 in 10 Americans (22%) think Biden made good on his campaign promises. A larger share, 38%, said that Biden did not keep his word. The remaining 39% said he tried but failed to keep his campaign promises.

Biden is also faring considerably worse than Obama was at the end of his presidency. AP-NORC found that Obama left his second term in office with a majority of Americans (52%) describing his tenure as “good” or “great.” This squares with data released earlier this week by Gallup, which found Biden’s standing is similar to that of former President Richard Nixon, who resigned amid the infamous Watergate scandal. (Unlike the AP-NORC survey, Gallup’s involved a retrospective assessment of past presidents, not a contemporaneous one.)

Former President Barack Obama

As other politicos have pointed out, Trump seems to be enjoying a honeymoon period since his win in November. It’s possible, of course, that four years of Biden caused the electorate to reassess Trump, who once had dismal approval and favorability ratings too.

Remarkably, though, Trump has retained relative popularity amid two impeachments, many federal indictments, two assassination attempts, and some of the most unrelentingly negative media coverage in modern history, among many other faults of his. Such a deep catalog of sins would leave most politicians unable to revive their careers, but somehow Trump did—and he’s unfortunately doing better than ever.

The good news for Biden, if there is any, is that Americans’ negative views toward him may change over time. After all, Gallup found that other presidents who left with low approval ratings—including George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter—saw Americans’ perception of their presidencies warm with time. 

Plus, knowing Trump, he’ll surely squander his goodwill with the American electorate in due time. Every honeymoon must come to an end, including Trump’s. And with the high number of unpopular campaign pledges he’s made, he’s likely to only accelerate that timeline.

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