Another Remarkable POTUS Utterance

“We had no Democratic support. They weren’t going to give us a single vote.” — President Donald J. Trump.

Indeed:  when one tries to repeal a major piece of Democratic legislation, and one’s party does so without any attempt to negotiate before the vote, one tends not to get Democratic votes.

Further, when the Republicans are having their own internal struggles, don’t look for the Democrats to jump to their aid out of the kindness of their hearts at the 11th hour.

I recognize that Trump is trying to deflect blame, but in the annals of dumb things politicians have said about the legislative process, this one ranks high in the level of utter ridiculousness.

FILED UNDER: Political Theory, US Politics,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. Mark Ivey says:

    ‘Obamas fault!” 4eva. . .

  2. CSK says:

    Of course it was an abysmally stupid thing to say. But consider the source.

  3. al-Ameda says:

    “We had no Democratic support. They weren’t going to give us a single vote.” — President Donald J. Trump.

    What? No way.
    I thought that once Trump was elected, Democrats would unite with Republicans to give this new administration a chance to make this country great again?

    For this one brief shining moment I’m asking you to indulge me my schadenfreude.

  4. michael reynolds says:

    If he wasn’t such a malicious, vulgar creep you could almost feel sorry for him. He’s the guy in the poker game who says, “Wait, is a pair of fours any good?”

    He’s such a dumbass.

  5. Gustopher says:

    He’s like the angry and bitter MRA guy who blames everything on women because they won’t go out with a nice guy like him.

  6. David M says:

    It’s similar to Paul Ryan’s claim that the repeal bill was doing the authors of Obamacare a favor (by bailing them out of a disaster). It’s both utter nonsense, and a window into the fact that the GOP haven’t come to terms with Obamacare. Over 20 million people have health insurance, and millions more have been helped, and most people want it improved, not destroyed.

  7. Senyordave says:

    @michael reynolds: Actually, given his life experience where he’s never personally had to answer for his stupidity and malevolence, he’s the guy at the poker table who beats a full house because he has two pair of fours. Then he calls everyone at the table losers and tells them how tremendous he is at poker.

  8. JohnMcC says:

    You need it explained? Really? Isn’t it obvious that the entire debacle was engineered by the Deep State? C’mon! Wake up!

  9. An Interested Party says:

    Sorta makes any dumb thing said by George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan seem like genius quotes by comparison…wow, how low the GOP has fallen…

  10. gVOR08 says:

    Yes, anyone with the slightest clue how the legislative process works is laughing at Trump’s lame attempt to blame Dems. But we need to consider the reaction of the average Trumpskyite FOX News viewer.

  11. LaMont says:

    What’s more frustrating is to hear reporters and pundits question Democrats during interviews in the vain of this idiotic remark!

  12. grumpy realist says:

    Why does this remind me of workers being asked to take pay cuts “for the team” while the CEO gets another whopping pay raise?

    (Actually, I had an experience sort of like that when working in sales for a start-up. They tried to move me from a commission-based setup to a straight salary setup, but didn’t have much to say when I pointed out this would mean an income drop of 50% for me so what were they putting on the other side of the scale to make up for it?)

    (I think what really ticked them off was that I was netting more than the company president. I was also SELLING roughly $2M worth of product/year, but for some reason that was overlooked. Silly people. I left soon afterwards.)