On Wednesday, President Trump announced that Attorney General Jeff Sessions would be replaced by Matthew G. Whitaker, Chief of Staff. That prompted Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY) to rip Trump for firing Sessions and pontificate that the legislative branch somehow had the authority to hold the White House accountable for the people it hires for its Cabinet. But Nadler seemed to have forgotten one thing.
First, Trump’s announcement:
Then, Nadler’s hyperventilating response:
How times change. Here’s Nadler in March 2017:
Nadler has been fulminating against Trump for the entire duration of Trump’s presidency. After Trump was elected, he wrote:
While respecting the results of the election and the Office of the President, we cannot allow for the normalization of the hatred and bigotry that Trump used to stir fear and resentment, or of his behavior that is completely unbefitting the office he is about to occupy, like his sexually predatory actions or his cozying up to world leaders who reject our democratic from of government. We must never lend these things or his expressed contempt for democratic principles any legitimacy.
Whether or not he himself feels these hateful things almost doesn’t matter, as he exploited them to come to power, and, in doing so empowered the most wicked tendencies in American society … Donald Trump doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt because he has not earned the benefit of the doubt. The burden is on Trump to change his stripes, though I, like many of you, am deeply doubtful that will ever happen. As such, there can be no normalization of him or his Administration … I’ve personally fought Trump many times, and he was a ruthless and dangerous man without the Presidency. Now that he has the reins of government, it’s going to take tremendous courage and tremendous effort to stand up to him.
On Tuesday night, knowing that he would soon chair the Judiciary Committee, Nadlaer boasted to CNN, “This election was about accountability. Donald Trump may not like hearing it but for the first time, his administration is going to be held accountable. He’s going to learn that he’s not above the law.”
Nadler’s loyalty to the Democratic Party supersedes all other concerns. He acknowledged that when former President Barack Obama personally sent him a letter asking him to support the Iran nuclear deal, he acquiesced. Nadler, who has claimed he has always stood strong for Israel, ignored the fact that Iran possessing nuclear weapons would pose a mortal threat to the Jewish state, and justified his decision by saying, “I bring to my analysis the full weight of my responsibilities as a member of Congress, and my perspective as an American Jew who is both a Democrat and a strong supporter of Israel,” adding that the agreement “gives us the best chance of stopping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.”
Ironically, since Nadler’s rhetoric regarding Trump has been so vehement, he wrote, “I have become increasingly disturbed by the rhetoric being used by some on both sides of the debate. We have apparently reached the point in our public discourse where, if the stakes are high enough, if emotions run deep and opinion is sharply divided, ridicule and ad hominem attacks on the character and loyalty of those who differ become acceptable in the political dialogue. I condemn this and encourage others of good will to do the same.”