And clobbering the administration *again*, oh yes! This is one of those news stories that brightens my day. Judge Boasberg laid the hammer down, and Senator Tillis gave it a second strike. In the insanity of our country (and world) today, this wasn’t just a breath of fresh air – it was nearly hurricane strength. With gratitude to Raw Story:
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) delivered a stark message to President Donald Trump on Friday after the president took a big legal blow. Tillis, who plans not to seek reelection and will end his term in January 2027, responded after a federal judge rejected U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s subpoenas targeting Fed Chair Jerome Powell. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg granted the order, agreeing with the Fed that Trump’s repeated attacks on the chairman indicate the investigation into the Federal Reserve’s building renovation was pretextual and politically motivated.
My goodness, Trump wouldn’t possibly do anything like that *gag* now would he? This one was nearly the most obvious, as it had become part of Trump’s Revenge Tour™ because Chairman Powell wouldn’t cut interest rates. He had damn good reasons for NOT doing so, but Donnie doesn’t understand that sort of thing, and won’t even try. He just wants what he wants.
Neil Irwin, Axios’s chief economic correspondent, spoke during a live interview on MS NOW on Friday and called Boasberg’s decision a “resounding defeat” for Trump and his Department of Justice. Tillis has been critical of the Trump administration, including now demoted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. During a congressional hearing this month, Tillis vowed not to confirm any Trump nominees, just as the administration was pushing to confirm Kevin Warsh, nominated to be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. Powell’s term ends on May 23.
There’s a whole lot I do *not* like about Senator Tillis, but to see a dyed-in-the-wool Republican pushing back against Trump and his maladministration has been glorious! For that reason, I’ll be sorry to see him go. He sees two sets of writing on the wall. The first is how poorly Trump is doing at his job. The second is the Blue Wave coming from out at sea.
“Here’s a warning from Thom Tillis, senator from North Carolina, who had threatened to block Kevin Warsh because of this lawsuit,” MS HOW host Katy Tur said. “He says the ruling to block subpoenas against Powell confirms just how weak and frivolous the investigation,” Tur added. “And he’s now warned the DOJ against appealing the ruling, saying it will only delay the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair. So he’s saying, Justin, ‘If you guys delay this, I’m going to dig in my heels, and I’m not going to confirm your next guy.'”
[Interjection] Oooo, I was poking around, getting ready to post, and found out Jeanine had a meltdown at/because of Judge Boasberg. You can read about it here. Oh, my, I am *laughing*.
Now back to your regularly scheduled story. We can hope that, if they appeal, the court will smack them down, just as Judge Boasberg did. He’s definitely a reputable and knowledgeable judge. Could we hope that they wouldn’t even want to bother with this case? Now, I’ll admit this was more Senator Tillis than Judge Boasberg. But seeing his name clobbering the DoJ was wonderful. Apparently, they didn’t pay attention to his previous cases, or they might have tried harder – but also, it was Jeanine Poor-o trying to bring the case, so it was doomed from the start. Kudos to the judge and the senator. Well done.
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“There’s a whole lot I do *not* like about Senator Tillis, but to see a dyed-in-the-wool Republican pushing back against Trump and his maladministration has been glorious! For that reason, I’ll be sorry to see him go. He sees two sets of writing on the wall. The first is how poorly Trump is doing at his job. The second is the Blue Wave coming from out at sea.”
Well, the problem is that for all his “dyed-in-the-wool” self “pushing back against” Drumpf, Tillis is fully aware that he would have an uphill struggle in winning another GOP primary in North Carolina. Hell, Sisyphus would have an easier time getting that rock up and over the mountain top than Tillis would have winning a primary battle. The GOP MAGAts may be struggling in general elections but they’re not having the same kind of problems with primary elections. MAGAts still comprise a major part of the GOP who vote in the primaries; their only weakness comes when there are 2 of them competing in a (primary*) race with 3 or more candidates which allows a non-MAGAt GOPer to come out on top (although, the non-MAGAt will probably get wiped out if there’s a run-off–as we can probably see in the race to replace Greene when the plethora of GOP candidates in the jungle primary allowed the “name” Democrat to come out on top but without an outright majority to avoid a run-off). Tillis knew his anti-Drumpf stance would cost him his seat if he ran again (though it does look like he was factoring in some health issues as well).
Now that’s information I did not have. However, I thought Tillis had decided to retire *before* going up against Trump. Either way, we’ll have to take what pushback we can get.
I am fervently hoping we can flip MTG’s seat blue. Then I wouldn’t cringe every time I had to drive into it. I am also doing my best to support Senator Ossoff. He has a tough road ahead to keep his seat. Come on, Blue Wave!