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The Russian asset in the White House is off to have another campaign event in Louisiana today, but couldn't leave without some unhinged tweets about Russia, about the fake news, and of course about the shutdown, now in its 24th day, making it the longest U.S. government shutdown ever.
"Nancy and Cryin’ Chuck can end the Shutdown in 15 minutes," he declared. "At this point it has become their, and the Democrats, fault!" Within a few hours, though, he was telling reporters he personally rejected a plan from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina to open the government for three weeks, which would give more time for negotiations.
Trump wanted this shutdown from the beginning, and no one is going to forget that Oval Office meeting in which he told Pelosi and Schumer that it was all on him. He'd take all the blame. Which, according to all the public polling, he is. But he's not shouldering it alone, because the one person who could really end this in 15 minutes is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who isn't feeling enough pressure to do a damned thing about it.
If McConnell let any of the half-dozen bills the House has passed come to the Senate floor, there would almost certain by enough votes to override a Trump veto. But so far he's been able to refuse that. He's been able to hide in all this mess, and it's because he's not hearing from enough Republican senators. That's partly because they're not getting enough pressure from their constituents.
It's time to end that. Time to make Republican senators' phones ring off the hook. 202-224-3121. Make them hurt enough to make McConnell hurt.