Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

George W. Bush's Ethics Czar Just Went on an Epic Rant About Why Donald Trump's National Emergency Declaration Makes Him Unfit to Serve as President

George W. Bush's Ethics Czar Just Went on an Epic Rant About Why Donald Trump's National Emergency Declaration Makes Him Unfit to Serve as President
Screenshot via MSNBC/YouTube.

Accurate.

Richard Painter, the former White House chief ethics counsel for George W. Bush, outlined why he believes President Donald Trump should be removed from office, saying last week's national emergency declaration is further indication that the president is "not well at all mentally."

“I think we need to understand, though, why we’re in this situation,” he said during an interview on "The 11th Hour with Brian Williams." “The president is not well at all mentally. I think he’s an extreme narcissist. He has been denied what he wants, his wall, and he is having a hissy fit. He is out of control, and he will not take ‘no’ for an answer from Congress.”


The national emergency declaration is both "unconstitutional" and "illegal," he added, with the potential to deal "enormous damage" to the Republican Party.

Standing in the way of the president's impeachment? The fact that Trump "stocked his cabinet with people who are unwilling to do that, and Congress is apparently unwilling to even try to remove him through impeachment,” he said.

Many concurred with the former Bush ethics czar, who in recent years has emerged as one of Trump's harshest critics in Washington.

Last week, the president declared a national emergency to access billions of dollars to construct a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border after Congress denied his requests for funding. The declaration has ignited a dispute about separation of powers, and the president’s reasoning is likely to face legal challenges.

“I could do the wall over a longer period of time,” he told NBC’s Peter Alexander when asked about his prior statements on the merits of executive orders, which he had long accused former President Barack Obama of using to circumvent the decisions of Congress. “I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.”

As he continued to speak during the news conference, the president outlined what would happen next:

“We will have a national emergency. And we will then be sued… And we will possibly get a bad ruling. And then we will get another bad ruling. And then we will end up in the Supreme Court.”

Many took the president’s statement as further evidence that he is seeking to bypass Congress to fulfill a campaign promise he made to his base.

That statement alone has also opened up the president to criticism.

“Trump predicts that he will lose in court on his national emergency. Until it gets to the Supreme Court. Where he has appointed two justices with long track records of supporting expansive claims of executive power,” said The Washington Post‘s James Hohmann.

Responding to the president’s statement that he “didn’t have to” declare a national emergency, Financial Times editor Edward Luce said: “Trump has just told the Supreme Court why to strike down his national emergency.”

The news further prompted Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to announce that she will introduce a bill with fellow Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro to halt Trump’s planned national emergency declaration.

In response to the news, first reported by Bloomberg, Ocasio-Cortez promised that she and her colleague “aren’t going to let the President declare a fake national emergency without a fight.”

16 states have already joined a lawsuit arguing that the president does not have the power to divert funds because Congress, per the Constitution, controls spending.

“Probably the best evidence is the president’s own words,” said Xavier Becerra, the attorney general of California. "I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.”

More from People/donald-trump

Kim Reynolds; Charlie Kirk
Al Drago/Getty Images; Nordin Catic/Getty Images for The Cambridge Union

MAGA Furious After Iowa Official Refuses Governor's Order To Fly Flags At Half-Staff For Charlie Kirk

Iowa City official Jon Green, chair of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, has declined to comply with Governor Kim Reynolds' order that flags be flown at half-staff following the murder of far-right activist Charlie Kirk, stressing that he will not honor a man “who did so much to harm not only the marginalized, but also to degrade the fabric of our body politic.”

Green sent an email to other officials and department heads in which he asked “that we keep all victims of gun violence, including the slain Colorado students, at front of mind as we serve," referring to students who were shot at a Colorado high school the same day that Kirk was assassinated in Utah.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rosie O'Donnell; Ellen DeGeneres
Neil Mockford/WireImage; Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Live Nation

Rosie O'Donnell Reveals The Public And 'Most Painful' Way Ellen DeGeneres Ended Their Friendship

Perhaps no star has had a fall from grace quite like the one that came for Ellen DeGeneres.

After rising to a household name in the '90s she was blackballed for coming out as gay on her sitcom.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots of Will Thilly breakdancing
New York Post/YouTube

Guy Breakdances His Way Into Town Hall Meeting To Ask Why Taxes Went Up—And Becomes An Instant Legend

Cranford, New Jersey town council candidate Will Thilly went viral after dancing his way up to the podium at a recent town hall meeting to ask why property taxes in Cranford have gone "up so much."

Thilly's unique tax protest began when he danced his way up to the podium and continued to dance even after a Cranford Township official said, "Mr. Thilly, I started your time." People laughed when Thilly held up a finger to stop the official and continued to dance anyway.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Brian Kilmeade
Fox News

Fox News Host Apologizes After His Suggestion That Homeless People Be Euthanized Sparks Outrage

Fox and Friends host Brian Kilmeade was criticized for suggesting that homeless people with mental health issues get "involuntary lethal injection" after the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a train in North Carolina—and was swiftly condemned for an insincere apology several days after the fact as many are calling for Fox News to terminate his contract.

Zarutska was stabbed to death at the East/West Boulevard station on the Lynx Blue Line in Charlotte last month; her killer, a homeless man with a history of mental health issues, has since been charged with first-degree murder.

Keep ReadingShow less