President Donald Trump just got humiliated three times in the same week. By his own party. Could this be a trend? One would certainly like to think so, but that may be premature (or overly optimistic).

Of course, it's debatable whether Trump can even be humiliated, because it's tough to humiliate someone who does not know the meaning of the word humility. You can call Trump many things (and we often do), but "humble" certainly isn't one of them.

But whether he realizes it or not, Trump was badly humiliated three times this week by Republicans in Congress. The first was a 54-46 vote in the Senate (with seven Republicans voting with the Democrats) to end America's involvement in Saudi Arabia's devastating war in Yemen. The second came the next day, when the Senate voted 59-41 (with an even dozen Republicans crossing the aisle to specifically rebuke Trump) to un-declare Trump's southern border "national emergency." This is the same bill that 13 Republicans voted to support in the House, a while back. But the third humiliation Trump suffered was optically the worst for him, as the House unanimously voted 420-0 to urge the attorney general to release Robert Mueller's report publicly after it gets delivered. So much for Trump's "witch hunt" theory... it's hard to call something a witch hunt when every member of your party wants to see what it uncovers, after all.

The common thread through all of these votes was that Trump has overreached (or will overreach), and must be constrained by Congress. Also, the humiliation for Trump -- that was a big component as well, of course.

True to form, before the Senate vote rescinding his "national emergency" declaration, Trump tried to be the master dealmaker and talk all the Senate Republicans over to his side. If he had managed to do so, he could have avoided the problem altogether, since Republicans hold the majority in the chamber. But Trump, once again, turned out to be his own worst enemy. First Mike Lee had cobbled together some sort of face-saving bill for Republicans to vote for, which might have averted the crisis and allowed Republicans a political out of sorts. Trump torpedoed the effort with one phone call. Then Lindsey Graham and a few others crashed the White House gates while Trump was having dinner, in a last-minute attempt to provide some unspecified sort of cover. Trump wasn't interested, and turned them down flat. Either one of these efforts might have worked, but Trump just wasn't interested.

This is rather strange, because Trump himself was lobbying hard for all Republicans to support him in the vote, even though he lied about it afterwards. From a story today comes the following whopper from the president:

Trump said Friday that he understands that objection [about the constitutional separation of powers] and didn't twist arms.

"They're doing what they have to do, and I put no pressure on anybody," Trump said. "I actually said, 'I could have gotten some of them to come along.' I said, 'I want for you to vote your heart. Do want you want to do. I'm not putting any pressure.'"

This is downright laughable, of course. Trump reportedly put all the pressure he could possibly have managed on Republicans, and twelve of them voted against him anyway. Democrats only needed four votes, so that's a pretty impressive total. Unfortunately, it won't be enough to overturn Trump's veto. Trump vetoed the measure today, sending it back to Congress, but the real battle now moves to the courts. One court Trump's already losing in is the court of popular opinion -- the public is already against Trump's emergency declaration by a margin of two-to-one.

In other humiliating news for Trump, his former campaign manager Paul Manafort got some years tacked onto his federal sentence this week, and will spend seven and a half years behind bars. Immediately after he received this sentence, the state of New York indicted him for further crimes -- which will almost assuredly mean that even a presidential pardon isn't going to free Manafort from jail any time soon (since presidents can only pardon federal crimes). Even just adding Manafort's sentence to Michael Cohen's now adds up to more than two presidential terms -- and they're not the only ones, either, as a slew of others have yet to be sentenced or tried. Only the best people!

Let's see, what else is going on that could humiliate Trump? Summer Zervos just won an appeal in her defamation case against the president, meaning it will begin moving forward again. The new timetable is that Trump may be forced to give a deposition under oath by the end of June, so we've got that to look forward to.

The Trump administration was very slow to ground the Boeing model that just horribly crashed in Africa, which may have been due to the fact that the Federal Aviation Administration has no permanent chief right now. Trump initially wanted to appoint his personal pilot for the job, and when that was laughed down he apparently was in such a snit that he forgot to appoint anyone else.

Trump made an embarrassing gaffe this week, when he called Tim Cook, the head of Apple, "Tim Apple" in a meeting. True to form, Trump immediately insisted that he actually said "Tim Cook Apple" really fast, which was just laughably false (it was caught on video tape, after all). When even his own supporters couldn't quite believe him, he changed his story again, tweeting:

At a recent round table meeting of business executives, & long after formally introducing Tim Cook of Apple, I quickly referred to Tim + Apple as Tim/Apple as an easy way to save time & words. The Fake News was disparagingly all over this, & it became yet another bad Trump story!

Sure. Whatever you say. You just wanted to save time and words. Oooo...kay.

Trump's other gaffe of the week wasn't quite so funny, because he was quoted as telling supporters that "Democrats hate Jewish people." Because, of course, he has no shame whatsoever about fearmongering such a dangerous subject. It's hard to square this with his own stated support for white supremacists, of course ("some very fine people"), but whatever.

Turning away from Trump (whew!), let's have a look instead at the Democratic campaign trail. We now have fourteen declared Democrats with some sort of political experience in the presidential race. The big addition this week was Beto O'Rourke, failed Senate candidate from Texas and former House member, but there was also the addition of Wayne Messam (who?), the mayor or Miramar, Florida. If you include Pete Buttigieg on the list, then you've got to also include Messam, in other words.

Beto's big announcement followed a cover story in Vanity Fair, and his launch is the biggest since Bernie Sanders got in the race. Pundits will be watching closely to see how much money Beto's campaign can raise from small donors in the first week, because his fundraising prowess has been compared to Bernie's. Bernie chalked up $6 million in the first day and $10 million by the end of his first week, so that's the mark Beto has to shoot for. Tellingly, though, he hasn't been bragging about his first-day haul yet, so we'll have to wait and see if his support is still as strong as when he took on Ted Cruz.

The biggest news from the Democratic campaign trail, however, is still officially not news at all. Joe Biden is still bidin' his time (sorry... couldn't resist...) and has not thrown his hat in the ring yet. All indications are that he's about to, perhaps within the next week or so. Biden's entrance to the field will be monumental, since he's already polling regularly in the number one spot. A recent Monmouth poll shows where things stand at this admittedly-early date:

Joe Biden -- 28 percent

Bernie Sanders -- 25

Kamala Harris -- 10

Elizabeth Warren -- 8

Beto O'Rourke -- 6

Cory Booker -- 5

Amy Klobuchar -- 3

All the other candidates got one percent or less, meaning they're not making many inroads to the goal of having widespread name recognition yet. But without doubt, Biden and Sanders are at the top of the race right now and everyone else is pretty far behind.

Both Biden and O'Rourke will face some serious scrutiny, though, after the glow of their initial announcement wears off. Biden has a long track record as a senator, and there are some seriously troubling things contained within it. He may not be as good a fit for the new progressive era as many may now think, in other words. O'Rourke also has some troubling history, and is likewise nowhere near as progressive as the party's base seems to now be. He's a fresh face, but may not catch as much fire as he did during his Senate run, with so many other candidates to choose from.

But we'll all have plenty of time to see what happens. At this point, it's impossible to even predict when everyone will have jumped in who is going to jump in. We're up to 14 candidates in the field (not even counting those running who have zero political experience), and we're certainly not done yet. Will the Democratic field this time around top the GOP field of 17 candidates from 2016? Stay tuned!

And finally, two amusing things to end on a lighter note. Tucker Carlson is in some hot water for some very disturbing and bigoted (and sexist and homophobic and racist) things he said on a radio show a while back, and his advertisers are already leaving in droves. But the funniest thing about the scandal was a typo on a news report caught in a tweet. Next to a photo of Carlson, there's a headline which reads: "Host Remains Deviant After Defending Sex Criminal." A little Freudian slip by the editors?

Twitter also had some fun after Donald Trump mocked Beto O'Rourke's campaign launch announcement by saying: "I think he's got a lot of hand movement. I said, 'Is he crazy, or is that just the way he acts?'" This is hilarious, since Trump himself is so well-known for waving his tiny hands around for no reason whatsoever when he talks, which social media was only too happy to point out.

At times, we give away our Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week awards for some fairly trivial things. This is not one of those weeks, because some Democrats were doing some very serious and important things which deserve mentioning.

As a close runner-up this week, we have to give California Governor Gavin Newsom an Honorable Mention award for issuing an executive order halting all executions within the state while he remains governor. This was a pretty bold move, although not as bold as it could have been. He hasn't ended executions altogether (they could resume under the next governor), and he hasn't commuted anyone's sentence to life-without-parole either, but it nonetheless sent a strong message. California has over 700 people on death row, but hasn't actually executed anyone since 2006, so it's more of a political statement than a practical change. But Newsom deserves credit for taking this step.

But our Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week this week goes to Senator Bernie Sanders and also to Senator Chris Murphy. Sanders was listed by some news organizations as the only Democratic "chief sponsor" of the measure to end America's involvement in the Saudi war in Yemen (together with Republican Mike Lee of Utah). However, other news organizations also listed Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut as a principal co-sponsor as well, so we'll be giving both Democrats a MIDOTW award, just to be sure.

The history of this resolution spans two Congresses, since the Senate had already passed it in December. But because a new Congress was seated, it had to go through the process again. A total of seven Republicans crossed the aisle and voted with every Democrat in a 54-46 vote. The measure will now move to the House, which has also passed a similar measure before, meaning the likelihood is that it'll arrive on Trump's desk within a week or so.

As we've pointed out before, this vote was as noteworthy as the non-emergency vote since it was also unprecedented. This is the first time that Congress has challenged any president under the National Emergencies Act and the War Powers Resolution, both of which have been around since the 1970s.

From the Senate floor, Sanders laid out how important the vote was: "Today, we begin the process of reclaiming our constitutional authority by ending U.S. involvement in a war that has not been authorized by Congress and is clearly unconstitutional." Murphy added: "We should not be associated with a bombing campaign that the U.N. tells us is likely a gross violation of human rights."

After the bill passed, Murphy released a further statement:

Senators from both parties have made clear that the Saudis can't take their alliance with the United States for granted. The Saudi-led war in Yemen has caused 85,000 children to starve to death. 85,000 children. Today we said enough -- enough with this disastrous and unconstitutional war, enough with facilitating this humanitarian disaster, enough with giving the Saudis a blank check. I hope the Saudi leadership is paying attention.

Once again, this is the first time Congress has directly tried to end a war using the mechanism of the War Powers Resolution. This law has never been used before because both sides (the White House and Congress) have shied away from ever testing its constitutionality in the courts. This may or may not happen this time around, because Trump will have the option to just veto the measure. Congress won't be able to overturn such a veto, and if the matter ends there then the courts won't even get involved.

Still, for writing a resolution to stop American involvement with an immoral war, and (more importantly) for getting enough bipartisan support to pass it in the Republican-led Senate, Bernie Sanders and Chris Murphy certainly deserve this week's Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week award.

[Congratulate Senator Bernie Sanders on his Senate contact page, and Senator Chris Murphy on his Senate contact page, to let them know you appreciate their efforts.]

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand should really have seen this one coming. After she led the effort to oust Al Franken from his Senate seat, you would think she would bend over backwards to be sure her own record on sexual harassment was spotless and squeaky-clean -- especially since she's now running for president.

However, the news broke this week that Gillibrand fell short of this high bar. A female aide to Gillibrand made a sexual harassment complaint, but the man she accused was kept on the job by Gillibrand. The aide quit, in disgust with how the process was handled.

Gillibrand's investigation didn't include talking to former staffers who apparently had corroborating stories, and Gillibrand didn't move to fire the guy until after she learned the story was about to break in the media.

Gillibrand is defending her actions, but that's pretty hard to do when you've set yourself out as a moral arbiter on sexual harassment to the degree that Gillibrand has. The whole thing reeks of hypocrisy, in fact. Gillibrand has already struggled to make a name for herself on the campaign trail, and there are plenty of Democratic voters who already were set against her for her treatment of Al Franken. This episode is not going to help Gillibrand at all in that regard.

The story hasn't become huge in the mainstream media, but then again Gillibrand's candidacy isn't exactly huge news either, so that could be a major reason why. But in the liberal press Gillibrand is getting raked over the coals. Which we've decided to add to with her very own Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week.

[Contact Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on her Senate contact page, to let her know what you think of her actions.]

Volume 522 (3/15/19)

Our first talking points this week have a common theme: getting under Trump's skin. We feel this is an important public service, in the times we live in. Ahem.

The remaining talking points have no theme, but do draw a distinction between what Democrats are trying to do versus the never-ending hypocrisy from the Republicans.

Without further ado, let's just get right to them, shall we?

   Trump humiliated (part 1)

It's been quite a week for humiliating the president.

"Donald Trump just saw the House unanimously pass a measure strongly urging the public release of the Mueller report, after it is given to the attorney general. Think about that for a moment -- after all of Trump's bluster about 'witch hunts' and all of the pressure on House GOP members to cover up all sorts of possible crimes for the Trump administration, they all just voted in support not only of Bob Mueller's investigation, but in support of letting the American people see whatever he uncovers. That is a pretty stinging rebuke to Trump's insistence that Mueller is somehow persecuting him. While four Republicans in the House only voted 'present,' 190 of them voted in favor of releasing the Mueller report. That's a pretty humiliating slap in the face for Trump."

   Trump humiliated (part 2)

Of course, the House wasn't alone....

"The Senate just passed a measure written by Senator Bernie Sanders to force Trump to end America's involvement in the Saudi war in Yemen. Trump brought this on himself by publicly exonerating the Saudi crown prince after he ordered the murder and dismemberment of a U.S. journalist. Either Trump actually believes the crown prince's laughable denials, or he just doesn't care. Either way, seven Republicans joined with Democrats in the Senate to send a clear message that the Saudis' behavior is not worthy of America's support. This was yet another humiliation for Trump in a pretty humiliating week."

   Trump humiliated (part 3)

But we've saved the best for last.

"Then, less than 24 hours later, the Senate voted in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, to deny Trump's insistence that not getting the money he wanted to build his precious border wall was somehow a 'national emergency.' Maybe all 12 Republican senators who voted on it can remember that Trump insisted -- absolutely insisted, mind you -- that Mexico was going to pay for the wall? Or maybe these 12 Republicans just couldn't face themselves in the mirror after voting to hand Trump powers they would fight if any Democratic president ever attempted such a thing. Or maybe they just remembered their oath to uphold the Constitution and defend it against such blatant attacks. But for whatever reason, a dozen Republican senators gave Trump the biggest humiliation he's yet had. His own party just forced him into his very first veto. Man, that's got to hurt, right?"

   Thom Tillis, hypocrite of the week

Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina is stuck between a rock and a hard place. He has to run for re-election in 2020 in a purplish state, but he also has to get through the Republican primary first. His fear of being beaten in the primary trumped his own high-falutin' moralizing this week, when he voted against the bill revoking Trump's non-emergency. His hypocrisy really knew no bounds, as you can see by what he wrote in the Washington Post before he decided to flip-flop. This clip should be carried around by Democrats this weekend, to make the point that Republicans only pretend to care about executive overreach, because they abandon these morals when one of their own is the culprit in the Oval Office. Read what Tillis wrote before he committed what he himself termed an act of intellectual dishonesty:

It is my responsibility to be a steward of the Article I branch, to preserve the separation of powers and to curb the kind of executive overreach that Congress has allowed to fester for the better part of the past century. I stood by that principle during the Obama administration, and I stand by it now.

Conservatives rightfully cried foul when President Barack Obama used executive action to completely bypass Congress and unilaterally provide deferred action to undocumented adults who had knowingly violated the nation's immigration laws. Some prominent Republicans went so far as to proclaim that Obama was acting more like an "emperor" or "king" than a president.

There is no intellectual honesty in now turning around and arguing that there's an imaginary asterisk attached to executive overreach -- that it's acceptable for my party but not thy party.

. . .

Those on the left and the right who are making Trump's emergency declaration a simple political litmus test of whether one supports or opposes the president and his policies are missing the mark. This is about the separation of powers and whether Congress will support or oppose a new precedent of executive power that will have major consequences.

As a U.S. senator, I cannot justify providing the executive with more ways to bypass Congress. As a conservative, I cannot endorse a precedent that I know future left-wing presidents will exploit to advance radical policies that will erode economic and individual freedoms.

These are the reasons I would vote in favor of the resolution disapproving of the president's national-emergency declaration, if and when it comes before the Senate.

   Trump's numbers don't add up

Trump released his annual budget offer this week, to much laughter on Capitol Hill. The chair of the House Appropriations Committee summed up the reaction by stating that Trump's budget was "not even worth the paper it's written on."

"Donald Trump released his budget priorities this week. Despite campaigning on promises that he'd never touch Medicaid and Medicare, his budget doesn't just touch them but lops at them with an axe. Trump wants a $1.1 trillion cut in Medicaid and for good measure would also slash Medicare by $845 billion. So sorry, sick people, but we've got to pay for all those tax cuts for billionaires somehow, right? Trump also promised while campaigning that he would erase the national debt during his time in office. That was always a bad joke, but now we can see just how bad it is -- Trump's budget would instead lead to the debt rising by 50 percent during his time in office. Even after proposing to slash the budgets of the Education Department, Health and Human Services, the State Department, the Transportation Department, and the Interior Department, Trump's budget numbers still don't add up to anything but massive financial mismanagement. No wonder his budget was declared dead on arrival at the Capitol."

   Meanwhile, Democrats continue to work

The media finds this sort of thing boring, what with all of Trump's tweeting and all, but getting this message out is important.

"The Democratic House continues to move forward on all sorts of good legislation, even if the media doesn't deign to notice it. This week, House Democrats introduced a bill to permanently fix the problem of the 'dreamers' as well as those under temporary protected status who have fled disasters in their home countries. These immigrants would have to be vetted -- nobody will be allowed to apply if they have committed serious crimes -- but if they had a good record, they'd be given green cards and a clear path to citizenship. This is an important issue, and the Trump administration has been heartless and cruel in their exploitation of the issue for political reasons, which is why Democrats introduced a clean bill without any extra baggage. The House also moved forward on two bills designed to close some enormous loopholes that made it into the Trump tax cut as well -- loopholes that actually encourage companies to offshore both their profits and their workers. Talk about rigging the system in the wrong direction! Democrats have introduced fixes for these problems, because they are committed to getting things done even in the face of the continued chaos from the White House."

   Sherrod Brown says what many have been thinking

And finally, we found the following rather amusing, because we've heard this refrain from many Democratic voters already exhausted with the ever-growing 2020 Democratic presidential field. Senator Sherrod Brown, who recently decided not to run for president, was asked to give his reaction to the news that Beto O'Rourke had jumped in. His response?

I have no reaction. Just one more, one more, one more gets in the race. Bring 'em in, and it'll be an interesting primary fight.

-- Chris Weigant

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Cross-posted at: Democratic Underground