Rep. Pramila Jayapal Introduces Resolution To Fire White Supremacists From White House

Good luck. Courtesy of Pramila Jayapal

While the President is busy calling the press "truly bad people," retweeting alt-right conspiracy theorists, and condemning Nazis and the KKK three days after the tragedy in Charlottesville—and even then only after pressure from his staff—Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal is busy introducing a resolution demanding that Trump "terminate from employment... and prohibit the hiring of individuals in the White House or the Trump Administration who have supported or encouraged support for White supremacists."

The press release calls out "Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Sebastian Gorka" by name.

Thirty-one representatives co-sponsor the bill, and House Minority leader Nanci Pelosi is all over the news calling for Trump to fire Bannon, too. But if you thought, as I just thought, that there's no way Republicans will adopt this resolution, then we both should be concerned, but not surprised.

As Ta-Nehisi Coates said on Democracy Now this morning, "[Trump] is who he said he was" during the campaign, and yet Republicans have been supporting him and his agenda ever since. They support him even though he claimed not to know David Duke when he clearly did. They support him even though he called Mexicans "rapists" on the day he announced his candidacy. They stood by him when he signed an executive order barring US entry to people from seven Muslim-majority countries, and when he championed the Muslim ban even after the 120-day wait-and-see period was over. They will continue to support him and his policies until his approval numbers dip below 30 percent, or until he's caught on camera splitting a Christian in half, because the only thing that matters to them is cutting taxes for the wealthy.

But when Republicans fail to take up resolutions such as Jayapal's, they're tied even tighter to Trump and his policies, which will make the (hopefully) eventual break-up even harder to do.

There is, however, some pressure to fire Steve Bannon coming from the right. NYT:

Rupert Murdoch has repeatedly urged President Trump to fire him. Anthony Scaramucci, the president’s former communications director, thrashed him on television as a white nationalist. Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, the national security adviser, refused to even say he could work with him.

Moreover, White House chief of staff John Kelley "has told Mr. Trump’s top staff that he will not tolerate Mr. Bannon’s shadowland machinations."

But I'm not going to get excited until I see more pressure coming from the right to fire Bannon's boss.