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I was going to remark at length about the fact that the President* of the United States came out on Wednesday morning and went barking mad at a press conference, and I may still get to that, since the dead pimp who won in Nevada was more graceful in his victory than the president* was in what he claimed was his. But the story changed a bit Wednesday afternoon. The Game became On. From CNN:

President Donald Trump on Wednesday asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign, effectively firing him. Sessions' resignation letter has been delivered to White House chief of staff John Kelly.

Matt Whitaker, Sessions's chief of staff, will replace him on a "temporary" basis. Whitaker is a very committed—in print, even—opponent of the Mueller investigation. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein stays, for the moment, in charge of the Mueller investigation, but we shall have to see about how that works now that it is unclear to whom Mueller has to report. Certainly, there will be howls for Whitaker to recuse himself from all matters Russian the way that Sessions did, which was the move that put him on the president*'s bad side for good. But there's nothing that compels Whitaker to do that.

Trump with Sessions and other members of the Cabinet. Pool Getty Images

At the very least, this is the most serious threat that the Mueller investigation has faced since it was launched. In addition, ever since the investigation was launched, the president* has been quite clear that he expected the Department of Justice to function essentially as his personal legal Praetorian Guard. The president* now has cored out the upper echelons of the DOJ of anyone who even remotely could be referred to as being independent. We are not at the point of a constitutional crisis, but we can see it from here.

Plainly, Sessions was fired. His "resignation" letter makes clear that it was written at the president*'s request. And the president* likely knew it before he had his 90-minute bananas session with the press corps that was enlivened by the fact that it looked for a moment as though he and a CNN reporter were about to throw hands right there in front of the room. He got nasty with Yamiche Alcindor of PBS, accusing her of asking a "racist question." I don't think he was chuffing himself. I think he's still running scared.

Al Drago Getty Images

That may also account for this astonishing moment, in which he lined up a number of defeated Republican House candidates for their own personal walk of shame.

PETE STAUFFER OF MINNESOTA. GREAT GUY. SOME DECIDED TO STAY AWAY. THEY DID VERY POORLY. I'M NOT SURE IF I SHOULD BE HAPPY OR SAD, BUT I FEEL JUST FINE ABOUT IT. CARLOS CURBELO. MIKE COFFMAN -- TOO BAD, MIKE. MIA LOVE -- I SAW MIA LOVE. SHE CALLED ME ALL THE TIME TO HELP HER WITH A HOSTAGE SITUATION. BEING IN VENEZUELA, BUT MIA LOVE GAVE ME NO LOVE, AND SHE LOST. TOO BAD. SORRY ABOUT THAT, MIA.

BARBARA COMSTOCK WAS ANOTHER ONE. I THINK SHE COULD HAVE WON THAT RACE, BUT SHE DID NOT WANT TO HAVE ANY EMBRACE. FOR THAT, I DON'T BLAME HER. BUT SHE LOST, SUBSTANTIALLY LOST. PETER ROSKAM -- DIDN'T WANT THE EMBRACE. ERIK PAULSEN DIDN'T WANT THE EMBRACE, AND IN NEW JERSEY, I THINK HE COULD HAVE DONE WELL BUT IT DID NOT WORK OUT TOO GOOD.

Mia Love gave him no love.

Peter Roskam "didn't want the embrace."

And they got what they deserved. Losers.

Aaron P. Bernstein Getty Images

This is simply beyond my ken. This is something out of King Lear. Those were reliable congressional votes. Those were loyal Republican congresscritters. None of those people ever did anything to him politically except not to love him publicly enough or sufficiently enough. So they deserve to be exiled from the Magic Kingdom.

And, by 3:00 Wednesday afternoon, Fox News was reporting ominously that Rosenstein was "headed to the White House," and Senator Lindsey Graham, who always wants The Embrace, was tweeting:

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I look forward to working with President @realDonaldTrump to find a confirmable, worthy successor so that we can start a new chapter at the Department of Justice and deal with both the opportunities and challenges our nation faces. (2/3) — Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) November 7, 2018

Like, one would suppose, say, Lindsey Graham.

This is a madhouse. Welcome to it.

Update: Eriq Gardner on the electric Twitter machine pointed us toward this interview done by Jacob Hall on the Caffeinated Thoughts blog with our new acting AG when Whitaker was running for the Senate back in 2014. What he says there is not, ah, promising.

“I have a Christian worldview. Our rights come from our Creator and they are guaranteed by the Constitution. So I would start all analysis of any law or anything else first with the Constitution and then work from there.”

“I would say growing up in the 1980s Ronald Reagan played a large part of my political and public policy foundation. The books that I’ve read include various subjects. Obviously the Bible is a book I’ve read and continue to read. Then others include historical figures. I’ve read extensively about our Founding Fathers. I’ve read extensively on Teddy Roosevelt, Abe Lincoln and Andrew Jackson. I’ve read extensively on the Alamo and the folks involved in the Alamo. Those are several areas that I love. I think my view of our country and our future is informed a lot by what I’ve read about our nation’s history.”

“You’re asking me like I’m a lawyer or something."

"We come out of a common law tradition in the United States. Obviously I already mentioned I think our rights come from our Creator and are guaranteed by our Constitution. Our laws are passed by legislators and are executed by the executive branch. Obviously the courts have a role, although I don’t believe the courts should make law. I’ve talked about that many times before. Much like Chief Justice John Roberts says, the courts should call balls and strikes, although he’s not a good person to point to when it comes to actually just calling balls and strikes in practice. Obviously our laws follow the Constitutional system for how they have to originate and be passed, at least in the federal system.”

“The courts are supposed to be the inferior branch of our three branches of government. We have unfortunately off loaded many of our tough public policy issues onto the court and they’ve decided hem. Unelected judges are deciding many of the issues of the day. There are so many (bad rulings). I would start with the idea of Marbury v. Madison. That’s probably a good place to start and the way it’s looked at the Supreme Court as the final arbiter of constitutional issues. We’ll move forward from there. All New Deal cases that were expansive of the federal government. Those would be bad. Then all the way up to the Affordable Care Act and the individual mandate.”

[Ed. Note -- Why would we want a lawyer -- or something -- as Attorney General? That's crazy talk.][Ed. Note: And here we go.]

Party like it's 1803, people.

Update 2: Sam Clovis from Iowa is a loyal Trumper who has testified before Mueller's grand jury. Guess who was Sam's campaign director when Sam ran for state treasurer in Iowa?

Outstanding.

Update 3: And now, Rosenstein has been replaced as overseer of the Mueller investigation by Sam Clovis's old campaign manager. Dear God, this is happening fast.



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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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