Again, we are at the moment we all feared would come at some point with Trump. The President appears to be preparing to disband the investigation into his collusion with Russia.  Having succeed in reviving Roy Moore’s Senate bid, he knows full well what is gradually dawning on the rest of us – that no Republican will work to stop him. On anything.

Au·toc·ra·cy  noun

1. a system of government by one person with absolute power.

We have arrived at the point many knew was coming: President Trump is openly signaling his intent to stop Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation.  Now that the indictments, guilty pleas and cooperating witnesses point inexorably to Trump’s involvement in collusion with a foreign power and obstruction of justice, the President is directing his base’s vitriol to his own Department of Justice, the FBI, and Mueller himself.  Promising to “clean house”, the implication is clear.  Trump is going to fire the officers who are investigating his crimes.   

When hurricane Maria loomed as a messaging disaster for Trump, he was able to use the media to change the subject.  It’s what he’s best at.  He’s got a standard m.o. for doing this. Think of the Khan family at the Democratic convention, Jemele Hill and so many others.  His attacks offend us to the core and we scramble to adequately respond.  But we have spent nearly a year with him in the White House and we are painfully learning how not to get played.

It took a gut-check to decide what to say in my phone messages a couple of days ago to Senators who were considering voting to shred our healthcare system through the Graham/Cassidy bill.  It was humiliating to have to ask, “Please don’t leave us to suffer untreated medical conditions.”  “I hope you won’t send my family and millions of others into financial ruin.”  “Please don’t cause the deaths of tens of thousands of people who will lose their health insurance.”