Trump's taxing week still took him one step forward to weakening Obamacare

On President Donald Trump’s 47th week in office, he threw his full support behind accused child molester Roy Moore — who went on to lose to a Democrat in Alabama — andattended the opening of a Mississippi civil rights museum, where he praised Martin Luther King Jr., only to later have his press secretary criticize civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis. And hehad two of his federal judge nominees disqualified. But things are looking up for Trump, agenda-wise: Republicans revealed their tax bill late Friday night, which seems likely to pass and would have the added benefit of decimating Obamacare.
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President Trump ignored a wave of backlash about his administration’s treatment of black Americans and visited the opening of a Mississippi civil rights museum anyway.

“We want our country to be a place where every child from every background can grow up free from fear, innocent from hatred, and surrounded by love, opportunity and hope,” Trump said in remarks at the museum, which will chronicle the history of the KKK and the Jim Crow era.

Civil rights movement icon and Georgia Democrat Rep. John Lewis had canceled his plans to attend the opening after Trump announced he’d be in attendance. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement criticizing Lewis, who marched at Selma with Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965, for failing to honor “the incredible sacrifice civil rights leaders made to right the injustices in our history.” Longtime Mississippi Congressman Bennie Thompson also canceled his plans to attend.

Trump said he had “studied and “admired” Martin Luther King Jr. his entire life, as about 50 protesters gathered outside the museum to protest the president’s attendance.

It was a relatively uneventful day for President Trump, though he managed to find some time for a few tweets about “fake news.”

Three of the 19 women who’ve accused Trump of unwanted kissing, groping, and other sexual mistreatment went on NBC’s “Today” show and later appeared in a news conference to call on Congress to investigate.

“For us to put ourselves out there to try to show America who this man is and especially how he views women and for them to say, ‘Eh, we don’t care,’ it hurt,” said Samantha Holvey, who said Trump walked into her dressing room when she was in the 2006 Miss America pageant. “Now it’s just like, ‘Let’s try round two; the environment’s different.’”

The Trump administration promised that it had many witnesses to discredit Trump’s accusers.

“In terms of the specific eyewitness accounts,” she told reporters, “there have been multiple reports, and I’d be happy to provide them to you after the briefing has completed.” (The list turned out to be not so exhaustive.)

Trump’s attempts to ban transgender people from enlisting in the military have also so far failed. A Pentagon official told the Associated Press that trans people will still be able to enlist starting Jan. 1.

The president went after Sen. Gillibrand, who had recently called for his resignation, in a tweet drenched in sexual overtones. He said she would “do anything for campaign donations.”

That would be the only high spot for Trump that day as the Alabama Senate election concluded in a win for Democrat Doug Jones. His opponent, Moore, however, refused to concede.

The loss was an even bigger one for Trump (who went all in for Moore, even suggesting the women accusing him were lying), his rumored late-night phone companion Steve Bannon (who conservatives are now publicly blaming for turning Alabama blue), and the GOP tax bill.

But at least Vladimir Putin is still reading his tweets (and considers them official White House statements).

Throughout the day, Trump also fired off several tweets about his favorite topics: Democrats inventing an investigation into his campaign’s collusion with Russia and how Doug Jones — who only won because of write-in votes — will ruin America.

Two of Trump’s judicial nominees are no longer in the running for the bench, said Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. The first, Brett Talley, has literally never tried a case. The second, Jeff Matter, once called trans kids proof of “Satan’s plan” and openly admitted he discriminates against gay people.

Trump took the time to remind everyone that before he endorsed Moore for Alabama’s open Senate seat, he’d picked Luther Strange, the Republican appointed to replace Jeff Sessions, as the favorite. “I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!” Trump tweeted.

Ipso facto, Trump had not supported a loser. (He had).

Ignoring months of frenzied opposition, the Republican-dominated Federal Communications Commission, lead by Trump appointee Ajit Pai, killed the net neutrality rules enacted under President Obama in 2015. The rules had leveled the playing field for consumers by mandating that internet providers couldn’t slow down load speeds or charge more for certain types of content.

Leading up to the vote, Pai ramped up his already strange propaganda campaign to try to convince everyone he wouldn’t ruin the internet by starring in video that merged the Harlem Shake, which wasn’t cool four years ago, and the more recent Pizzagate conspiracy.

Speaking of voting, Vice President Mike Pence delayed his trip to Israel, you know, just in case he needs to be the tie-breaker on the Senate’s tax bill, Israeli officials told Axios. At least two Republican senators reportedly remain undecided on the wildly unpopular legislation, which Trump has continued to push as a grand success.

Donald Trump has responded to the question “Will you pardon Mike Flynn?” in the most Donald Trump way possible.

“I don’t want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet. We’ll see what happens,” Trump said Friday. “Let’s see, I can say this: When you look at what’s gone on with the FBI and the Justice Department, people are very, very angry.”

Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, is facing five years in prison after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his communication with Russians officials during the campaign.