Crooked Media - What A Day: Mitch, please

BY MATT BERG
& CROOKED MEDIA

MONDAY
FEBRUARY 17, 2025

“I was actually vacationing on a friend’s boat down on the Gulf of Steve Martin.”

— Actor Steve Martin's supposed location when Lorne Michaels asked him to host SNL’s 50th anniversary show.

RESISTANCE ZERO

Mitch McConnell… resistance champion? Things are getting weird on the right, as anti-Trump sentiment pops up in peculiar places.

President Donald Trump’s total dominance of the Republican party has grown so complete that any form of dissent is now all but unheard of. That’s what makes a recent trend of defiance from some conservative corners all the more notable. It’s coming from folks that, historically, would appear incredibly unlikely to ever defy a Republican president: Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Tom Cotton (R-AR), and former Vice President Mike Pence.

You know things are bleak in the Republican Party when the only lawmakers who can find their spines and enunciate original thoughts are an outgoing octogenarian, a guy who wanted to unleash the military on Black Lives Matter protestors, and an exiled evangelical radical who stood steadfast by Trump’s veep up until his former boss supported his public execution.

But consider what Mike Pence has been up to lately. His group spent $1 million on ads opposing HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination (because he isn’t anti-abortion enough). Pence is publicly calling on the president to not blow up longstanding relationships with foreign allies. He also backs limits on presidential power as Trump tries to steamroll the courts. “We’re calling balls and strikes here,” Pence explained to the Associated Press.

Then there’s Mitch McConnell — the longtime scourge of the Democrats as former Senate majority leader and one of Trump’s chief enablers from his first term. This time, the 82-year-old has led a lonely quest to oppose Trump’s most controversial cabinet nominees, including RFK Jr., Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Tom Cotton is just the latest rock-ribbed conservative to start publicly objecting to Trump’s whims.

Cotton led a public push against Trump’s petty, vindictive, dangerous decision to remove security protections for three national security officials from Trump’s first term who irked him by taking independent positions. Two of those officials, former National Security Adviser John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, were targets of an alleged Iranian assassination plot uncovered three years ago. There was a $1 million bounty on Pompeo’s head.

Cotton is also targeting MAGA’s favorite hero of the moment, Elon Musk, for bowing to China. In a book set to be published tomorrow, Cotton blasts Musk for “chasing Chinese dollars,” and says the centibillionaire “shamefully supplicated China’s Communist rulers” to advance the business interests of his companies Tesla and SpaceX. Today, Trumpworld is bashing Cotton for opposing Trump’s candidate for a top job in the Defense Department — putting Cotton in the crosshairs of Musk, Vice President JD Vance, Hegseth, and right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.

Will any of this slow Trump down, or weaken his grip on the Republican Party? No, probably not. But in the meantime, it’s good to know that even some hardcore conservatives hate this guy.

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WHAT ELSE?

Donald Trump’s top foreign policy hands are meeting with their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia for meetings this week about ending the war in Ukraine. Notably absent from the talks: Ukraine. Trump reportedly wants a cease-fire deal by Easter.

Some 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced from the Israeli-occupied West Bank since Israel launched an operation in the territory last month. That’s the highest number since 1967, when Israel began occupying the West Bank, experts say.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is refusing to resign despite increasing calls for him to go. “People are dancing on my grave,” Adams said on Sunday, comparing himself to Lazarus returning from the dead. “I am going nowhere.” With Trump’s team throwing him a political lifeline, that’s very possible.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency plans to access private taxpayer data are sparking panic. “This is a five-alarm warning,” Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) wrote on X. Just in time for tax season, too. What could go wrong?

The Trump administration began firing air control staff who worked for the Federal Aviation Administration, weeks after the country’s deadliest plane crash in 15 years. But don’t worry! “SpaceX engineers will help make air travel safer,” Musk tweeted on Sunday, referencing his own rocket launch company. Wow, that makes me feel so much better!

Just as Musk was promising safer skies, a Delta Air Lines flight arriving from Minneapolis flipped upside down in an “incident” at a Toronto airport. At least eight people were injured. But sure, keep cutting those jobs! Penny saved, penny earned, right, Elon?

Trump also cut staff at the office which handles response to the bird flu, among other animal disease outbreaks. The Centers for Disease Control and other health agencies also saw mass firings. Now, experts are worried that Trump’s actions will make the next major pandemic worse.

Aaaaand Trump fired dozens of people who worked on a clean energy program which received hundreds of billions of dollars under the Biden administration.

Pete Hegseth admitted that he owes $33,000 in unpaid taxes. Of course, he blamed it on the Democrats.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr mocked music icon Sheryl Crow after the singer for announcing that she’s selling her Tesla and donating the funds to NPR. “I know celebrities are hesitant to weigh in on hot button issues, so I appreciate Sheryl Crow making an argument here — not through words alone, but through her actions — that Congress should not force taxpayers to subsidize NPR,” Carr wrote on X. Brb, selling my cybertruck and using the proceeds to keep “All I Wanna Do” playing on my corner bar’s jukebox till the year 2045.

The Trump administration is pressuring Romania to lift travel restrictions on far-right scumbag troll Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan. Both men have been charged with human trafficking, sexual misconduct, organized crime and money laundering. Ric Grennell, a high-ranking Trump official, is leading the push, the Financial Times reports. That’s also the dude who Trump appointed to be the interim president of the Kennedy Center. What, is he planning to put them on stage???

At least ten people have died as torrential downpours and floods hit parts of the southeastern United States over the weekend. A polar vortex is now expected to hit the Rockies and northern Plains this week as the National Weather Service warned of “life-threatening cold” temperature on Tuesday. In Montana, temps could reach as low as negative 45 degrees.

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Donald Trump’s threats to make Canada the 51st state in the U.S. has caused Canadian flag sales to skyrocket. The trend could cause one popular flag maker to see annual sales 50 percent higher than usual. “The more Trump talks, the more flags we sell,” he said. Raise ‘em high, northern neighbors.

A man in New York has been using a drone with thermal imaging to find lost pets in the snow, most recently saving an American bully-golden retriever mix named Aurora.

Sabrina Carpenter and Paul Simon teamed up during SNL’s 50th year anniversary celebration last night to sing Simon & Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound.” That was the highlight of the night for me… and all the jokes about Art Garfunkel that followed.