Thursday Donald Trump announced that former U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta was his new nominee for labor secretary after Andrew Puzder wasn’t going to get enough Senate votes for the job.
Offhand, Acosta was relatively speaking a solid pick for labor secretary especially considering the dumpster fire that Puzder was. Acosta, who served in the George W. Bush administration as a member of the National Labor Relations Board also served as an Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, a department where he defended American Muslims in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks.
Additionally, as a United States attorney in Southern Florida Acosta oversaw a case against UBS, a Switzerland bank who was accused of helping American’s evade taxes.
Again, a solid pick when you compare it to Puzder and some of the other jokers Trump has paraded into his administration.
But today’s contentious press conference wasn’t about the nomination of Acosta. It was in many ways a continued campaign rally that Trump for some reason simply cannot give up.
Trump went off the rails ranting about Russian leaks within his own administration, the eventual firing of Michael Flynn (which he continues to blame on the media despite he being the one who dropped the axe) and the ‘fake news’.
“I have never seen more dishonest media, frankly than the political media,” Trump said, later slamming leaks to the press from the intelligence community — some of which led to the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn.“The leaks are real. The leaks are absolutely real. The news is fake because so much of the news is fake,”
As you know, our administration inherited many problems across the government and across the economy. To be honest, I inherited a mess. It’s a mess. At home and abroad, a mess. Jobs are pouring out of the country; you see what’s going on with all of the companies leaving our country, going to Mexico and other places, low pay, low wages, mass instability overseas, no matter where you look. The Middle East is a disaster. North Korea — we’ll take care of it folks; we’re going to take care of it all. I just want to let you know, I inherited a mess.
I turn on the TV, open the newspapers, and I see stories of chaos. Chaos. Yet, it is the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine, despite the fact that I can’t get my Cabinet approved.
The failing New York Times wrote a big, long front-page story yesterday. And it was very much discredited, as you know. It was — it’s a joke.
Fox & Friends in the morning, they’re very honorable people. They’re very — not because they’re good, because they hit me also when I do something wrong. But they have the most honest morning show. That’s all I can say. It’s the most honest.
QUESTION: Are you going to include the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional —
TRUMP: Well, I would. I tell you what, do you want to set up the meeting?
QUESTION: — Hispanic Caucus —
TRUMP: Do you want to set up the meeting?
QUESTION: No — no — no. I’m not —
TRUMP: Are they friends of yours?
QUESTION: I’m just a reporter.
TRUMP: Well, then, set up the meeting.
QUESTION: I know some of them, but I’m sure they’re watching right now.
What the fuck? That was almost as bad as Trump telling the Jewish reporter to sit down when he was simply asking about the backlash of antisemitism in the country in the wake of his election victory.
h/t: Washington Post