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View from the Left: Trump vilifies media, shores up base before Russia bombshell drops

By Kerry Eleveld
Saturday Aug 26, 2017 · 1:01 PM CST

Coming off a spectacularly horrendous week, Donald Trump got straight to work this week to put some points on the board, blasting the "very dishonest" media in a disgruntled diatribe, shaming a handful of Congressional Republicans, and preemptively undercutting lawmakers' efforts to keep the government solvent.

This is leadership to Trump. It's not about serving others or progressing toward a shared goal: it's about satisfying his insatiable need to save face by belittling others. That's a "win" to him. So instead of leading the way, Trump spreads the onus for failure liberally on all those around him so whatever happens, he can point fingers in every direction.

But Trump's efforts this week stood out as particularly desperate in light of a series of conversations Trump has been having behind the scenes concerning one topic in particular: Russia.

Journalists turned up several notable instances in which Trump dialed up key Republican lawmakers to either dissuade their efforts or chastise them.

Senate Leader Mitch McConnell has become the public face of Trump's Capitol Hill shame campaign, with Trump declaring his "only problem" with McConnell was that he "failed!" on health care repeal and made "a mess" out of the effort to raise debt ceiling by the end of September.

But the real rub, of course, has the same roots as the one that sent Trump on an epic tear against his own Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In fact, Trump's McConnell bashing really gained steam after a phone call earlier this month.

During the call, which Mr. Trump initiated on Aug. 9 from his New Jersey golf club, the president accused Mr. McConnell of bungling the health care issue. He was even more animated about what he intimated was the Senate leader’s refusal to protect him from investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to Republicans briefed on the conversation.

But that's not the only call in which the topic of Russia "animated" Trump.

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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/8/26/1693304/-View-from-the-Left-Trump-vilifies-media-shores-up-base-before-Russia-bombshell-drops