A Wall Street Journal article published on Tuesday, Nov. 18 is headlined, “Trump’s Grip on Republicans Shows First Signs of Slipping.” In fact, it’s been slipping for some time, but the arrogant billionaire class thought that they could ignore it. Now it is obvious to any sentient American, except, it appears, Trump himself, putting him in a dangerous security situation, and jeopardizing national policy.
The “Urinal” hones in on three areas: the release of the Epstein files, the demands on Republican lawmakers to gerrymander their states to get more Republicans elected, and the fight around the filibuster.
On the Epstein files, aside from Trump’s public verbal assault against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), in which he called her “Traitor Greene,” which has led to a rash of death threats against her (more on that case below), WSJ reveals that Rep. Lauren Broebert (R-CO) was called in to a White House meeting with FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, who tried to persuade her not to vote for releasing the files. Broebert said she was concerned about Epstein’s victims and refused to back down.
When it became clear that there were too many Republican lawmakers voting to release the files to prevent it, President Trump announced that he was instructing all Republicans to vote to release the files because “we have nothing to hide.” What that means is unclear, and may simply mean that the President has the power to redact huge amounts of content from what will finally be released. Regardless, it shows that Trump wanted to avoid the appearance of having lost control of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, and decided to make it appear that they are acting on his instructions.
Popular podcasters Kim Iversen and comedian Jimmy Dore have been much more direct, with Dore saying, “It only took Donald Trump 10 months to destroy his base,” pointing to the public brawl over Israel policy with Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson, and Candace Owens.
On Monday, Nov. 17 Kim Iversen posted a show entitled, “Base vs. Establishment: Civil
