Thread by @ASlavitt

COVID Update October 18: It is time.

For the past.
And more importantly for the future.

Today: the past. Tomorrow I will write about the future. 1/

Trump has never faced accountability for his actions. His career in bankruptcy is a master class in how to behave when you don't care about others. Take their money, don't pay it back. Take their services, don't pay it back. 2/

Doing everything you can to avoid taxes including hiding money overseas, illegally using a foundation, writing off blackmail payments, trying to outlawyer the tax code. That's not "savvy." Its savage.

It is not patriotic. Yet, to date no accountability. 3/

Surrounding yourself with people your entire life, the people who know you best that each individually turn on you and you call rats when they've seen too much.

4 kinds of people stick with Trump: sychophants, weak people, ambitious people, or family. All 4 & your Don, Jr.4/

We have been reminded these last 4 years that its not only a president but the people around the president who we elect. Miller, Price, Bannon, Barr, Pompeo, Atlas, Meadows, DeVos, Carson, Sessions, Zinke, Pruitt.

"We didn't elect these people," you say. Yes, we did. 5/

When they arrived in Washington in 2017 I was there to witness the hubris.

George W Bush and Obama are considered to have the finest transition in American history. Obama & team give full credit to the Bush team. Obama-Biden asked us to do the same for Trump-Pence. 6/

Memos were prepared, meetings scheduled, details on our greatest threats, particularly those hard to see, were laid out. But meetings were perfunctory if they happened at all.

Anything connected to Obama was considered poison. They had no idea how to run government.7/

What emerged was a sick stew:
-Bannon trying to blow things up
-Trump looking for enrichment
-McConnell nodding along & seeking power
-Ryan seeking to finally take money from the poor
-Graham looking for openings & influence 8/

Everyone I talked to describes Trump as an easy mark if you want something. Flatter him. Tell him how Obama did it so he would do the opposite. Don't give him options. Appeal to his "gut." Tell him only he can sell it to the American public. 9/

I asked a Republican Senator once if Trump had any actual beliefs. He answered quickly: trade and isolationism. Those he believed.

"Everything else is up for grabs." No beliefs other than those two things.

And he did a shitty job on trade & a bang up job on isolating us. 10/

Where do his other policies come from?
-Those who manipulate him
-His populist sense of what his followers like-- what gets applause & what gets Twitter likes

It is as simple and as sad as that. 11/

He also rebels against things that aren't his. If someone were dying & needed oxygen but it said "Obamacare" on it, Trump would let people die. Unless he could Sharpee it to say Trump. Then he would Sharpee it and let people die anyway. 12/

He doesn't have a health care plan because he has perfectly fine health care himself & doesn't care if you get cared for or not. 13/

In fact Trump comes across two kinds of issues: the kind you can word salad your way through & the kind he tries to word salad your way through. But he never actually does anything. 14/

The pandemic word salad: "miracle" "around the corner" "hoax" "liberate" "China" "leader" "most."

But what did he do? He got rid of all preparation. He convened a task force for SEVEN weeks. He denied science. He thrust the problem on states. He peddled garbage. 15/

He knew. He knew and he let your neighbor die. Or your mom. Or people who grow our food, veterans who served our country, people who were ill, or worked at the local store, or lived with their grandchildren.

And as the problem became Blacker & Browner, he cared even less. 16/

And he did not honor a single loss. He did not mourn. He did not recognize people we lost. He did not ask flags be flown at half-staff. He did not visit a hospital or a gravesite.

He dishonored the dead by letting more people die. He must be held accountable. 17/

Four years without accountability-- believing you can manipulate or fool people.
-Skimming $ for his company
-Denying services to legal immigrants
-Separating kids from their parents
-Regressing on climate progress
-Trying over & over to take your health care 18/

-Not trying to save lives when we were dying
-Dividing us
-Encouraging the worst racists
-Perverting justice
-Crapping on career civil servants
-Screwing farmers
-Cutting food & health programs for the poor
-Attacking the trans community 19/

-Victimizing the disability community
-Massively cutting taxes for him & his friends
-Retreating fully from our place in the world
-Teaching kids how to bully
-Suppressing the vote
-Consorting with enemies
-Cutting nursing home safety rules
-Diminishing cherished institutions20/

Donald Trump viewed this country as his to pillage. He has marched us toward the decline of a great republic. He has caused us to question our own survival.

What about all the people who have stood & watched & said nothing. 21/

Our country is supposed to be able to minimize the damage from a single individual with checks & balances.

where were you? 22/

McConnell, Graham, Ernst, Collins, Loeffler, Cornyn, Daines, Gardner, McSally, Perdue, Sullivan, Tillis...

The first check & balance is supposed to be a moral one. A moral one. You have been silent. You have failed. You have been cowed.

You must be held to account. 23/

McConnell, Graham, Ernst, Collins, Loeffler, Cornyn, Daines, Gardner, McSally, Perdue, Sullivan, Tillis...

You sought favor. You looked the other way. You compromised morally to get what you want. You chose party over country.

You must be held to account. 24/

McConnell, Graham, Ernst, Collins, Loeffler, Cornyn, Daines, Gardner, McSally, Perdue, Sullivan, Tillis...

You knew what was happening. You complained silently. You didn't stand up to a bully. You didn't stand up against racism.25/

McConnell, Graham, Ernst, Collins, Loeffler, Cornyn, Daines, Gardner, McSally, Perdue, Sullivan, Tillis...

How you have rationalized this to yourself I can't imagine. Having a hand in all these sins, lies & corruption. But now you have to face people.26/

McConnell, Graham, Ernst, Collins, Loeffler, Cornyn, Daines, Gardner, McSally, Perdue, Sullivan, Tillis...

And you might find that you are not facing Democrats vs. Republicans. You might find you are facing people who love the country too much to throw it away. 27/

McConnell, Graham, Ernst, Collins, Loeffler, Cornyn, Daines, Gardner, McSally, Perdue, Sullivan, Tillis...

You might find you are facing people who would crawl over broken glass to hold you accountable. People tired of being abused. People who have been pushed past normal. 28/

McConnell, Graham, Ernst, Collins, Loeffler, Cornyn, Daines, Gardner, McSally, Perdue, Sullivan, Tillis...

You might find people expected you to do something and you did nothing. That people don't believe you now because the last 4 years of silence was deafening. 29/

McConnell, Graham, Ernst, Collins, Loeffler, Cornyn, Daines, Gardner, McSally, Perdue, Sullivan, Tillis...

When people have gone 4 years without being listened to, been abused, watch people die, were willing to put their own politics aside, voting appears like an oasis.29/

Its imperfect but this democracy still demands accountability. Wrongs can't be easily righted. Those we lost can't come back to us. But they deserve accountability.

Accountability is the first step towards justice. Towards healing. Towards getting our country back.30/

Our republic must address the past if we are to move forward and heal and once again build a country where all of us can live & contribute & care for each other & our families again.

Where we face down hate unequivocally. Where we stand up for each other. 31/

Its time for the weak, greedy, corrupt, doting, and silent to go.

It's time to get our country back. /end

PS I think I had the setting on that didn’t let people reply! That was a mistake. Not sure how it happened. Obv can quote tweet. I am interested in people’s perspectives.