Trump’s congressional opponents defeated him in a battle for the presidency

Abcarian: Steve Bannon discovers the hard way that defying Congress is no joke

By Robert Costa, Washington Post

By Robert Costa, Washington Post

October 8, 2018

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

On Wednesday, the day after the first day of the fall congressional elections, the House of Representatives debated a resolution opposing the Trump administration’s attempt to remove the duly-elected president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

Congress had voted just days earlier to condemn the president’s “surge” of troops into Syria and, separately, had voted to condemn his decision to begin military action against Iran without congressional consultation. On Wednesday, as the House debated the Syria resolution, the House voted to condemn the Iran action, and the vote was even more lopsided, with almost 500 Democratic votes in opposition, and just over 200 votes in support for the resolution.

“Today’s House floor debate on the administration’s efforts to weaken our national security will go down in history as a moment of defiance and resistance,” Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement announcing the vote. “The people elected Donald J. Trump as president, and they should not be faced with a policy of coercion at home and abroad. But that is what the administration is attempting to force on Congress and American voters.”

The vote in the House of Representatives was the culmination of a remarkable week in which Trump’s congressional opponents were able to defeat him in not only his most basic legislative achievement, but his most basic campaign promise: to drain the swamp.

The battle lines were drawn by a president who had no real political experience when he was elected in 2016. He was not a lawmaker. But once in office, he found himself in a position where his inexperience, his political ignorance and his sheer contempt for all things like the Constitution, made him a threat to the presidency.

The Trump presidency, which has been marked by the most intense battles

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