Congresswoman resigns the seat the President made; the President says she 'went BAD.'

The Congresswoman from northwest Georgia, the one who has been the President’s most outspoken defender in Congress for five years, the one who carried the impeachment articles, the one who wore the cattle call gear, the one who got banished from the Freedom Caucus and then named to Oversight by him, resigned her seat on Friday night. She is leaving Congress on January fifth. She did not run a primary. She did not seek other office. She quit because, in her own words, the President of the United States had become “hurtful” and the primary he was preparing to run against her would be “hateful.”

The trigger was a series of policy positions she had taken in the last sixty days. She had publicly supported extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies during the shutdown. She had publicly supported releasing the Epstein files, which she has been asking for since 2022. She had publicly criticized the President’s handling of the affordability question.

The President’s response, in a Truth Social post, was that she had “PLUMMETING Poll Numbers” and that she had “gone BAD.” The capital letters were his. The next morning, Saturday, in front of a different reporter, the same President said he would “love” to see her come back to office someday. The two statements were posted within fifteen hours of each other, on the same feed.

Buddy. He cannot make up his mind in the same news cycle. On Friday night she went BAD. By Saturday lunch she’s a future candidate. The position has not changed. The person has not changed. The only thing changing is the man at the podium, and the thing he changes is whichever sentence he is currently saying.

I have run a casino floor. There is a kind of player who, after a bad hand, blames the dealer, blames the chips, blames the ventilation, blames the music, blames the man who brought him in, blames the night, blames the weather, blames everyone in the room except the man whose chips just left. The player is not lying. The player is, at any given moment, telling you what the player needs to be true to keep playing. You learn, after thirty years, not to take any of it personally.

The Congresswoman was a player at this table for five years. The dealer just looked up at her and said, in capital letters, that she had gone BAD. By Saturday lunch he was waving her back. The hand is the hand. The dealer is the dealer.

I’m arguing with the television again. The television is laughing this time.