Apprearing at a “Stronger Together” rally as emcee Sunday in the south Florida town of Sunshine, Democratic firebrand Representative Alcee Hastings (D-FL-20) made a joke at the expense of President Donald Trump that, while delighting the crowd assembled, caused some political watchers to take notice.
In video posted on YouTube, viewers see Hastings on stage, standing behind a podium. “But I will tell you one joke that I heard from Ari Silver, whose father is former state legislator and is a rabbi, Barry Silver,” Hastings began.
He continued:
But Ari asked the audience the other night in Palm Beach County – he said, ‘Do you know the difference between a crisis and a catastrophe?’ And no one held up their hand so Ari answered for us.
He said, ‘A crisis is if Donald Trump falls into the Patomac River and can’t swim.’ And he said, ‘A catastrophe is anybody saves his ass.’
The audience approved with an overwhelming and sustained applause with laughter.
Watch the video:
Anthony Man, the South Florida Sun Sentinel political writer, took note of the Hastings’ quip:
.@AlceeHastingsFL warms up Democratic rally in Sunrise with a joke about the difference between a crisis and a catastrophe.
Crisis: if @realDonaldTrump falls into the Potomac River & can’t swim.
Catastrophe: If “anybody saves his ass.”— Anthony Man (@browardpolitics) August 19, 2018
The weekend event featured fellow Democrats Sen. Bill Nelson and four of the five Democratic candidates for governor, the Sun Sentinel reported, noting that they had left by the time Hastings made his joke about the president.
At the same event, Hastings also said that,“There is no question that something is tragically wrong with the president of the United States in his mind.”
Hastings has been a reliable and outspoken critic of the President. In 2016, the Sun Sentinel reported he referred to then-GOP nominee Trump as a “sentient pile of excrement,” and ultimately boycotted the inauguration.
At 81 years old, Representative Alcee Hastings is a Democrat Party mainstay in Florida. He is currently running for his 13th re-election for Florida’s 20th congressional district, located in the southeast of the state (including Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach).
The best that I can determine, U.S. Representative Alcee Hastings holds the rare distinction of being one of only eight individuals in the entire history of our country who was both impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives AND convicted by the U.S. Senate and removed from federal office (he was a U.S. District Court Judge in the Southern District of Florida–he was charged and convicted of (1) perjury and (2) soliciting bribes to ‘fix’ a case). Nineteen persons have been impeached in the history of our country, and while several of these have then either resigned, or gone to trial and were acquitted, only eight were convicted and removed from office. Unfortunately, in Hastings’ case upon his conviction he was not barred from holding future federal office, so naturally, he ran for and was elected the U.S. Representative for a Congressional District in Southern Florida–he is a Democrat.