There were Capitol Hill rumors in early February that Republican Rep. Neal Dunn of Florida was poised to resign ahead of his announced retirement at the end of the year, though it was an open question as to why, exactly, the congressman was eyeing an early exit.
In late February, the underlying question became a moot point: Dunn announced that he would serve out the remainder of his term, which came as a relief to House GOP leaders, who could ill-afford to see their shrinking majority nearly disappear.
On Monday, Donald Trump brought new clarity to what happened — but he wasn’t supposed to. MS NOW reported:
Trump just revealed that he and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., urged Rep. Neal Dunn, a Republican representing Florida’s rural panhandle and parts of Tallahassee, to stay in Congress despite his ‘terminal’ diagnosis related to a heart condition.
Dunn announced in January that he would not seek re-election for a sixth term but has never publicly revealed the diagnosis behind his health issues.
And then the president decided to do it for him.
At an event that was ostensibly focused on the future of the Kennedy Center, Trump meandered his way through a variety of topics, including the nature of his party’s narrow congressional majority.
It was at this point that the trouble started.
Trump urged the House speaker to “tell the story” about Dunn, which Johnson approached with some delicacy, speaking in deliberately vague terms about the nature of the medical crisis, while emphasizing how impressed he was with the Floridian’s willingness to keep working after receiving a serious medical diagnosis.
That wasn’t quite good enough for Trump, who pressed the GOP leader to disclose Dunn’s diagnosis. With some caution, Johnson said he believed it was “terminal,” at which point the president added, “He would be dead by June.”
Appearing rather uncomfortable, the House speaker told the audience, “OK, that wasn’t public.”
There were audible groans in the room.
In a situation like this, the obvious importance is the human element, and by all accounts, Dunn recently had surgery, which fortunately went well. People of goodwill can certainly hope that he continues to improve.
But this encouraging news didn’t make Monday’s exchange between Trump and Johnson any less weird.
Part of what made the incident remarkable was the president’s emphasis on the legislative arithmetic. Describing the private conversation he had with the House speaker in which he learned of Dunn’s ailment, Trump said, “I said, ‘That’s bad.’ Number one it was bad because I liked him. Number two, it was bad because I needed his vote.”
But just as notable was the president’s willingness to blurt out private medical information.
Between these impromptu comments, Trump’s record of sharing sensitive national security secrets and his history of storing classified files in the bathroom of his glorified country club, I have some general advice for those around the president: Don’t trust this guy with information you’d prefer to remain under wraps.
