As the Republican Party continues its post-midterm meltdown, Donald Trump is rising to the occasion.
Trump used his Truth Social platform Wednesday to remind the Republican Party that he plans to destroy it if it cuts him loose. He included no text, he simply blasted out an article from the pro-MAGA site American Greatness titled, "The Coming Split."
In it, the author, Dan Gelernter, explores what might happen if a majority of GOP voters still want Trump as their nominee but the "Republican Party" refuses.
"I have no intention of supporting a Republican Party that manifestly contravenes the desires of its voters," Gelernter writes. "The RNC can pretend Trump isn’t loved by the base anymore, that he doesn’t have packed rallies everywhere he goes. But I’m not buying it: Talk to Republican voters anywhere outside the Beltway, and it is obvious that he is admired and even loved by those who consider themselves 'ordinary' Americans."
Though fewer Republicans and GOP leaners than ever say they want Trump to run in 2024, it’s also true there’s still plenty of appetite for Trumpism and his mystique, shall we say.
Gelernter pledges to support Trump as third party candidate if he does not prevail in the Republican primary.
"Do I think Trump can win as a third-party candidate? No. Would I vote for him as a third-party candidate? Yes. Because I’m not interested in propping up this corrupt gravy-train any longer," he explains, singling out Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as entirely out of step with the base.
Gelernter isn't wrong about McConnell, who has completely lost grip on the motivations and desires of the MAGA Republicans who have overrun his band of party elites.
But the bigger immediate problem for McConnell and his ilk is the fact that Trump will surely burn the entire party to the ground if he doesn't clinch the nomination.
He is most certainly hinting at a third-party run that would almost surely doom Republicans in a general election.
But let's imagine a slightly less dramatic scenario in which Trump loses but doesn't launch an independent candidacy. He will never be the guy who graciously steps aside, endorses the GOP frontrunner, and works to elect them, a la Hillary Clinton in 2008 or Bernie Sanders in 2020 (to say nothing of 2016). Even if Trump isn't running, he will launch a revenge tour with the sole mission of burying the GOP standard bearer, whoever they may be.
Trump brought millions more voters into the Republican fold, and the party is now dearly dependent on motivating the MAGA base it gained after alienating suburban voters who once buoyed Republican turnout. If Trump’s not the nominee, he will undoubtedly instruct those MAGA voters to abandon the Republican Party as a corrupt institution of traitors to his cause.
One way or the other, Trump is committed to making sure any party he isn't dominating is no party at all. Nothing will be left of the Republican Party if he can help it. So the GOP either gets Trump as a nominee, gets a third-party candidacy from him, or gets a scorched-earth campaign from Trump to raze the entire institution. How grand.
GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell knows who's to blame for Senate Republicans' midterm drubbing, and he is definitely not it.
“Look at Arizona, look at New Hampshire, and the challenging situation in Georgia as well,” McConnell said Tuesday, ticking through a list of once-promising GOP losses at his weekly press conference. “You have to have quality candidates to win competitive Senate races.”
McConnell stopped short of calling out Donald Trump by name, because god forbid he show some actual leadership. But every GOP candidate in those states—Blake Masters in Arizona, Don Bolduc in New Hampshire, and Herschel Walker in Georgia—had Trump's endorsement. In fact, Trump's heavy-handed backing was instrumental to the candidacies of both Masters and Walker.
McConnell did, however, admit that he was basically powerless in the face of Trump.
“Our ability to control the primary outcome was quite limited in ‘22 because of the support of the former president proved to be very decisive in these primaries,” McConnell lamented.
Of course, McConnell bears as much responsibility as Trump for the Senate GOP’s pathetic cycle. In New Hampshire, McConnell tried desperately to recruit the state's highly popular GOP governor, Chris Sununu, to take on Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan. But after speaking with several members of the Senate GOP caucus, Sununu took a hard pass on jumping on that sorry do-nothing bandwagon. Instead, he ran for and secured a fourth term as governor.
The Senate GOP's Sununu misadventure highlighted the fact that Trump obviously wasn't the only hurdle to recruiting quality candidates. McConnell also tried to convince term-limited GOP Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to run for Senate to no avail. So let’s just be honest that the Senate GOP's lack of appeal to reasonably capable people certainly isn't on Trump—it's on McConnell.
"Herschel is the only one who can unite the party, defeat Senator Warnock, and help us take back the Senate," McConnell said in an October statement to Politico. "I look forward to working with Herschel in Washington to get the job done."
Walker not only failed to help Republicans take back the Senate, he didn’t exactly deliver as a uniter either.
Back at the post-election press conference, McConnell reflected on similar losses by fatally flawed Republican candidates in 2010 and 2012, saying the GOP had “unfortunately revisited that situation in 2022.”
Gee, Senator, if only there had been a way to avoid "that situation" again. If only Trump had, for instance, orchestrated a wildly unpopular insurrection against the U.S. government, leaving himself open to a career-ending impeachment.
The truth is, if McConnell hadn't miscalculated every step of this midterm cycle, perhaps he'd be poised right now to become the longest-serving Senate Majority Leader in U.S. history. Instead, he's devoting press conferences to excuse peddling for the GOP's anemic election showing.
If McConnell's still looking around for culprits, might be time to take a look in the mirror.
For seven long years, Republicans have serially debased themselves at the altar of Donald Trump—a ramshackle shrine that isn’t as ornate and gold leaf-gilded as you might think. Actually, it’s just like a traditional altar, except if God ever asked Trump to sacrifice his firstborn son on it, Trump would be elbows deep in failson viscera before Yahweh had a chance to tell him He was kidding.
But Republicans—they have no such forbearance. Their strategy for fighting inflation, creating jobs, and promoting democracy both here and abroad is single-pronged and simple: investigate Hunter Biden. After all, he has, well, nothing at all to do with his father's administration—but like millions of Americans, he’s battled a substance abuse problem, and so Republicans think they can embarrass our president to the point where he loses it and starts prescribing bleach shots for respiratory diseases and squirreling away top secret nuclear documents in his neck wattle.
Never mind that when it comes to Hunter Biden, all that Republicans are likely to find are some peccadilloes that are personally embarrassing—to Hunter Biden. Meanwhile, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner skipped town with a $2 billion loan from Prince Bone Saws, and No. 1 child Ivanka scored some sweet trademarks from China as her dad threatened and menaced its government with tariffs.
So why are Republicans doing this? Because they’re a waste of time, carbon, and oxygen? Yes, of course—but that’s only part of the answer. The real reason, according to conservative columnist Mona Charen, is pervasive guilt.
In a new column for The Bulwark, Charen argues that Trumpland is so up to its oleaginous teats in gaudy scandal, it has no choice but to paint its opponents with the same off-brand, lead-based paints its been marinating in for most of the past decade.
For seven years, the right has been explaining, excusing, avoiding, and eventually cheering the most morally depraved figure in American politics. That takes a toll on the psyche. You can tell yourself that the other side is worse. Or you can tell yourself that the critics are unhinged, suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome” whereas you are a man of the world who knows nobody’s perfect. But then Trump will do what he always does—he’ll make a fool of you. You denied that Trump purposely broke the law when he took highly classified documents to Mar-A-Lago and obstructed every effort to retrieve them. And then what does Trump do? He admits taking them! You scoff at the critics who’ve compared Trump with Nazis. And then what does he do? He has dinner with Nazis! (And fails to condemn them even after the fact.) You despised people who claimed Trump was a threat to the Constitution, and then Trump explicitly calls for “terminating” the Constitution in order to put himself back in the Oval Office.
Yup. Whatever fever dream you can conjure about Joe Biden and his family, Trump’s real life will eventually top it. Guaranteed. And it’s not even close. So Republicans’ only option now—other than embracing truth and belatedly attempting to salvage some modicum of dignity (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha … whoo! … *wipes away tear*)—is to try to make Biden look just as bad as the guy they gifted with a lifetime get-out-of-jail-free card. Unfortunately, Trump keeps fouling up their plans by continuing to breathe and speak.
President Biden is hardly the first president to have troubled family members. But Joe Biden didn’t hire Hunter at the White House, and if there is any evidence of the president using official influence on Hunter’s behalf, we haven’t seen it. The Department of Justice under President Trump opened an investigation into Hunter Biden. President Biden has left it alone. It’s ongoing.
The right has a deep psychological need for the Hunter Biden story. They desperately want Joe Biden to be corrupt and for the whole family to be, in [GOP Rep. Elise] Stefanik’s words, “a crime family” because they have provided succor and support to someone who has encouraged political violence since his early rallies in 2015, has stoked hatred of minorities through lies, has used his office for personal gain in the most flagrant fashion, has surrounded himself with criminals and con men, has committed human rights violations against would-be immigrants by separating children from their parents, has pardoned war criminals, has cost the lives of tens of thousands of COVID patients by discounting the virus and peddling quack cures, has revived racism in public discourse, and attempted a violent coup d’etat.
I wholeheartedly agree, and I couldn’t have said it better myself—because if I’d said it, I would have felt compelled to compare Trump unfavorably to a pumpkin-spiced whale placenta, and that may have lacked the necessary gravitas.
But whatever we on the American side of our country’s current political divide have to say, Republicans will likely go full Republican regardless. Their interminable Benghazi investigations surely contributed to Hillary Clinton’s eventual defenestration, and they can’t wait to perform the same black magic with Joe Biden’s troubled son.
The fact that there’s very little “there” there will hardly dissuade them. But maybe, just maybe, the American people will be wise to their tricks this time around. After all, Donald Trump’s trail of corruption is hard to miss—and Republicans will no doubt be slipping on that slug slime for many years to come, no matter how many distractions they try to throw in our path.
I think we all know why former President Donald Trump is running again in 2024: to keep his ass out of jail. Trump is dogged by indictments and subpoenas, and although he may have dodged two impeachment bullets, federal district attorneys aren’t so easy to outrun.
Despite his many legal issues, Trump and his BFF, hubris, announced his candidacy from his Florida manse.
“In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” Trump told an eager crowd at Mar-a-Lago in mid-November.
Fast-forward to December and aside from a now-infamous dinner the former president shared with two other antisemites, he’s barely left his bedroom, a 2020 Trump campaign adviser told CNN.
“So far, he has gone down from his bedroom, made an announcement, gone back up to his bedroom, and hasn’t been seen since except to have dinner with a White supremacist,” the unnamed adviser said, adding, “It’s 1000% a ho-hum campaign.”
Just three days after Trump made his lackluster announcement, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee not one but two ongoing criminal investigations against the former president.
As for polling on Trump’s support for 2024, it appears he’s just a bit ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 36% to DeSantis’ 30%. But a Quinnipiac poll suggests that Republicans prefer DeSantis as their candidate over Trump.
And Republicans smell blood in the water. It seems nearly everyone, from former Vice President Mike Pence to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy—along with scads of others—have all condemned his dinner with Kanye “Ye” West and his buddy, notorious Holocaust-denier Nick Fuentes. When you add that nearly every single candidate Trump endorsed lost in the midterm elections, it’s not looking great.
But here’s that hubris again as Trump goes into full denial mode, confidently telling his advisers that the backlash over the dinner is “dying down.”
Trump’s campaign team tells CNN their candidate is simply “taking a breather.” And an unnamed adviser told the outlet:
“The question a lot of us have is can Trump sustain a campaign for two years? That’s the real difficulty here. The pacing we’re seeing right now is designed to do that.”
Breather or not, the Trump of 2015—with all the vim and vigor of a white supremacist hoping to take control of the nation—seems to have dimmed. What Trump can’t face is that politics are fickle. When you’re hot, you’re hot; and when you’re not, you’re Trump.
Now that the GOP has gained a House majority, Kevin McCarthy has a real opportunity to rise to the occasion. Although it wasn’t the midterm election result McCarthy wanted, by winning the House of Representatives the Republican Party has a seat at the governing table. The 55th speaker of the House is in a position to set policies and priorities in contrast to Joe Biden, and in the process make the case that a Republican belongs back in the White House in 2024.
Doing so means that McCarthy and his lieutenants will have to demonstrate they understand the value of playing the long game. Even in a complicated political environment, the incoming GOP House leader can reset the party’s internal politics – provided he can orchestrate his caucus to communicate with purpose. It’s a tall task, but this is the moment.
Republicans would be well-served to focus first on what majorities of the American people want – bringing inflation under control, lowering the cost of gasoline and groceries, leading the country out of recession, and checking President Biden’s tax-and-spend Big Government master plan.
House Republicans could be off to a quick start, focusing on issues that unify the American people. HR 1 should be an American Energy Power Plan, where we put the left on defense and finally put our nation’s energy future on solid footing. A cold winter is a bracing reminder that U.S. energy production must happen on our soil, on our terms, while bolstering American jobs and helping European allies.
Voters would also rest easier knowing that our borders are under control and that U.S. military and economic strength is a deterrent to North Korean missiles and Iranian-backed terrorism, not to mention Russian cybercrime and Vladimir Putin’s territorial ambitions. Focus on the priorities, unify the American people, and you can go a long way toward unifying the GOP House conference.
Headline-chasing investigations should be distinct from regular oversight. There is a dire need to audit, trace, and confirm taxpayer dollars. We must know that the countless billions are being appropriately spent. And while we are being blunt, the GOP should drop the word impeachment from their vocabulary. We need to show that we can learn from the mistakes of the opposition.
We don’t need an investigation to confirm China’s responsibility for spreading COVID. Still, hearings can identify why public health systems failed and identify approaches that don’t trample civil liberties or shut down the American economy the next time we confront a pandemic. When it comes to inquiries into Biden’s business dealings, direct questions about payments to Joe Biden are far more relevant than even the most scandalous, and at this point personally tragic, revelations about Hunter Biden.
Clicks are not votes, and social media engagement is not persuasion. Elon Musk will do his best to rebuild Twitter into a public square, but compelling communication fundamentals should be the priority. Look at Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis leveraged disputes over stadium funding. Mike DeWine in Ohio led on the economy and created the political climate which helped the GOP to hold a vital Senate seat.
All of this will occur against the backdrop of the 2024 GOP presidential primary. Donald Trump is running, and he is the front-runner unless served notice by primary voters. He is a formidable campaigner, and nobody is better at delivering a one-line knock-out punch.
Like the successful 1994 “Contract with America” before it, McCarthy’s “Commitment to America” is the checklist the GOP should use to keep their focus. Nancy Pelosi will no longer be an option for punditry punchlines, and intra-party squabbles will draw the interest of a hostile establishment media. We agree with Newt Gingrich, probably the most notorious back-bench rabble-rouser of them all: Picking fights with leadership doesn’t advance the ball.
If the GOP nominee wins in ’24, it will be because they won the independent voter’s support. To get there, McCarthy first has to realign the GOP’s message.
Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.
Terry Holt is a former Capitol Hill and presidential campaign spokesperson.
R.C. Hammond is former Capitol Hill and presidential campaign spokesperson.
The first order of business when the new Republican-led House convenes in January will be to elect a new Speaker. After the midterm election, McCarthy was chosen by Republicans for the GOP nomination for Speaker.
But that doesn’t mean all Republicans are on board – and the GOP’s margin in the House is razor-thin after the “Red Wave” turned into a Red Dribble. Meaning, McCarthy’s next hurdle will be to secure the 218 votes needed to become Speaker.
With Republicans holding a slim majority in the House, McCarthy can ill afford any defectors. No more than four, to be precise, if he can’t draw any Democrats to his side.
But a lonely few conservatives have already stated their opposition, vowing not to vote for McCarthy. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), one of the leaders of the House Freedom Caucus, said:
“He doesn’t have the votes. Some of the stages of grief include denial, so there will be some denial and then there’ll be the stage of bargaining where people are trying to figure out … will there be some kind of consensus candidate that emerges.”
The question might be, are House Republicans prepared for a floor fight that hasn’t happened in 100 years?
Whether the Speaker of the House ends up being Kevin McCarthy or someone else, chances are things will be very different from the Pelosi era. After decades in the House, Nancy Pelosi refined her skills as a master manipulator of votes when she needed them.
During an appearance on CBS’ “Face the Nation” earlier this month, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) suggested to host Margaret Brennan that certain “far right” House members may vote for Trump to be Speaker.
Raskin stated, “It’s a real problem for Kevin McCarthy now, because there are certain pro-Trumpists within his House caucus who refuse to accept that he’s really with Trump and they want to get rid of McCarthy. They might just vote for Trump.”
Per the Constitution, the Speaker of the House is not required to be a member of Congress, but the chances of Trump becoming Speaker are somewhere between zero and zero.
Rep. Jim Jordan responded Tuesday to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s call for President Biden’s border chief to resign, saying in a statement McCarthy was right that “Americans deserve accountability” for the record number of illegals crossings.@Jim_Jordan for speaker!
Currently, five GOP House members have stated they will not support Kevin McCarthy’s bid for Speaker. If Republicans end up with 222 seats, and all 435 members vote, McCarthy can only afford to lose four votes.
In short, if McCarthy can’t get the votes needed, the House will run as many elections as it takes until some candidate passes the mark. The last time that happened was in 1923.
One Republican House member actively opposing McCarthy is Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). He has laid the less-than-stellar GOP midterm performance at the feet of McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
According to the Washington Examiner, Gaetz has been making phone calls to colleagues to convince them of another choice. Gaetz said in a statement, “Just as I have done after every election, you can count on me having conversations with my colleagues on matters of policy, politics, and leadership.”
McCarthy has also appeared to go soft on any possible impeachment inquiries, of President Joe Biden or any other member of the Biden’s cabinet. Prior to the election, McCarthy was interviewed by CNN’s Melanie Zanona, who asked him if “impeachment is on the table.”
It was here that McCarthy may have given a squishy preview of things to come and replied:
“One thing I’ve known about the land of America, it’s the rule of law. And we will hold the rule of law and we won’t play politics with this. We’ll never use impeachment for political purposes. That doesn’t mean if something rises to the occasion it would not be used. At any other time, it wouldn’t matter if it’s Democrats or Republicans. But the idea of what Democrats have done, what Adam Schiff has done, is treacherous… We’re better than that. We need to get our nation back on track. That’s what the Commitment to America does.”
Matt Gaetz summed up his assessment of McCarthy, saying, “House Republicans need a leader with credibility across every spectrum of the GOP conference in order to be a capable fighting force for the American people. That person is not Kevin McCarthy.”
Kevin McCarthy does not have the votes to become Speaker…
He should step aside and Republicans in Congress should unite behind a Speaker who has always been committed to America, @chiproytx!
Correction: An earlier version of this report misstated the vote count for Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) nomination in 2019.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has a math problem.
He won the House GOP’s nomination to be Speaker this week in a 188-31 vote.
But far more GOP members voted against him than he can afford to lose on the floor Jan. 3 in a vote that would officially elect him Speaker. A vocal faction of Republicans who have the potential to make or break his Speakership continue to withhold support.
Recent 2022 election projections put Republicans on track to win up to 222 seats, a much slimmer majority than they were expecting before Election Day. Just a handful of Republican defectors could sink McCarthy.
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“The hard thing for Kevin, realistically, is there are a fair number of people who have said very publicly they're ‘Never Kevin.’ Like, there's nothing that Kevin can do to get their vote,” said Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), who declined to share his own thinking on McCarthy.
Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), the former chair of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus who challenged McCarthy for the Speaker nomination, have outright pledged not to vote for McCarthy on the House floor.
But other critics of McCarthy aren’t going quite that far.
The questions are, how many skeptics can he sway to his side? What do they want in return? And, who could the alternative be?
McCarthy has projected confidence that he will win the votes he needs by January. He noted that former Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) was nominated 200-43 in 2015 before winning 236 votes the next day on the floor, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was nominated 203-32 before winning 220 on the House floor in 2019. Both Pelosi and Ryan, however, had more substantial majorities.
“Look, we have our work cut out for us. We've got to have a small majority. We've got to listen to everybody in our conference,” McCarthy said in a press conference after clinching the closed-door nomination.
His supporters also note that some who voted against McCarthy via secret ballot will not want to be on the record publicly opposing him in January. But skeptics are pushing back.
“The Leader does not have 218 votes,” said Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), the current chair of the Freedom Caucus. “It is becoming increasingly perilous as we move forward.”
The magic number
McCarthy does not necessarily need 218 floor votes to win the Speakership, however. It is a technical point that may affect his road to the gavel with such a narrow margin.
A House Speaker needs to win a majority of votes of those casting a ballot for a candidate. That means unforeseen circumstances on everything from the coronavirus pandemic to the weather can make the difference.
Pelosi won the Speakership last year with 216 votes, due to vacancies and absences. Former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) also won the Speakership with just 216 votes in 2015, when 25 members did not vote. Snowy weather kept some members away, and many Democrats were attending a funeral for the late New York Gov. Mario Cuomo (D).
A Congressional Research Service reportalso notes that “present” votes also lower the final number needed to win, with current House practice dictating that the Speaker needs to win a majority “voting by surname.”
Some House Republicans, then, could opt to vote “present” rather than for either McCarthy or an alternative candidate without jeopardizing McCarthy’s path to the gavel.
But there is no guarantee that members opposed to McCarthy will give him that leeway. Gaetz has said he will vote for someone else in January.
Demands for rules and vision
The House Freedom Caucus over the summer released a list of rule change demands for both the House GOP Conference and the House as a whole that aim to reduce the power of leadership and distribute more of it to individual members.
“I refuse to elect the same people utilizing the same rules that keep us from – members like me from participating,” Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) said on former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon’s “War Room” show.
House Republicans began considering changes to their internal rules last week, and in a response to the push to decentralize power, McCarthy said after the meeting that the conference increased the number of representative regions from 13 to 19. The move affects the power in the House GOP steering committee, the body of members that control committee assignments and chairmanships.
“The regional maps we just did, pushing the power further down to more regions, more to the conference itself,” McCarthy said, which “dilutes the power greater to the members” on the steering committee.
The House GOP also passed an amendment from Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) that prohibits members of the House Republican Conference steering committee from sitting on the National Republican Congressional Committee’s executive committee — with an exception for elected members of the House GOP conference.
But other proposals from Freedom Caucus members were shot down, and some did not leave the session happy.
“I was disappointed about how the rules meeting was conducted,” Perry said, adding that other members and representatives-elect were “aghast at how that meeting was conducted and the product that came out of it.”
“Unless something changes, they should get used to that, because the tenor of that meeting was exactly what I've experienced throughout my time in Congress,” Perry added.
And for some members still withholding support from McCarthy, the rules are not the only factor in their decision.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said he wants commitments on a federal budget. Biggs has expressed disappointment that McCarthy will not commit to impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Others stress the need for strong leadership and vision without offering many specifics.
If not McCarthy, then who?
As the saying goes in politics, you can’t beat somebody with nobody, and those opposed to McCarthy lack a viable alternative.
Biggs imagines that by Jan. 3, there will be more of a consensus candidate, and that it might not be him.
“I can think of probably 20 people who nobody's mad at ever,” Biggs said, throwing out Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) as a suggestion. “I don't think people get mad at him too often.”
Johnson was reelected to be vice chair of the House GOP and has shown no interest in being an alternative Speaker candidate.
Some conservatives have suggested Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a founding Freedom Caucus member who challenged McCarthy for GOP Leader in 2018. But Jordan, who is likely to chair the House Judiciary Committee, has thrown his support behind McCarthy.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), once a doubter of McCarthy’s ability to become Speaker, has become one of his most vocal supporters for the post.
She has warned that moderate Republicans could join Democrats and elect a compromise moderate Speaker. McCarthy skeptics have dismissed that prospect as a “red herring.” McCarthy has also said he will not seek Democratic votes to be Speaker.
Greene said she would lobby her right-wing colleagues to support McCarthy, and on Friday, she said that the number of members not supporting McCarthy are “going down some, which is a good sign.”
“I really feel like our conference needs to be unified. We need to support Kevin McCarthy and we need to lead in such a way that we show the American people that the Republicans have their act together,” Greene said.
For most people, if you screw up on the job, there are consequences. You get written up, hauled into an office for “counseling,” or if it is bad enough, you get shown the door. But not in Washington D.C., and not in the Republican Party.
Of course, it’s something that happens all over Washington, why else would people be embedded there for years on end? But for these purposes, it is the Republican Party that is rewarding bad behavior.
On Tuesday, Republicans “officially” won control of the House of Representatives. And with that, they began to choose their leadership. These are the same people who just finished running for office again on the notion that there needs to be leadership change in Washington.
See if you can pick out the “change.”
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was chosen by his GOP colleagues tp be the next Speaker of the House. (The full House will have to vote in January, but that’s besides the point.)
He doesn’t even have the gavel in hand yet and he’s already squishy.
We lost the Senate, didn’t take many seats in the house, and all the conditions were ripe for a Republican wave that did not happen. There must be leadership change in the GOP after embarrassing loses on Tuesday. Retweet if you agree.
It was Democrats who decided to weaponize impeachment and use it against former President Donald Trump for a phone call made to Ukranian President Zelensky.
With far more egregious events the fault of Joe Biden’s negligence or incompetence, Republicans are ready to move.
Not McCarthy. In an October interview with Punchbowl News, he stated, “I think the country doesn’t like impeachment used for political purposes at all. If anyone ever rises to that occasion, you have to, but I think the country wants to heal and … start to see the system that actually works.”
McCarthy was also asked if he thought Joe Biden or anyone in his administration might hit the bar of impeachment. His answer, “I don’t see it before me right now.” This is the guy with a picture of Ronald Reagan in his office.
The new House Majority Whip will be Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN). If there is anyone who should be looked at hard as to why Republicans did not pick up more seats in the midterm election, it should be Tom Emmer.
Emmer is the former head of the National Republican Congressional Committee – the Republican Party’s campaign arm for the House. If there was going to be a “red wave,” Emmer was the guy whose job it was to deliver such a wave.
Instead, Emmer delivered a red puddle. But there are no worries for Emmer. In fact, he was promoted to Majority Whip in the GOP.
Republican leadership didn’t help these candidates. Locked them out of the house to fend for themselves pic.twitter.com/DGbk7NQQFx
There is no more better argument for both change in leadership and failing up than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Senate candidates he doomed to failure in this midterm election amounts to nothing short of criminal negligence.
Mitch McConnell does not like candidates that are endorsed by Donald Trump, and he does not like candidates who, more than likely, would not vote for him to be the Senate Leader. What he likes is his own power.
The Senate Leadership Fund, the McConnell-affiliated PAC, pulled millions of dollars from GOP Senate candidates Blake Masters in Arizona, and Don Bolduc in New Hampsire, both winnable races.
Instead, they put money into reliable McConnell backer Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s reelection campaign.
The problem is, in Alaska, the top two candidates are both Republicans. Instead of beating Democrats, the GOP spent money to beat… a Republican.
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel will also more than likely stay on, if the rumors of her support are true.
McDaniel recently told CNN that Republicans would “reach across the aisle” to work with Democrats. She told CNN’s Dana Bash, “If we win back the House and the Senate, it’s the American people saying to Joe Biden, ‘We want you to work on behalf of us and we want you to work across the aisle and solve the problems that we are dealing with.”‘
So we have the same people in leadership. The results of the midterm election are proof that they are unable to get the job done, and they are rewarded for it by keeping their leadership positions.
See the change yet?
Republican donors should withhold all funding until new leadership is selected in the House and the Senate.
A Republican source is indicating that the “knives are out” for GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy following a lackluster performance for the party in the midterms.
McCarthy had widely been viewed as the likely Speaker of the House if Republicans delivered on their ‘red wave’ promises. But they didn’t. House control is still up in the air as of this morning, and even if they take control it appears it will be by a slimmer margin than anticipated.
Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich received a text from an unnamed source that indicated the results could be perilous for the California lawmaker.
“Knives are out for Kevin McCarthy,” the source wrote. “If he is under 225, expect Scalise to make a move quickly for speaker.”
Steve Scalise (R-LA) had been speculated to be McCarthy’s number two guy just days ago.
Second GOP source sees below tweet, texts me “Knives are out for Kevin McCarthy, if he is under 225, expect Scalise to make a move quickly for speaker” https://t.co/AQF55yZaGM
While conservative pundits are actively conducting a social media autopsy of just what the hell happened to last night’s red wave, Kevin McCarthy continued to express optimism about his chances of being House Speaker.
“Now let me tell you, you’re out late,” he told a crowd of supporters late Tuesday. “But when you wake up tomorrow, we will be in the majority and Nancy Pelosi will be in the minority.”
“When you wake up tomorrow, we will be in the majority and Nancy Pelosi will be in the minority.”
It’s very likely to wind up being a true statement. The problem for him is, if the margin between Republicans and Democrats is thin, staunch conservative lawmakers will wield more power.
“The conservative House Freedom Caucus was set to have more sway, with lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Talor Greene of Georgia set to take an outsized role,” the Daily Mail reports.
Shortly before 2AM, McCARTHY finally arrives at the GOP election night party. It’s a short speech:
Conservatives have begrudgingly gone along with the idea of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, fully expecting a massive midterm election wave for Republicans.
But the actual results may have changed the calculus.
“A lot of rank and file members of Congress right now though are thinking to themselves that we need new energized leadership that is going to be focused on the working class voters,” a GOP source told Heinrich.
More from this GOP source: “A lot of rank and file members of Congress right now though are thinking to themselves that we need new energized leadership that is going to be focused on the working class voters” https://t.co/r6MiimeojO
Audio surfaced this past April of McCarthy criticizing former President Donald Trump and some of his most resolute allies in Congress, even suggesting their social media accounts be banned.
The clips revealed McCarthy speaking with Scalise regarding concern over fellow Republicans – particularly America First Representatives Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and Mo Brooks (R-AL) – ‘putting other lawmakers at risk’ with their comments about the 2020 election.
He said that referring to Republican candidates not willing to fight the election results as “anti-Trump” was “serious stuff” that “has to stop.”
“Can’t they take their Twitter accounts away, too?” he asked.
Recording of Kevin McCarthy talking about Matt Gaetz: “I’m getting a briefing, I’m going to get another one from the FBI tomorrow—this is serious sh*t,”
Steve Scalise: “Yeah, that’s – I mean it’s potentially illegal what he’s doing.”pic.twitter.com/o1olhAPQhA
The shocking comments prompted Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson to eviscerate McCarthy.
“Those are the tape-recorded words of Congressman Kevin McCarthy, a man who in private, turns out, sounds like an MSNBC contributor,” he said.
Carlson warned at the time that McCarthy becoming Speaker “would mean you would have a Republican Congress led by a puppet of the Democratic Party.”
Tucker Carlson Calling Out Democrat Party Puppet @GOPLeader
“In a phone call reported today by the NYT, Congressman Kevin McCarthy told his close friend Liz Cheney that he hoped the social media companies would censor MORE Conservative Republicans in Congress.” pic.twitter.com/HRQMzaVva5
Prior to the midterms, Kevin McCarthy was already telling anybody who would listen that he had no intentions of pursuing impeachment for President Biden.
“I think the country doesn’t like impeachment used for political purposes at all,” he said. “If anyone ever rises to that occasion, you have to, but I think the country wants to heal and … start to see the system that actually works.”
NEW in @PunchbowlNews AM — MCCARTHY on investigations if House Rs take the majority.
TOP LINE: @GOPLeader is quite bearish on impeachment.
Ronna McDaniel, Chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and niece of Senator Mitt Romney, declared that Republicans will reach across the aisle and work with President Biden should they win control of Congress following the midterms.
McDaniel initially called for a new era of bipartisanship which would focus on the President having to accept the election results as a mandate to work with Republicans.
“If we win back the House and the Senate, it’s the American people saying to Joe Biden, ‘We want you to work on behalf of us and we want you to work across the aisle and solve the problems that we are dealing with,'” she said.
McDaniel pointed to Bill Clinton who famously turned his fortunes around after a Republican election sweep in 1994 by embracing fiscal responsibility and moving further to the center in governing.
Bash pointed out that bipartisanship cuts in both directions and would require Republicans to be open to working with Biden as well.
“Would Republicans be willing to do the same and not just be a roadblock for him?” she asked.
“We have to,” McDaniel replied. “We have to work on behalf of the American people.”
.@GOPChairwoman Ronna McDaniel: “If [Republicans] win back the House and the Senate, it’s the American people saying to Joe Biden, we want you to work on behalf of us and we want you to work across the aisle and solve the problems that we are dealing with.” pic.twitter.com/Mn5kNxRXCx
Going back to McDaniel’s claim that a red wave is an indication that Biden must work with Republicans, simply saying that the reverse is also true is a fundamental misunderstanding of the mandate American voters will be giving the GOP.
They want you to be that roadblock.
Voters aren’t turning to Republican candidates in droves because they want them to work with President Biden. If that were the case they’d just vote for Democrats.
The mandate is to shut him down. To keep him and his party and his ideology from destroying the country any more than he already has.
What would you have them compromise on? Open borders? Illegal immigrants voting in our elections? Abortion without limitations? Economic ruin? Biological males competing in women’s sports? Drag queen story hours for kids? Decimated retirement savings plans?
Which of those do you want to reach across the aisle on, Ms. McDaniel?
Because Election Day is likely to show voters don’t want to compromise on any of it. President Biden is already the worst president in the history of this country. There is no compromise with this man and his radical party.
Democrats are fighting to have non-citizens vote and open borders.
Republicans are fighting for voter ID provisions supported by 78% of the American people. pic.twitter.com/2jpeqmDbxR
To paraphrase Groundskeeper Willie of “The Simpsons,” the American people aren’t interested in a party full of ‘surrender monkeys,’ cheese-eating or otherwise.
It’s the Republicans’ job post-election to stop the bleeding. And that means stopping President Biden, not helping him.
“I don’t live in Washington, D.C. I live in Michigan. I talk to people every day,” McDaniel continued after suggesting the GOP would work with Biden.
“I talk to restaurant owners who are desperate to find labor. I talk to families who are dealing, including mine, with these education deficits with our kids being locked down,” she continued.
If she did it’s very likely they would have never said, ‘We want you to work with Biden.’
In fact, it’d be a safe bet that many more uttered the same words brought to you by Rashida Tlaib than anything else.
Pro-Abortion Democrat Lawmaker Rashida Tlaib caught on video in profane tirade against President Trump
“We’re Going to Go in and Impeach the MOTHER F—–!”
Ronna McDaniel’s comments aren’t the first example of pre-surrendering to President Biden before the elections have been held.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, quite likely the next Speaker of the House, has already indicated that should the GOP win back congressional control in the 2022 midterms, they will not impeach Biden.
“I think the country doesn’t like impeachment used for political purposes at all,” said McCarthy. “If anyone ever rises to that occasion, you have to, but I think the country wants to heal and … start to see the system that actually works.”
NEW in @PunchbowlNews AM — MCCARTHY on investigations if House Rs take the majority.
TOP LINE: @GOPLeader is quite bearish on impeachment.
President Biden had ample opportunity to take that path during his first two years in office. Instead, he has done nothing but demonize Republican voters as MAGA extremists, cast out concerned parents as domestic terrorists, and suggested everyday Americans are white supremacists.
He has politicized the FBI and DOJ to harass and pursue political opponents at every turn. He is the actual danger to democracy.
No, it’s not time to work across the aisle. Or to placate this President in order to heal the country. It’s time to put that worn-out donkey and his party out to pasture. To save the country.
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Serenity 
(@WayneDupreeShow) 
