The Republican Party’s attempted impeachment fiasco and beleaguered House Speaker Mike Johnson were the subjects of late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert’s opening monologue Wednesday night. Colbert observed that while the House Republicans targeting Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “never identified a specific high crime or misdemeanor for the impeachment, which is usually kind of a thing,” the event was still historic.
It's only the second time in America that a Cabinet member has been impeached. The first was Secretary of War William Belknap back in 1876, which Congress accused of ‘prostituting his high office to his lust for private gain.’
[In Trump voice singing Bette Midler song] Did you ever know that you're my hero …
Colbert then laid it on thick, claiming that his entire show would be dedicated to covering the Senate’s impeachment trial of Mayorkas, before someone off camera told him the Senate immediately voted to dismiss the articles of impeachment.
“That was quick,” said a stunned Colbert. “So, what do you guys want to talk about?”
Colbert then pivoted to the precarious position GOP Speaker Mike Johnson finds himself in, even though “they just got rid of the last guy six months ago.”
Republican speaker of the House has joined the list of least secure jobs, just below No. 2 leader of ISIS; World's Oldest Man; and Rupert Murdoch fiancée.
Colbert: Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, seen here in his profile pic on HammerYourOwnPenis.com.
After playing a clip of Johnson telling Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo that Trump is "100% with me," Colbert threw to a clip of Trump being asked whether he will support Johnson.
Trump: Well, we'll see what happens with that.
Colbert: That is a dose of classic Trump loyalty. He's got your back ... so he can push you under a bus.
Zachary Mueller is the senior research director for America’s Voice and America’s Voice Education Fund. He brings his expertise on immigration politics to talk about how much money the GOP is using to promote its racist immigration campaigns.
The House of Representatives is without an active speaker after Kevin McCarthy was ousted from that position on Tuesday—by his fellow Republicans. Petty interim gavel-banger Rep. Patrick McHenry tried to set the tone by blaming Democrats for not fixing the Republican Party’s dysfunction.
McCarthy, for his part, held a press conference after his public humiliation and blamed former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was away at Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s funeral, for his abject failure. Now conservatives everywhere are pointing fingers and spinning the news, alternating between blaming the Democratic Party for McCarthy’s failed tenure as speaker and saying it's super fantastic that McCarthy is no longer speaker and everything is going to be A-okay.
Go figure.
First things first. Traditional media outlets have been giving a lot of credence to the idea that somehow, McCarthy’s terrible track record as speaker isn’t to blame for his inability to retain his position.
Just a little journalism note: Look at the people trying to turn the "Kevin McCarthy refused to make a deal with the only people who could help him, the Democrats" story into a "Democrats screwed up by not saving the guy who lied to them" story. Those are the bad people.
“Moderate Republican” Rep. Nancy Mace, along with Rep. Matt Gaetz, ran to Steve Bannon’s radio show thingy to talk about how great they were and how without McCarthy as speaker, they can really begin doing more oversight of Hunter Biden’s penis pictures.
Steve Bannon tells Nancy Mace that the only clip that Jack Posobiec and Charlie Kirk played from the impeachment inquiry hearing was hers. Mace: "I'm gonna take that as a compliment." She then starts talking about going after Hunter Biden for sex trafficking. pic.twitter.com/Na6lHbVUaM
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wants Trump to become the next speaker of the House because he’s doing well in the polls and “he has a proven four-year record as president,” which is … true? I mean, he was technically president (if twice-impeached) for four whole years.
I’m supporting President Donald J. Trump to be the next Speaker of the House! He has a proven four year record of putting America First and implementing the policies the American people want. President Trump is the man for the job! pic.twitter.com/KFOIb64XMe
What does the vice chair of the Republican National Committee believe?
You’ve got to start to wonder out loud if George Soros or some other liberal dark money is behind the idiotic move to derail the House Republican Majority and this pathetic Motion to Vacate effort.
A little while later, Burchett went on CNN and claimed he had a recording of his conversation with McCarthy—a conversation that “went on in a belittling tone.”
Kevin McCarthy: *agrees to far-right Speaker demands* *gives January 6 footage to Tucker Carlson* *holds debt ceiling hostage* *blocks Ukraine $ for border wishlist* *launches impeachment of Biden* *blames govt shutdown drama on Dems* Media: “Why won’t Democrats save McCarthy?!”
After wringing his hands about how badly McCarthy was being treated, Politico reports that Rep. Jim Jordan has thrown his name into the ring to become the next speaker.
Jim Jordan's detractors say his involvement with a sex abuse scandal at Ohio State should disqualify the Congressman from holding GOP leadership positions. His supporters say he could be a fine Speaker in the mold of Dennis Hastert.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is asked at a press conference why he’s not fighting for the speakership since he claimed he would “never give up fighting.” His answer is absolutely bonkers.
McCarthy: You know what’s interesting? […] In today’s world if you’re sitting in Congress, and you took a gamble to make sure government was still open, and eight people can throw you out as speaker. And the Democrats who said they wanted to keep government open, I think you got a real divide. I think you got a real institutional problem.
Interesting, it was in this room, after we had won the majority and I had become speaker, Nancy Pelosi came to me, she was speaker at the time on the way out, and I told her I was having issues with getting enough votes. And she said, “What’s the problem?” I said, “They want this one person can rule you out.” She was the only speaker that changed that rule.
I had the power to call the vote on her, but I never would. I lost some votes because of it.
She said, “Just give it to them. I will always back you up. I made the same offer to [John] Boehner, and the same thing to Paul [Ryan], because I believe in the institution.”
I think today was a political decision by the Democrats. I think the things they had done in the past hurt the institution. They started removing people from committees. They just started doing the other things. My fear is the institution fell today, because you can’t do the job if eight people […] can partner with the whole other side. How do you govern?
Dear god, where to begin?
“You took a gamble to make sure government was still open …”
He wants a cookie for doing his job. This is the lowest freakin’ bar, and he considers it “a gamble.” Maybe that, right there, is why McCarthy failed. Maybe it was because he couldn’t do the most basic part of his job without expecting Democrats to hail him as some sort of conquering hero.
“[A]nd eight people can throw you out as speaker.”
Yeah, those were the rules he instituted. That’s his problem, not the Democrats. And it wasn’t eight people that threw him out. It was 216 members of Congress.
“I had the power to call the vote on her, but I never would. “
Sure, he could’ve challenged her speakership, and he would’ve lost. She was actually good at her job.
And to be clear, Democrats didn’t call this vote. They didn’t bust any norms that McCarthy supposedly upheld. They just sat back and voted the exact same way they voted when McCarthy was first elected speaker. Thinking they would do otherwise, absent an actual deal with the current Democratic leader, was sheer madness.
“I think today was a political decision by the Democrats.”
House Republicans are currently investigating Hunter Biden penis pictures and engaging in a sham “impeachment inquiry” of President Joe Biden, and yet he’s going to cry about “politics”? Of course Democrats played politics! So did Rep. Matt Gaetz and the Freedom Caucus. And so did McCarthy!
The problem is, McCarthy played his politics poorly.
Why would he expect Democrats to bail him out after McCarthy resuscitated a wounded Donald Trump post-Jan. 6 insurrection? Why would they help him when McCarthy did everything possible to undermine the Jan. 6 commission? What about all the bullshit investigations, all of them at the behest of the Freedom Caucus? And why would he go on TV this past weekend and blame the potential government shutdown on Democrats?
Even if he had a deal, he had a shitty way to uphold his end of the bargain, which was, quite obviously, to act in the best interest of our nation.
But there was no deal, and we know he’s full of shit because of one simple reason:
If Pelosi had truly inoculated him against the Freedom Caucus, why would McCarthy go to such great lengths to let the Freedom Caucus run the show? From investigations to Trump’s butt-kissing, McCarthy always acted in the interests of his unruly nihilists hoping that giving them what they wanted would pacify them. If he had any agreement with Pelosi, he would’ve told them to pound sand from the beginning, daring them to pull the trigger on the leadership challenge.
But he didn’t. He ran his caucus scared. And when the time came to protect his speakership, did he go to the Democrats to confirm he had a deal? No, because there was never a deal, and he was too arrogant to do anything about it.
Imagine if McCarthy went to Democrats and offered to uphold his original budget deal with Biden and end all the sham investigations through the end of this term? That would suggest that McCarthy was, indeed, putting country over his party, and they could’ve worked together on a bipartisan solution to the budget impasse. Given a bipartisan power-sharing deal, Democrats would’ve saved his ass.
But he didn’t try. Even when Democrats told him flat out that they were voting against him, he didn’t try. And crying about Pelosi is just about the most pathetic thing that this pathetic spineless man can do on his way out the door.
Holy crap, did we really just watch that happen? In a historic first, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to oust the speaker via a vote of the chamber. In the past, endangered speakers like Paul Ryan and John Boehner opted to quit or not run for reelection rather than face the ignominy of losing a vote by their peers.
But not former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who dared rebel Rep. Matt Gaetz to oust him. As “The Wire’s” Omar Little said, “You come at the king, you best not miss,” and Gaetz’s aim was true. With the help of gleeful Democrats, happy to pay McCarthy back for a legitimate list of grievances, McCarthy narrowly lost the vote 216-210, two votes more than the magic number of 214. It was only the second time in American history such a vote was attempted, and the first time it was successful.
This is, in the end, the ultimate Leopards Ate Face story.
It was clear from the very beginning of this House term that the Freedom Caucus was a nihilist group intent on tearing down the institution. They were ungovernable from the beginning, yet McCarthy, in a Faustian bargain, surrendered to them in order to achieve his big dream of holding the speaker’s gavel. And he did! He even got to stand behind President Joe Biden for a single State of the Union. But in the end, all it bought him was a historic humiliation.
Was it worth it, Kevin?
We are now in uncharted territory. Joan McCarter wrote about what could happen next.
One likely outcome is a vengeful effort by the majority of House Republicans to expel Gaetz from the House. Gaetz used Democratic votes to oust McCarthy. It would be hilarious if Republicans then use Democratic votes to oust Gaetz. That’s bipartisanship we can all believe in! Democrats will happily assist Republicans in ousting any Republican they want, making the slim Republican House majority even slimmer.
But before we get there, Republicans will need to figure out how to elect a new speaker. Will McCarthy make another attempt? He certainly can’t do it with Republican votes, and if he didn’t cut a deal with Democrats to save his skin on Tuesday, why would he do so to get elected a second time? Is there another Republican that can unite the two Republican factions that clearly loathe each other?
Given the slim Republican majority, can Democrats somehow engineer a coup, getting Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries elected speaker with the assistance of rebel Republicans? Over two dozen Republicans represent Biden-won districts. They wouldn’t even have to vote for Jeffries; they could just be unavailable for a day.
And heck, it’s clear that the Freedom Caucus longs to be in the minority. Their grift is so much more effective when facing off against a Democratic speaker, and as a bonus to the racist MAGA base, Jeffries is Black. They can raise a ton of money off being in the minority. It might literally benefit them to engineer a Jeffries speakership.
As for McCarthy, good riddance. Republicans are unable to take responsibility for their own actions, so the likes of former Rep. Tom Cole, Rep. Patrick McHenry, and Republican operative Brendan Buck were sure to claim it was Democrats that were sending our nation into turmoil because they wouldn’t bail McCarthy out. Democrats had no reason to help McCarthy, and he never offered them a deal to protect him. It’s always someone else’s fault with them!
Still, all Democrats had to do was point to McCarthy’s actions on Jan. 6, and his sucking up to Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago days later, at a time when Trump was at his most politically vulnerable. McCarthy worked tirelessly to discredit the Jan. 6 committee, and he’s been complicit in the sham Biden impeachment inquiry—ironically designed to placate the same Republican nihilist caucus that ultimately ousted him. McCarthy also reneged on the debt-limit deal he made with Biden earlier in the year, and this weekend, he went on national TV to blame Democrats for wanting to shut down the government.
McCarthy is a pathetic man, groveling to the worst of his party, all in the raw pursuit of power. And in the end, he got exactly what everyone expected.
The House of Representatives still does not have a speaker. The 20 or so Freedom Caucus members holding up the proceedings realize that they, like the Republican Party itself, don’t believe in majority rule. The fact that the Republican establishment has kowtowed to them for the past decade or more has only emboldened their position.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that the craven establishment leaders don’t want to remain in power—or at least seem to remain in power. On Friday, Florida man Rep. Matt Gaetz stood up to nominate—wait for it … wait for it—well, before he named his nominee for the speakership, Gaetz made a long speech attacking Kevin McCarthy, calling him the “LeBron James of special interest fundraising in this town.”
It’s Jim Jordan! Sorry, I couldn’t wait. He named the guy who stayed silent while young man after young man allegedly told him they were being sexual assaulted and abused by a wrestling team doctor. That Jim Jordan. However, at least half of the people on Gaetz’s side of the aisle were not simply unhappy about the nomination but clearly could not stand to sit through the more-than-five-minute cringeworthy speech Gaetz subjected everyone to—and they left!
After saying Jordan’s name, Gaetz decided to attack reports that his crew of freedomers were too obstinate to make any deal with the 200 or so McCarthy backers. “Let's start with purity. Many of you have seen the reports that there are negotiations to determine whether or not on this side of the aisle there can be a deal, a meeting of the minds, a grand bargain that would allow us to proceed with the speakership. And I want all of my colleagues to know, regardless of your perspective on me, how impure some of those negotiations have gone.”
“Impure!” Matt Gaetz! Somewhere just shy of the four-minute mark where Gaetz began airing out his point of view on the dirty laundry exchanges behind closed doors, Republican members of the House began standing up, looking at their phones and walking out of the chambers.
What a way to start the new year! On the first episode of season two of The Downballot, we're talking with Sara Garcia, the strategy and outreach manager at Crooked Media—home of Pod Save America—about everything her organization does to mobilize progressives and kick GOP ass. Sara tells us how Crooked arose to fill a void in the media landscape, how it not only informs listeners but also gives them tools to take action, and some of her favorite shows that she loves to recommend to folks.
Co-hosts David Nir and David Beard also discuss the Republican shitshow currently unfolding in Congress—and starkly different outcomes in two state legislatures that just elected new House speakers via bipartisan coalitions; the landslide win for the good guys in a special election primary in Virginia; why George Santos faces serious legal trouble that will very likely end with his resignation; and the massive pushback from progressive groups and labor unions against Kathy Hochul's conservative pick to be New York's top judge.
House Clerk Cheryl Johnson has taken center stage amid the disarray of Republicans trying to choose the next Speaker, attempting to keep order in the Speakerless chamber.
Because the chamber can’t seat members without a new Speaker elected, Johnson, who has been House clerk since 2019, is presiding over the House, without her usual duties of delivering messages to the Senate and certifying the passage of bills.
However, the House also has not passed rules for this session, giving her few guidelines for enforcing order amid the chaos.
Johnson is a native of New Orleans and earned a law degree from Howard University after receiving an undergraduate degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of Iowa. She worked for the Smithsonian for a decade, as its director of government relations, before becoming House clerk.
Johnson, who is the fourth woman and second Black person to hold the role, has presided over six rounds of voting for House Speaker so far and has had to intervene in speeches from members on the floor to keep control of a chamber in the middle of inter- and intraparty battles.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who is the Democratic leader in the House and has had the most votes for Speaker in every round of voting, praised Johnson at a press conference on Thursday.
“I think Cheryl Johnson, who is a historic figure in her own right, is doing a very good job under difficult circumstances,” Jeffries said.
But the Speakership chaos is not the first turmoil that Johnson has seen in her short stint as House clerk. Since assuming the position in 2019, Johnson has witnessed two different impeachment proceedings and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.
The position of House clerk is elected every two years at the start of a new Congress. Each party nominates a clerk after a Speaker is elected.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is escalating and doubling down on several pledges about how he would run the lower chamber next year as he tries to beat back opposition from a handful of House Republicans who threaten to derail his Speakership bid.
Over the weekend, he warned that any delay in Republicans taking the gavel would put GOP priorities and his plans for his conference on hold.
“Right now, it’s actually delaying our ability to govern as we go,” McCarthy, who won the House GOP nomination for Speaker, said on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” “So I’m hopeful that everybody comes together, finds a way to govern together. This is what the American people want. Otherwise, we will be squandering this majority.”
Five House Republicans — Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Bob Good (Va.), Matt Rosendale (Mont.) and Ralph Norman (S.C.) — have said or strongly indicated that they will not vote for McCarty for Speaker on Jan. 3, when he needs support from a majority of those voting for a Speaker candidate. With Republicans heading toward a narrow majority of 222 seats to Democrats' 212 in January, the opposition threatens to keep him from the post.
McCarthy’s argument did not land with his fiercest critics, whose issues with McCarthy range from not committing to pass a slashed federal budget to calling on him to do more to empower rank-and-file members.
“‘Squandering this majority’ would be allowing a guy that the conservative movement has lambasted for years to take the reins as House Speaker,” Biggs responded in a tweet. “Leaders who lead from behind aren’t leaders.”
Here are six pledges McCarthy has made in a bid to win the Speakership:
Try to roll back IRS funding boost
The first bill from House Republicans, McCarthy announced in September, would be to “repeal 87,000 IRS agents” — a reference to an $80 billion funding boost to the IRS included in Democrats’ tax, climate and health care package signed into law earlier this year.
A 2021 Treasury Department estimate said the IRS could hire nearly 87,000 employees over a decade with the new funding, a figure that includes support staff, auditors and replacements for those who leave the agency. Republicans have repeatedly falsely said that all the 87,000 IRS hires would be “agents” and sought to use the threat to fire up midterm voters.
Such a bill would likely be dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Remove certain Democrats from committee assignments
McCarthy says he will remove Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from the House Intelligence Committee and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The move is in part a response to GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) being removed from their committee posts last year over social media posts and interactions involving violence against other members. It is also a response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) vetoing two of McCarthy’s picks for the Jan. 6 committee, after which McCarthy pulled his other three selections.
The GOP leader accused Schiff, the current chair of the House Intelligence Committee, of lying to the public about investigations into former President Trump. Schiff fired back, saying that McCarthy will “misrepresent my record” and will do “whatever he needs to do to get the votes of the QAnon caucus within his conference.”
Swalwell, McCarthy said, should not sit on the House Intelligence Committee due to his relationship with an alleged Chinese spy who reportedly helped fundraise for his 2014 campaign and helped place an intern in his office. Swalwell’s office has said he provided information about the individual to the FBI.
And McCarthy has accused Omar of making antisemitic comments. Omar said in a statement that McCarthy’s threat is a “continuation of a sustained campaign against Muslim and African voices.”
Removing a member from a standing committee requires a vote of the full House.
Hard-line House conservatives are hungry for impeachments of Biden administration officials, and Mayorkas, whom they blame for the crisis at the southern border, is at the top of their list. But McCarthy has not explicitly promised to do so, saying that Republicans will not use impeachment for “political purposes.”
Instead, on a border trip just before Thanksgiving, McCarthy called on Mayorkas to resign or face House GOP investigations and a potential impeachment inquiry — his strongest comments on the topic to date.
That escalation, though, has not satisfied McCarthy's opponents.
“He had plenty of time to support impeachment articles against Mayorkas and was radio silent,” Biggs said in a tweet.
McCarthy tried to work with Democrats to create a China select committee in 2020. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Republicans say, pulled Democrats out of the plan around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Washington Post reported at the time that Democrats had concerns about the China issue being too politicized.
Dealings with China are thought to be one of the few areas where the two parties can come to some agreement in the next Congress.
End proxy voting
The pandemic-era practice of allowing House members to designate another member to vote by proxy for them will come to an end, McCarthy has said, charging that it “allows Members of Congress to get paid without ever needing to show up for work.”
Members of both parties have utilized proxy voting — which requires a letter saying the members is unable to attend in person “due to the ongoing public health emergency” — in ways that appeared to be for convenience rather than health reasons.
McCarthy took a lawsuit challenging proxy voting up to the Supreme Court, but the court in January declined to hear the case.
Pass culture war–related bills
McCarthy and House Republicans have promised to advance the "Parents Bill of Rights,” a bill crafted last year in response to frustrations about “woke” curriculum and COVID-19–related school closures that spilled over into heated school board meetings.
The bill would require school districts to post curriculum publicly, have teachers offer two in-person meetings with parents a year, have parents give consent before any medical exam at school and provide notice of any violence at school.
McCarthy has also said he would bring up a bill to define sex “solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth” for purposes of Title IX in athletics, taking aim at transgender athletes.
Like a bill to repeal the IRS funding boost, though, it is unlikely it would be taken up in the Senate.
Representative Brendan Boyle (D-PA) introduced a bill that would only allow sitting House members to serve as Speaker after Donald Trump said the post would be “interesting.”
Boyle, having seemingly resolved all other matters of concern for his constituents, moved on to legislation specifically targeting the former President.
Though the role has never been filled by anyone outside the chamber, the Constitution does not specifically state that the Speaker must be a House member. Anyone chosen by the House can serve as Speaker.
And while Trump being chosen for the role would be an extreme long shot, Boyle is so fearful of the prospect he doesn’t want to take the chance.
“The Speaker of the U.S. House is second in the United States presidential line of succession,” he said in a statement.
“That Donald Trump’s name would even be tossed around as a potential speaker in the people’s house, should serve as an alarm bell that our current requirements need to be amended in the name of protecting our nation and our democracy,” Boyle continued.
Last month, in an interview with conservative radio host Wayne Allen Root, former President Donald Trump toyed with the idea of running for Congress in 2022 and perhaps becoming Speaker of the House.
Root, for his part, was completely enamored with the idea, suggesting Trump run for a House seat in Florida, lead the Republican Party to a massive victory in the chamber in 2022, and “become the Speaker of the House.”
The radio host went so far as to suggest Trump could then give Biden and the Democrats a taste of their own medicine if he were to “lead the impeachment of (President) Biden and start criminal investigations against” him.
Trump, always one to leave all possibilities on the table to keep his political adversaries off guard, said the idea was “so interesting.”
Root egged him on a bit, saying the move would make him a “folk hero.”
“Yeah, you know it’s very interesting,” Trump replied, noting some people have suggested he run for Senate. “But you know what, your idea might be better. It’s very interesting.”
Rep. Brendan Boyle wants to mandate that only House members and delegates can become speaker, calling speculation about a Trump bid for the gavel an “alarm bell” about current rules. https://t.co/ngiUZHBzdc
Root wasn’t the only one to suggest Trump make a move to become Speaker of the House.
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon first touted the idea of Trump running for Congress to take over as Speaker back in February.
As with Root, Bannon suggested the former President could lead impeachment proceedings against Biden.
.@LevinsonJessica: Matt Gaetz says Trump should become speaker of the House. It’s an unlikely scenario — but perhaps not a technically impossible one. https://t.co/tBpzN42hLN
Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) a staunch ally of Trump, has also suggested he be elected to the role of House Speaker.
Gaetz sent out fundraising appeals which told donors, ”how great it will feel when … we make our next Speaker of the House Donald J. Trump.”
Boyle believes his legislation would prevent that from happening.
“This legislation would establish that mandate in very clear and direct language, and it would serve as a check against those who would seek to undermine and derogate the authority and responsibilities of the speaker’s office,” he said.
Speaker doesn’t have to be a member. The majority can elect anyone
We’re not quite sure Boyle thought it through very well, however.
The entire premise of Root’s and Bannon’s argument is that Trump runs for a House seat and then becomes Speaker of the House. Neither of their suggestions involves House members choosing an outsider to serve as Speaker.
Boyle’s obsession with stopping Trump even after he has left office is perhaps matched only by Democrats earlier this year who introduced a bill that would ban the former President from being buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ) at the time said the bill is proof that “Trump lives rent-free in the heads of Democrats.”
“If it weren’t so tragic, it would be hilarious,” he added.
Boyle’s obsession continues that tragic legacy.
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On Thursday, House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy met with former President Trump in Florida where the two discussed plans at Mar-a-Lago on how Republicans could take back the House in 2022.
McCarthy’s meeting was “very good and cordial” with the former President, according to Trump’s team.
After the meeting, McCarthy tweeted, “United and ready to win in ’22”
‘President Trump Has Agreed To Work With Leader McCarthy’ On 2022
A statement from the Trump-backed Save America PAC read, “President Trump has agreed to work with Leader McCarthy on helping the Republican Party to become a majority in the House.”
“They worked very well together in the last election and picked up at least 15 seats when most predicted it would be the opposite,” it continued. “They will do so again, and the work has already started.”
A statement from McCarthy’s team on the meeting read, “For the sake of our country, the radical Democrat agenda must be stopped.”
“A united conservative movement will strengthen the bonds of our citizens and uphold the freedoms our country was founded on.”
Fox News reports that an aide familiar the meeting said its purpose was to move the Republican Party forward.
The aide told Fox News, “They are catching up as McCarthy will be in the neighborhood.”
“They’ve been on good terms for a while, and that will be important for the party moving forward” the aide added.
Fact check… True! “President Trump's popularity has never been stronger than it is today, and his endorsement means more than perhaps any endorsement at any time.'” https://t.co/nz9bUhctaO
CNN reports that Trump will bring his energy to bear on neoconservative Rep. Liz Cheney, the #3 Republican in the House.
Cheney, along with nine other Republicans, voted with Democrats to impeach Trump in January.
According to CNN, Trump has been following the effort by House Republicans to remove Cheney from her leadership position.
Just this week, America First Congressman Matt Gaetz, a top ally of Trump, flew to Wyoming to encourage Republicans to toss Cheney and elect someone else to Congress.
The Meeting Indicates GOP Needs Very Popular Trump
The meeting was reportedly set up after Trump’s team learned McCarthy would be fundraising in Florida.
It is no secret McCarthy would like to replace Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker if his party can take back the House in two years.
Trump invited McCarthy to Mar-a-Lago and the House Republican Leader was quick to accept.
What this also signifies besides the upcoming midterm is that top Republican leaders appear to have no plans to break away from Trump following the January 6 Capitol Hill attacks.
McCarthy had said that Trump bore some responsibility for the attack.
INBOX: Statement from President. Trump’s Save America PAC says he and @GOPLeader McCarthy met today. “President Trump’s popularity has never been stronger than it is today, and his endorsement means more than perhaps any endorsement at any time.” (Photo came with press release) pic.twitter.com/Ar2GxaaVRD
Opposing impeachment on the House floor on January 13, McCarthy still said “the President bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.”
“He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding,” McCarthy added. “These facts require immediate action by President Trump.”
As for whether or not Trump’s speech that day provoked the attack, McCarthy said last week, “I don’t believe he provoked it if you listen to what he said at the rally.”
It is likely that this subject was not a focus when McCarthy and Trump met Thursday at the former president’s resort.
Whether Republican leaders like it or not, Republican voters still very much support President Trump.
An Axios poll from the week after the Capitol incident showed that 92% of Republican voters want to see Trump run for President again in 2024.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) backed down on Thursday and revealed that she won’t actually try and impeach President Donald Trump for a second time to block him from nominating someone to the Supreme Court.
“I Don’t Think He’s Worth The Trouble”
“I don’t think he’s worth the trouble at this point, we have 40 days until the election,” Pelosi told reporters when asked if she will be trying to impeach the president again. “It’s no use orchestrating one thing or another when what really matters in terms of the peaceful transfer of power is that people vote.”
This comes days after Pelosi hinted in an interview that impeachment was not off the table, saying, “we have arrows in our quiver.”
“We have our options,” she told television host George Stephanopoulos. “This president has threatened to not even accept the results of the election with statements that he and his henchmen have made. Right now, our main goal — and I think Ruth Bader Ginsburg would want that to be to protect the integrity of the election — that we protect the American people from the coronavirus.”
Kevin McCarthy Fires Back
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) fired back by warning that he will introduce a motion to oust Pelosi if she dares to launch a second impeachment inquiry.
“I will make you this one promise, listening to the speaker on television this weekend, if she tries to move for an impeachment based upon the president following the Constitution, I think there will be a move on the floor to no longer have the question of her being Speaker. She may think she has a quiver — we do too,” McCarthy told reporters.
As for Trump, he plans to move forward with announcing his nominee on Saturday to fill the Supreme Court seat that was left vacated by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“I think it will be on Friday or Saturday and we want to pay respect, it looks like we will have services on Thursday or Friday, as I understand it, and I think we should, with all due respect for Justice Ginsburg, wait for services to be over,” Trump said.
This piece was written by PoliZette Staff on September 24, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
