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Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Mollie John Fast and this is Fast Politics,

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Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of

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Speaker 1: today's best minds. And Governor Greg Abbott has rejected three

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million dollars in child food assistance from

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Speaker 1: the federal government. He doesn't need it. Those kids don't

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Speaker 1: need to eat. We have such a great show for you. Today,

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Speaker 1: Congressman Jared Moskowitz talks to us about his battles on

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Speaker 1: the Oversight Committee with some very indebt House Republicans. Then

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Speaker 1: we will talk to the Daily Beast Sam Brody about

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Speaker 1: what is happening in Congress and the Senate. But first

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Speaker 1: we have the co host of MSNBC's The Weekend, Alicia Menendez.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Fast Politics, my friend Alicia Menendez.

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Speaker 2: My friend Mollie Jane. Thanks for having I'm.

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Speaker 1: So excited that I get to have you. Because you

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Speaker 1: may not remember this, but we did have a conversation

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Speaker 1: while where you're like, I will never go on your

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Speaker 1: podcast because you will get me to say something bad.

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Speaker 2: I stand by that this is going to be a

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Speaker 2: bumpy ride.

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Speaker 3: Folks.

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Speaker 2: Bookle up.

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Speaker 1: We sold this idea that we were going to have

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Speaker 1: you on to talk about your new show, which starts tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: So let's talk about that for two seconds, and then

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Speaker 1: we are going to get really into politics, and we're

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Speaker 1: just gonna give the listeners what they want. So what

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Speaker 1: is the new show? And tell me how this came about.

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Speaker 4: I love that you have lured me here under false pretenses, Mollie.

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Speaker 4: So I'm launching a new show alongside Simone Sanders Townsend

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Speaker 4: and Michael Steel, my compatriots at MSNBC. We will be

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Speaker 4: on every Saturday and Sunday, eight am to ten am Eastern.

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Speaker 4: The news doesn't stop on Fridays, not in this news cycle.

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Speaker 4: Very often when I've been on air on Saturdays or Sundays,

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Speaker 4: there is news that has broken overnight. There are things

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Speaker 4: that are happening in real time, and you want people

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Speaker 4: that you can turn too, familiar faces who can give

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Speaker 4: you the news and contacts that you need to get

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Speaker 4: your day started. I think of it, Molly, as the

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Speaker 4: beginning of a conversation. That's the beauty of being on

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Speaker 4: at am wete eight a m. We start a conversation

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Speaker 4: that not just the other hosts and guest on MSNBC

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Speaker 4: will have, but that folks who watch will have with

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Speaker 4: their friends and family throughout the day. And that part,

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Speaker 4: to me is really exciting.

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Speaker 1: And it's a little mourning Joe format a little bit.

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Speaker 4: How dare you we invented this format, Molly. It is

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Speaker 4: in the sense that it is a bunch of smart,

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Speaker 4: informed folks around a table.

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Speaker 2: I think it will have a very different flavor and

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Speaker 2: different feel.

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Speaker 1: Okay, that's a really good point. And you all have

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Speaker 1: worked in, especially Simone and Michael both have worked in

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Speaker 1: and Michael was actually Lieutenant governor.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and Michael in his role as RN Future back

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Speaker 4: in two thousand and nine, recruited a lot of the

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Speaker 4: people who continue to emerge as Republican leaders and presidential

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Speaker 4: hopefuls to this day. I mean a fewer a collegues

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Speaker 4: sort of put together that Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, I believe,

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Speaker 4: Raoul Labrador, Chrissy all of those folks emerged during Michael

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Speaker 4: Steele's I'm at Thorncy.

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Speaker 1: That's so interesting. Let's talk about what happened yesterday. I

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Speaker 1: was on your show when Chris Christy came out and

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Speaker 1: gave his speech. You give us your take and then

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Speaker 1: I will rail on Chris Christy. I mean just kidding.

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Speaker 2: He came out.

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Speaker 4: He gave what to me sounded like a little bit

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Speaker 4: of tenants for his past role in promoting Donald Trump,

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Speaker 4: which I think you can debate the authenticity of that penance.

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Speaker 2: I thought laid out the stakes.

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Speaker 4: The dangers of a second Trump term, the dangers of

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Speaker 4: having people who are running for president, and I'm paraphrasing here,

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Speaker 4: but who He said, If you're not willing to say

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Speaker 4: that Donald Trump is unfit to be president, they knew

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Speaker 4: yourself for unfit to be president, which I think is

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Speaker 4: a bar worth setting. Yeah. And here's the thing, which

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Speaker 4: is the reason I am interested in Christy as a

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Speaker 4: messenger is because there are so few Republican messengers who

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Speaker 4: can break through. Not with the MAGA crowd, that's not

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Speaker 4: who he is going to connect with and persuade, but

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Speaker 4: perhaps some type of persuadable Republican who maybe could cast

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Speaker 4: another vote for Donald Trump, but also has reservations, even

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Speaker 4: some independence and more conservative Democrats who for whatever reason

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Speaker 4: might be thinking of sitting on the sidelines on this election.

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Speaker 4: I do think he has the power now or later

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Speaker 4: to connect with them. And so that was why I

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Speaker 4: was listening so carefully, because I do think he is

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Speaker 4: very strategic, and so I thought he had cultivated a

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Speaker 4: message that was intended to connect. I also think it

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Speaker 4: was intended to shake things up in advance of last

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Speaker 4: night's debate and then the Trump town hall. I don't

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Speaker 4: think it succeeded in doing that. It's not as though

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Speaker 4: the question of the stakes all of a sudden was

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Speaker 4: pushed front and center, but it seemed to me as

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Speaker 4: I was listening to it, that that was at least

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Speaker 4: part of the intent.

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Speaker 2: Now your turn to relegave.

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Speaker 1: Well, no, and I think you have a really good point.

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Speaker 1: And we were just talking about this before we started recording,

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Speaker 1: which it's always the danger of ever talking before your recording,

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Speaker 1: especially with this, is that you said this thing which

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Speaker 1: I think Jesse and I Bows were like, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's totally right, was that yesterday was the first day

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Speaker 1: of the general thoughts.

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Speaker 4: Yes, I thought, I thought we're supposed to pretend like

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Speaker 4: that didn't happen. I'm like, wow, what a new and

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Speaker 4: novel thought. I'm like, yes, it was interesting to me.

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Speaker 4: That's like he didn't even really he being Chris Christy,

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Speaker 4: didn't really even want to reckon on the record, though,

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Speaker 4: of course he had that hot mic moment where he

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Speaker 4: was criticizing both Haley and DeSantis. He's basically was saying,

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Speaker 4: this thing's baked, right, like this thing is sparring some

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Speaker 4: lightning bolts from the heavens. This is going to Donald Trump.

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Speaker 4: It's going to be Trump ros Biden. I'm curious down

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Speaker 4: the road if he's willing to engage with the possibility

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Speaker 4: of endorsing or supporting Biden, given that his parameter is

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Speaker 4: you are unfit to be president. If you're not willing

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Speaker 4: to say that Donald Trump is unfit to be president,

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Speaker 4: and Donald Trump will certainly not be saying that about himself,

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Speaker 4: the concourse changed last night.

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Speaker 2: I thought the fact that you saw Haley.

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Speaker 4: And DeSantis having what seemed like a really out of place,

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Speaker 4: not here on Earth one debate where they were each

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Speaker 4: trying to tear down the other, as though the dynamic

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Speaker 4: would be a normal dynamic where if there were only

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Speaker 4: one person running against Trump in this primary, somehow there

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Speaker 4: would be enough folks to coalesce around that single opponent

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Speaker 4: in favor of diminishing him in a state like New Hampshire,

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Speaker 4: and it just seemed offbeat, especially when you had Trump

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Speaker 4: doing this counter programming on Fox, where he was also

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Speaker 4: treating himself as a general election candidate, which, as you

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Speaker 4: and I know from following a lot of these historians

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Speaker 4: and experts on authoritarianism, is from the authoritarian playbook, right,

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Speaker 4: acting as though you are inevitable, acting as though, of

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Speaker 4: course it is going to be. I don't want to

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Speaker 4: give into that narrative. At the same time, I can

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Speaker 4: read pull numbers and it does seem that Republican primary

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Speaker 4: voters are lining up behind it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a really good point. And I

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Speaker 1: also think that watching Chris Christy, my problems with him

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Speaker 1: are that I find him super self congratulatory and also

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Speaker 1: he was never pulling, you know, more than the single digits.

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Speaker 1: But in a world where there are no messengers, right,

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Speaker 1: because there was really no one except Asa Hutchinson, and

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Speaker 1: each of the Hutchinson really did not have the stomach

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Speaker 1: for it. There was no one else who was willing

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Speaker 1: to go out there and be like the Emperor has

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Speaker 1: no clothes, and so for that that was good, and

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Speaker 1: actually I thought it was interesting. There was some reporting

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Speaker 1: I read about the Haley DeSantis death spiral that we watched, which,

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Speaker 1: by the way, I'm always shocked by what a bad

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Speaker 1: retail politician ron De Santis is like. Even when he wins,

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Speaker 1: he's still read so smug to may Well, and the

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Speaker 1: fact that.

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Speaker 4: He points to Florida as some sort of beacon of

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Speaker 4: success is always interesting to me too, right. I mean,

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Speaker 4: I often lament the fact that this is not in

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Speaker 4: any way a normal election, and they're not on stage

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Speaker 4: talking about policies by and large that are going to

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Speaker 4: impact people's lives should they ever become president. But I

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Speaker 4: suppose part of the truth with Ronda Santis is he

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Speaker 4: doesn't need to tell us because he has already shown us.

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Speaker 4: You just need to look at what he has done

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Speaker 4: in Florida, whether that is around reproductive rights, whether that

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Speaker 4: is around bullying corporations, whether or that is these radical

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Speaker 4: changes to education in the state, whether it's his election

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Speaker 4: police force, which has succeeded in nothing other than catching

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Speaker 4: Floridians in the act of trying to participate in their democracy.

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Speaker 4: He doesn't need to get on stage and tell us

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Speaker 4: what it is he's going to do. He's shown up,

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Speaker 4: so in that way, it's like, I don't know what

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Speaker 4: he could do on the debate stage that would change.

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Speaker 1: That, Yeah, we're in this pivot to the general election.

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Speaker 1: Now Trump also pivoted. Pivoted Trump. You know you can't

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Speaker 1: use those two words in a sentence talking about Trump.

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Speaker 1: What you have to say is like, he seemed less crazy,

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Speaker 1: specifically so he could go after Joe Biden, Right, I

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Speaker 1: mean that's really what it is.

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Speaker 4: I just want to be clear. We're saying totally he

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Speaker 4: seemed less crazy. His per tonally is less crazy. But

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Speaker 4: if you actually look at the content of it, right, he.

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Speaker 1: Was shopping a less of an authoritarian bent. I mean again,

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Speaker 1: what Trump shops and what Trump does are not the same, right,

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Speaker 1: I mean, we can agree, but he's sort of trying

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Speaker 1: to walk back some of the real high crazy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it made me wonder.

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Speaker 4: I'm sure I wonder if it made you wonder too,

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Speaker 4: if they are seeing in some of their pulling that

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Speaker 4: there are folks that are pulling away from them over

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Speaker 4: some of the the a dictator on day one. I

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Speaker 4: also thought his language around abortion was really interesting.

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Speaker 5: Right.

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Speaker 4: He wanted credit with an anti choice voter for having

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Speaker 4: overturn rows I did for you what they were never

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Speaker 4: able to do, but then also caution that it was

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Speaker 4: politically not viable for him to win if he went

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Speaker 4: too far out there on it and didn't include exceptions.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that was really interesting. And he also like hit

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Speaker 1: DeSantis on his six week ban, which when you've put

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Speaker 1: three anti choice justices on the court. I'm not defending DeSantis,

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Speaker 1: but there was a sense in which Florida he was

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Speaker 1: just trying to keep up with everybody else's crazy abortion bands.

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Speaker 1: So you know, everything's a hammer when everything looks like

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Speaker 1: a nail. I mean that I thought was really insane.

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Speaker 4: But we also just talk Molly. Sorry, I just I

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Speaker 4: do need to talk about how like I keep calling

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Speaker 4: it a town hall because then I'm a good girl

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Speaker 4: and I want to like follow protocol. But it was

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Speaker 4: not a town hall. It was a pep rally with

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Speaker 4: some questions. And of course he did well because he

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Speaker 4: was surrounded by adoring fingunce that like that is a

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Speaker 4: premise for him to have success and to behave normally. Right,

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Speaker 4: the number of exchanges where the Fox host would ask, well,

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Speaker 4: who are you supporting? They like Donald Trump, and then

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Speaker 4: he'd be like, thank you, you're beautiful, Like it.

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Speaker 2: Just this is not normal.

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Speaker 4: Like there's even even the folks who are like I'm

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Speaker 4: I'm you know, gonna caucus for Desandis.

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Speaker 2: We're like, but you are amazing.

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Speaker 4: It's just like, you need to have some tough skin

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Speaker 4: to be president of the United States. You can't constantly

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Speaker 4: be surrounded. We always talk about how he wants to

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Speaker 4: be surrounded by yes men. He also just wants to

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Speaker 4: be surrounded by sickophants.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's the whole Donald trump ethos, is

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Speaker 1: that you bully people into being sick evans around you.

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Speaker 1: But there has been an intentional pullback of his autocratic talk.

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump despite the fact that he is an autocrat.

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Speaker 1: We know he's an autocrat. We saw he's an autocrat.

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Speaker 1: I truly believe this is the if you do want

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Speaker 1: to have elections any more election. But he's clear decided

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Speaker 1: that the general has started and he's not running again.

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Speaker 1: Remember Trump is not running against Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders.

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Speaker 1: He's running against another very very centrist white guy. There's

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Speaker 1: this sort of pivot to like trying to be a

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Speaker 1: little bit more general and see most crazy, I am

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Speaker 1: seeing the pundance that you and I both know some

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Speaker 1: who we like, some who we don't, who are like

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Speaker 1: buying this. Haven't we been doing this for a decade.

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Speaker 4: Oh my, I must be in my own level because

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Speaker 4: I have not seen that send you. It's performance art.

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Speaker 4: I think we all know that at this point you

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Speaker 4: said something, and I think there's a duality here, and

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Speaker 4: I feel like you were like heady enough for me

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Speaker 4: to in set this concept with you, which I remember

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Speaker 4: reading this article years ago where Lady Gaga was describing

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Speaker 4: her art and like what she loves about art, and

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Speaker 4: she was saying it was all about slipping. I forget

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Speaker 4: if it was a lie in among two truths or

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Speaker 4: truth in among two lies, but that that was what

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Speaker 4: made are interesting and compelling. And I do think that

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Speaker 4: there is some corollary. Sorry, g guy, don't do a

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Speaker 4: venge you do for for what Donald Trump does, which

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Speaker 4: is you said something which is true, which is he

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Speaker 4: says things and they're not always true and you can't

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Speaker 4: believe him. Conversely, he also says things that are very

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Speaker 4: true and you should believe him, like I want to

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Speaker 4: be a dictator on day one lol, right, And he

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Speaker 4: wants to be like, well, you're so dramatic. You are

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Speaker 4: taking me way too seriously, and it's like, well, there

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Speaker 4: were people who didn't take you seriously. In the lead

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Speaker 4: up to January sixth, there were people who didn't take

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Speaker 4: you seriously. When that call with Raffensberger was released, there

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Speaker 4: were people who this entire time have doubted you.

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Speaker 2: So is it is both things, Molly right.

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Speaker 4: There are times when he says things that you absolutely

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Speaker 4: cannot take him at his word for, and then there

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Speaker 4: are times where you need to accept that he is

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Speaker 4: deadly serious. And we're asking people to do something that

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Speaker 4: is pretty high level and complex, which is to sift

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Speaker 4: through witches which to know when he is saying I

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Speaker 4: am actually committed to this, and when he is saying

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Speaker 4: what he needs to say because it's politically expedient. And

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Speaker 4: I think one of the things I felt I was

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Speaker 4: watching his pundhall slash pep rally last night with James Tacrala,

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Speaker 4: one of the producers on the weekend, and he and

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Speaker 4: James noted to me that one of the challenges is

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Speaker 4: Trump says so many things, but yet is most often

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Speaker 4: sparse on details so that you can transpose on to

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Speaker 4: him whatever you want, especially if you are someone who

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Speaker 4: is in the window of being willing to support him.

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Speaker 4: Right that there's a lot where you can be like,

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Speaker 4: he doesn't mean that, he doesn't mean that. Oh, he's

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Speaker 4: kind of.

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Speaker 2: Being vague about this.

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Speaker 4: So I'm going to take what I want and what

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Speaker 4: I believe is right on this specific policy position and

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Speaker 4: transpose it on to him. And he leaves a lot

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Speaker 4: of room to do that. He's not like, you know,

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Speaker 4: filling out the surveys for advocacy groups about will you

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Speaker 4: support SB nine nine nine.

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Speaker 2: It's like he's keeping options open.

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Speaker 1: That's a really good point. And it's funny. You do

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Speaker 1: really see that, You really do see. He gets the

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Speaker 1: benefit of the doubt endlessly. It feels like people fellow

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Speaker 1: Republicans are addicted to giving him the benefit of doubt.

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Speaker 1: And I even think about, like the world's most famous

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Speaker 1: just he's playing golf. He's not like, what's the harm

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Speaker 1: of humoring him? Right, that's unnamed Republican senator who says,

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Speaker 1: what's the harm of humoring him? He's just playing some golf.

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Speaker 1: It's not like he's going to overturn the twenty twenty election.

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Speaker 1: That was like, how we got here, that's the Batman

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Speaker 1: origin story, right of how we got to not half

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Speaker 1: the country, but a large percentage of the Republican Party

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Speaker 1: believes that Donald Trump won the twenty twenty election and

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Speaker 1: that in fact he is righting wrong done to them,

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Speaker 1: which of course is absolute bullshit. But he is going

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Speaker 1: to be a central tenant of this election.

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Speaker 4: Daniel Mali gonna fast for the Batman reference because now

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Speaker 4: I'm going to have kissing by a Rose on the

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Speaker 4: grave by sealed Bot is like playing in I a

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Speaker 4: head from the best Batman movie of all time. I

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Speaker 4: share your alarm that we are here at this meeting,

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Speaker 4: at this moment, after all these years of covering him,

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Speaker 4: and there is still a subset of the pundiclass that's

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Speaker 4: willing to just focus on tone over substance.

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Speaker 2: The man's a performer.

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Speaker 4: I think there are core questions about which you and

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Speaker 4: I just violently agree, like the idea that because this

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Speaker 4: isn't a normal election, you have to focus on the

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Speaker 4: stakes and not the odds. I think there are also

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Speaker 4: these questions that I have heard compelling arguments for in

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Speaker 4: both directions, which is, do you share enough of what

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Speaker 4: he is saying and doing to keep people aware of

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Speaker 4: the depths of his depravity, or in doing it and

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Speaker 4: showing him, are you simply platforming him, and where is

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Speaker 4: the line between those two things? And I think because

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Speaker 4: he is such a performance artists, and because he knows

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Speaker 4: how to capture attention, and he knows how to you know,

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Speaker 4: jiu jitsu things in a million ways, whether it is

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Speaker 4: taking all of these legal cases and somehow fundraising off

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Speaker 4: of them and seeming to use them to his political advantage,

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Speaker 4: whether it is taking something like, you know, the fact

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Speaker 4: that he has proven himself to be a danger to democracy,

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Speaker 4: and yet he is trying to take that attack and

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Speaker 4: actually launch it against President Biden without fact and without

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Speaker 4: proof points. And I think part of what he understands

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Speaker 4: is it doesn't matter whether or not people believe that.

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Speaker 4: It just matters that there is chaos in the ether.

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Speaker 5: No.

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Speaker 1: And I think that's a really good point. I actually

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Speaker 1: believe that we have to cover him. We can't because

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Speaker 1: otherwise if we don't cover how crazy he is, we

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Speaker 1: are going And you know, it's it's funny, but it's

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Speaker 1: like he wrote all this free media. So you have

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Speaker 1: to cover him as a truth sandwich, right, you have

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Speaker 1: to say this is a lie, and this is a lie.

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Speaker 1: So you can't give him a microphone. But if you

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Speaker 1: don't cover him. I mean, people want to give him

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Speaker 1: the benefit of the doubt, even people, And I wonder

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Speaker 1: how much of the media is actually baked in that way, right, Like,

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Speaker 1: if you think about it, there is a predisposition that

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Speaker 1: many of us have and I'm not even sure that

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Speaker 1: I don't have it to some degree of normalcy bias

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Speaker 1: which we can absolutely talk about more. But now we

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Speaker 1: are out of town.

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Speaker 4: Well that's good because there's somehow also a helicopter overhead

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Speaker 4: for me right now, So it's like our audio queue

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Speaker 4: to the part.

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Speaker 1: Your show starts tomorrow. It will be eight to ten

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Speaker 1: Saturdays and Sundays. Very exciting, very excited for you. Congratulations, Thanks,

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Speaker 1: thank you for Congressman Jared Moskowitz represents Florida's twenty third district.

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Fast Politics, Congressman Jared Moskoodz.

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Speaker 3: Well, thanks Molly, thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: I wanted to have you on to talk about his

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Speaker 1: incredible daring yesterday set the stage for us. What was

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Speaker 1: this here hearing? What committee is this? What committee are

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Speaker 1: you on? This is your first term in Congress. Just

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Speaker 1: give us a little background.

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Speaker 3: So this is the Oversight Committee, which is chaired by

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Speaker 3: Chairman Comer and all year we have had hearings just

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Speaker 3: like we had yesterday. You know, these are not the

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Speaker 3: same hearings that I have in my other committee, which

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Speaker 3: is Foreign Affairs, which are bipartisan and fact finding and

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Speaker 3: really wanting to do the business of the committee. Here.

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Speaker 3: This is an government oversight committee. Obviously, we have a

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Speaker 3: giant government. There's all sorts of oversight. Not everyone's crushing it.

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Speaker 3: I'm sure there's all sorts of legitimate things we could

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Speaker 3: be looking at in the executive branch to further the

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Speaker 3: lives of Americans. But no, that's not what this committee

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Speaker 3: has been used for. This is literally the election mailer Committee.

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Speaker 3: It's literally the police Donald Trump Committee. It's literally do

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Speaker 3: whatever the Donald Trump campaign tells us committee. And all

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Speaker 3: year long they have been going after, you know, Joe

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Speaker 3: Biden and pretending like he's the head of the Biden

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Speaker 3: crime family, which you know, turning Joe Biden to Tony Soprano,

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Speaker 3: by the way, is a tall order, and they talk

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Speaker 3: out of both sides of their mouth, right, Joe Biden's sleepy,

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Speaker 3: he's sleepy, he doesn't know where he's going. But he's

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Speaker 3: also Tony Soprano running the Biden crime family, and that's

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Speaker 3: what has been going on all year in this committee,

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Speaker 3: but it's not been going well. The impeachment hearing was

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Speaker 3: a total disaster for them a couple of months ago

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Speaker 3: when their own witness said there wasn't any evidence to

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Speaker 3: impeach Joe Biden on And yesterday was the Hunter Biden

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Speaker 3: contempt hearing. And the reason why this is interesting is

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Speaker 3: because normally, if you get a subpoena from Congress and

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Speaker 3: you don't comply, you should be held in contempt. And

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Speaker 3: I agree with that. You can't blow off a congressional subpoena.

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Speaker 3: But that's not what's happened here. What's happened here is

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Speaker 3: the chairman. And one of my Republican colleagues said, this

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Speaker 3: is why we shouldn't pick our chairman based on how

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Speaker 3: much money they raise. We should pick our chairman on ability.

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Speaker 3: But the chairman, chairman comer on multiple programs told Hunter

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Speaker 3: Biden on National TV he can choose, he can choose

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Speaker 3: whether he wants a public hearing or a deposition. Well,

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Speaker 3: Hunter Biden took the Chairman's invitation and said, I'll do

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Speaker 3: a public hearing because what we've seen in these private depositions.

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Speaker 3: Is they hold the deposition, they do selective leaks, they

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Speaker 3: never released the full transcript, and the American people never

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Speaker 3: hear the full story. It's one sided. That's what they

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Speaker 3: want to do with Hunter. And so yesterday was the

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Speaker 3: contempt hearing because Hunter didn't show up for the private

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Speaker 3: deposition but instead has taken the chairman up on his

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Speaker 3: public invitation, which the chairman is now pretending as if

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Speaker 3: it never happened.

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Speaker 1: This Oversay Committee, which is become the weaponization of the

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Speaker 1: federal government against the Democratic president in the hopes of

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Speaker 1: pleasing Donald Trump. This Oversay Committee is desperate to get

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Speaker 1: Hunter Biden to testify, but only privately can you explain

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Speaker 1: why that is?

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Speaker 3: If the cameras are on and the American people are watching,

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Speaker 3: they'll hear both sides, they'll hear the questions, and then

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Speaker 3: they'll hear the answers, and they'll hear the whole thing,

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Speaker 3: whether it's ten hours or twelve hours.

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Speaker 6: Right.

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Speaker 3: We all remember, like Hillary's sitting in the hearing during

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Speaker 3: BEng Ghazi, right, and that was like a deposition. She

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Speaker 3: took eleven hours of questions, but the American people got

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Speaker 3: to see it. They got to hear the whole conversation.

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Speaker 3: The reason why the Republicans don't want to do that

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Speaker 3: is they don't want the American people to hear all

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Speaker 3: of what Hunter Biden has to say. They only want

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Speaker 3: to release maybe the one or two or three things

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Speaker 3: that they think fits their narrative and then not release

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Speaker 3: the other ninety five percent of the information because they

436
00:22:22,040 --> 00:22:25,280
Speaker 3: control the transcript. When you're in the majority, you control

437
00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:28,560
Speaker 3: what you release when you release it, and you can

438
00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:32,400
Speaker 3: control the transcript. And these other depositions that they've had

439
00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:37,280
Speaker 3: all year, they have not released the transcripts from these depositions.

440
00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:40,080
Speaker 3: In fact, they've never released his laptop. Molly, We've heard

441
00:22:40,080 --> 00:22:43,240
Speaker 3: the fact that they have Hunter Biden's laptop. We've asked

442
00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:45,320
Speaker 3: to see it so that we can verify the information

443
00:22:45,359 --> 00:22:48,920
Speaker 3: on it, and they've not let us look at the information.

444
00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:50,440
Speaker 1: Because they know it won't help them.

445
00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:52,639
Speaker 3: They don't want to bring sunlight into the process. They

446
00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:55,280
Speaker 3: don't want to bring transparency into the process. They want

447
00:22:55,280 --> 00:22:57,520
Speaker 3: to talk, you know, the couple of talking points that

448
00:22:57,560 --> 00:22:59,679
Speaker 3: fit their narrative, you know, to try to paint this

449
00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:02,840
Speaker 3: in the worst way, to try to try to you know,

450
00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:07,080
Speaker 3: selectively choose facts rather than hearing. Like, think about it, right,

451
00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:10,080
Speaker 3: if you took anyone's deposition, anybody's, and you sat with

452
00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:13,680
Speaker 3: anyone's deposition for five hours, and you cherry picked two

453
00:23:13,760 --> 00:23:17,439
Speaker 3: or three things from that deposition, right, and you only

454
00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:20,680
Speaker 3: released that, everyone would think the whole deposition was like that.

455
00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:23,520
Speaker 3: They would think, oh my god, Like, that's that's clearly

456
00:23:23,600 --> 00:23:26,760
Speaker 3: the picture of this deposition. If you're holding back ninety

457
00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:29,320
Speaker 3: five percent of the rest of the deposition, you're giving it.

458
00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:31,920
Speaker 3: You're giving it no context, you're giving it no clarity.

459
00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:34,280
Speaker 3: That's why they want to do this, because what I

460
00:23:34,359 --> 00:23:36,880
Speaker 3: think they're doing at the moment is, you know, this

461
00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:39,280
Speaker 3: is all about trying to hurt Joe Biden's poll numbers.

462
00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:40,240
Speaker 3: They've admitted that.

463
00:23:40,200 --> 00:23:42,080
Speaker 1: Well, ben Ghazi worked really well for.

464
00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:44,359
Speaker 3: Them, ben Gazi worked really well from them, and this

465
00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:46,640
Speaker 3: is the ben Gazi strategy. We'll see if they ever

466
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:49,760
Speaker 3: decide to impeach the president. But in the meantime, they've said,

467
00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:52,919
Speaker 3: since we've started our investigation, Joe Biden's poll numbers have

468
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:56,000
Speaker 3: gone down. So they don't want the American people to

469
00:23:56,040 --> 00:23:58,800
Speaker 3: hear the full story. They want to tell the story

470
00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:02,040
Speaker 3: they want to tell mostly to their echo chamber. But

471
00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:04,280
Speaker 3: some of that leaks out, some of that leaks over

472
00:24:04,359 --> 00:24:07,240
Speaker 3: because the problem is if you have a hearing, everyone's

473
00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:09,120
Speaker 3: going to cover the hearing. They're going to cover the deposition,

474
00:24:09,160 --> 00:24:11,040
Speaker 3: and they're going to cover the three or four things

475
00:24:11,200 --> 00:24:13,920
Speaker 3: that they leak out, and then that will become national news.

476
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:16,200
Speaker 3: That will become the headline. And then six months from now,

477
00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:20,200
Speaker 3: when the transcript comes out that disproves everything they said,

478
00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:22,480
Speaker 3: it's gone. It's too late to get the truth back.

479
00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:26,040
Speaker 3: In the way information flows today in the media and online, this.

480
00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:29,800
Speaker 1: Is really interesting as we're looking at this over Say

481
00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:34,239
Speaker 1: committee led by James Comer. James Comer yesterday said you

482
00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:38,240
Speaker 1: are just like George Santos Maria Bartaroma.

483
00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:39,840
Speaker 3: That's just because we're both Jewish.

484
00:24:39,840 --> 00:24:43,720
Speaker 5: Molly, No, he said, I'm.

485
00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:46,680
Speaker 1: Sorry, not Maria Bartaroma. He said to Laura.

486
00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:48,959
Speaker 3: Ingram, right, I have to invite her to my next passover.

487
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:50,360
Speaker 3: Got to develop that relationship.

488
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:53,760
Speaker 1: You won't run into her in shule as at jew myself.

489
00:24:53,880 --> 00:24:56,320
Speaker 1: Laura Ingram has also been very negative about me. I

490
00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:59,920
Speaker 1: feel like we're not her people, she said. Comer said, mosk,

491
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,639
Speaker 1: So it says less credibility than George Santos. So is

492
00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:06,600
Speaker 1: he just decided that if he says your name with

493
00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:09,840
Speaker 1: George Santos, is that people will think you're both crimey.

494
00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:13,760
Speaker 3: I think, quite frankly, what happened isn't in very slow motion.

495
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:16,520
Speaker 3: I'm gonna slow motion exactly what you what you saw

496
00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:20,560
Speaker 3: to Laura Ingram and asked a question, yes, right, a

497
00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:24,000
Speaker 3: quarter of James's brain try to figure out what the

498
00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:27,440
Speaker 3: answer was. And then the only thing that popped into

499
00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:29,679
Speaker 3: his mind, right, because we didn't want to use all

500
00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:31,159
Speaker 3: the brain cells, but the only that popped in his

501
00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:34,439
Speaker 3: mind was George Santos. And he was like, he's got

502
00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:39,960
Speaker 3: less credibility than George Santos. And then after the interview,

503
00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:41,880
Speaker 3: you know, he like patted himself on the back after

504
00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:43,399
Speaker 3: that one. He was like, that was good, that was

505
00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:48,200
Speaker 3: really good. I did. I did, George Santos, you know whatever.

506
00:25:48,359 --> 00:25:50,879
Speaker 3: I mean. He's called me little Mosquoitz. He's called me

507
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:51,639
Speaker 3: a smurf.

508
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:54,159
Speaker 1: Oh that's right, he called you a spur.

509
00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, he called me a smurf. He called me little Moskowitz,

510
00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:58,679
Speaker 3: and now he's calling me George Santos. I mean, listen,

511
00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:01,520
Speaker 3: I guess I'm gonna have to Claire on my financial

512
00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:04,320
Speaker 3: form the real estate I now taken in his brain,

513
00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:06,680
Speaker 3: I have to list that on my form as real

514
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:09,320
Speaker 3: estate I now own because he just can't stop thinking

515
00:26:09,359 --> 00:26:09,760
Speaker 3: about me.

516
00:26:09,960 --> 00:26:13,200
Speaker 1: Marjorie Taylor Green yet again put up nudes of Hunter Biden.

517
00:26:13,240 --> 00:26:15,320
Speaker 1: This is the second time, and I think that was

518
00:26:15,359 --> 00:26:17,600
Speaker 1: why he left the hearing, right.

519
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:20,040
Speaker 3: Yes, he knew that was going to happen, just because

520
00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:20,640
Speaker 3: it's Marjorie.

521
00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:23,119
Speaker 1: Yes, so this is a second time that she's done that,

522
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:25,600
Speaker 1: is put up nudes of him, and you as a response,

523
00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:28,919
Speaker 1: you put up this giant poster of Ebstein and Trump,

524
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:31,600
Speaker 1: which is, by the way, like the thing that Republicans

525
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:33,800
Speaker 1: hate most. I shouldn't even say Republicans, and they're not

526
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:37,200
Speaker 1: Republicans there Trump is they hate most is the reminder

527
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:39,639
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump, well Bill Clinton was good friends with

528
00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:42,760
Speaker 1: Jeff App so was Donald Trump.

529
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:44,920
Speaker 3: The Republicans are out there every day and they're talking

530
00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:47,600
Speaker 3: about kids and kids in school and what they're reading

531
00:26:48,119 --> 00:26:51,280
Speaker 3: and grooming and pedophiles. They're talking about that every day,

532
00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:54,040
Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden, you know, more and

533
00:26:54,119 --> 00:26:56,920
Speaker 3: more news continues to leak that their guy, the guy

534
00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:59,439
Speaker 3: you know that they just can't get enough of you

535
00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:01,280
Speaker 3: know is on the playing with Jeffrey Epstein. He's been

536
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:04,600
Speaker 3: to Epstein Island and he even knows like you know,

537
00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:06,919
Speaker 3: I mean, the pictures are endless with him in Epstein.

538
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:09,240
Speaker 3: They literally like put their head into hole like an Ostrich.

539
00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:12,439
Speaker 3: They pretend like that didn't happen, like those photos don't exist.

540
00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:15,240
Speaker 3: And so every hearing I print out some stuff. Sometimes

541
00:27:15,280 --> 00:27:16,480
Speaker 3: I use it, sometimes I don't.

542
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:18,560
Speaker 1: And the staffers love it when you do that.

543
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:20,600
Speaker 3: No that staffords hate it. My staff hates when I

544
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:23,440
Speaker 3: print things that are probably slightly over the edge. I'm

545
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:25,639
Speaker 3: trying to keep as much decorum as i can, Molly,

546
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:27,040
Speaker 3: it's just kind of hard.

547
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:30,159
Speaker 1: This is really important. What I want to ask you

548
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:33,359
Speaker 1: about is like there is this idea that Democrats are

549
00:27:33,359 --> 00:27:36,159
Speaker 1: supposed to behave like it's nineteen ninety eight, despite the

550
00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:40,440
Speaker 1: fact that Republicans are behaving like they work at Fox News.

551
00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:43,320
Speaker 1: So I actually think what you're doing is I don't

552
00:27:43,320 --> 00:27:45,040
Speaker 1: want to encourage you, and I don't want your staffers

553
00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:46,680
Speaker 1: to be mad at me, but I'm going to encourage

554
00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:49,040
Speaker 1: you because I actually think that this is really the

555
00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:50,520
Speaker 1: only way we're going to survive.

556
00:27:50,760 --> 00:27:53,639
Speaker 3: Well, that is actually the intent the intent is to

557
00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:56,760
Speaker 3: be ready when they do that, but the intent is

558
00:27:56,800 --> 00:27:59,359
Speaker 3: to fight fire with fire. I don't want to play

559
00:27:59,359 --> 00:28:01,840
Speaker 3: those games. It's actually not who I am. I'm actually,

560
00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:04,640
Speaker 3: quite frankly, more of a middle of the ground, moderate

561
00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:07,199
Speaker 3: guy make bipartisan deals because I want to help the

562
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:09,679
Speaker 3: American people. This is actually not who I am. But

563
00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:13,359
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna sit in these hearings while they lie

564
00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:15,960
Speaker 3: to the American people and play these games. And if

565
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:18,359
Speaker 3: that's what they're going to do, then I'm going to

566
00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:21,199
Speaker 3: show them that we can play these games, and we

567
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:23,399
Speaker 3: can play it better than they can.

568
00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:25,720
Speaker 1: Because they're ultimately pretty dumb.

569
00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:27,720
Speaker 3: Not all of them, but yes, some of them mail

570
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:30,199
Speaker 3: it in and they're What they're not used to is

571
00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:33,160
Speaker 3: they're not used to a Democrat pushing back with such

572
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:36,800
Speaker 3: aggressive strategy. They're used to us being slightly more passive.

573
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,120
Speaker 3: And so, yeah, if she's going to show nudes up

574
00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:42,200
Speaker 3: Hunter Biden, I'm going to show pictures of their guy,

575
00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:45,840
Speaker 3: you know, DJT and Jeffrey Epstein. And I was prepared

576
00:28:46,200 --> 00:28:49,440
Speaker 3: to do that, hoping by the way that she wasn't

577
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:51,560
Speaker 3: going to show those photos, but having little faith in

578
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:55,000
Speaker 3: her that she was absolutely going to do that, and.

579
00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:56,680
Speaker 1: You had just about the right amount of faith. I

580
00:28:56,720 --> 00:28:58,040
Speaker 1: think it's fair to say.

581
00:28:58,000 --> 00:28:59,000
Speaker 5: We always be prepared.

582
00:28:59,080 --> 00:29:02,840
Speaker 3: I have an emergency man background, as a former emergency

583
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:05,680
Speaker 3: management director who had to deal with all sorts of disasters.

584
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:07,880
Speaker 3: You always want to be ready for different contingencies.

585
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:10,640
Speaker 1: So one of the things that I think is interesting

586
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:14,400
Speaker 1: about this Oversight committee is that the people on it

587
00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:20,160
Speaker 1: really are the sort of very Lauren Bopert, Marjorie Taylor Green, Anna,

588
00:29:20,240 --> 00:29:23,880
Speaker 1: Paulina Luna. I mean, it really is a rogues gallery

589
00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:25,680
Speaker 1: of just the MAGA caucus.

590
00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:28,680
Speaker 3: Well, they built a TV committee in fairness to what

591
00:29:28,720 --> 00:29:31,720
Speaker 3: I think their strategy was. I think their strategy was

592
00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:33,600
Speaker 3: they knew they were going to put on a Broadway

593
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:35,720
Speaker 3: show for two years, and so what they did is

594
00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 3: they put their performers on there. You know, they put

595
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,520
Speaker 3: their TV people on there, and I think bigs. Yeah.

596
00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:42,920
Speaker 3: And I think Kim Jeffries, by the way, saw what

597
00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:45,400
Speaker 3: they did because they released their committee first, and he's

598
00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:47,400
Speaker 3: when he saw what they did. I think he looked

599
00:29:47,440 --> 00:29:49,800
Speaker 3: around at the pieces that he had that weren't on

600
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:52,880
Speaker 3: other committees. And if you look at what ha Kim

601
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:56,640
Speaker 3: Jeffries assembled, I mean Jamie Raskin has crushed it as

602
00:29:56,760 --> 00:29:59,320
Speaker 3: the ranking member soon to be chairman of that committee.

603
00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:02,480
Speaker 3: You know he You've got Dan Goldman, you got you know,

604
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:06,840
Speaker 3: Jerry Connolly, he's been fantastic. Jasmine Crockett, who's been amazing.

605
00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:10,160
Speaker 3: You know Maxwell Frost on the committee. You know, you

606
00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:13,400
Speaker 3: have AOC as the rank is the vice ranking member.

607
00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:16,400
Speaker 3: She's been great. Katie Porter has been amazing. I mean,

608
00:30:16,640 --> 00:30:20,040
Speaker 3: so Akin took these other pieces and said, if that's

609
00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:22,920
Speaker 3: what they're gonna do, we're gonna be ready for a battle.

610
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:26,480
Speaker 3: And this committee has become kind of like a WWE

611
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:31,000
Speaker 3: Royal Rumble Battle Royale. And so yeah, I'm slightly more

612
00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:33,240
Speaker 3: aggressive in that committee than I want to be, and

613
00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:35,200
Speaker 3: I'm definitely more aggressive in that committee than I am

614
00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:38,600
Speaker 3: in Foreign Affairs. But we can't just sit there while

615
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:43,160
Speaker 3: they do this one sided nonsense and pretend like all

616
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:48,120
Speaker 3: of the problems in America never existed until Joseph Biden

617
00:30:48,520 --> 00:30:51,440
Speaker 3: became the president. Right Like, we never had any problem

618
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:54,320
Speaker 3: in this country. It was wonderful. There weren't things to fix,

619
00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:57,440
Speaker 3: there weren't things to make better. Everything was great. But

620
00:30:57,480 --> 00:30:59,640
Speaker 3: then Joe Biden became president. And that's when we started

621
00:30:59,640 --> 00:31:00,480
Speaker 3: to ruin the country.

622
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:03,720
Speaker 1: That's their messaging on immigration, right that if the border

623
00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:06,840
Speaker 1: was fine under Trump, which was not right. I mean again,

624
00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:09,440
Speaker 1: I actually believe that immigration is good in that our

625
00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:11,360
Speaker 1: country is all built on it. But even if you

626
00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:15,000
Speaker 1: were to say that the immigration is a problem, which

627
00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:17,400
Speaker 1: I don't think it is, you would still have to

628
00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:21,000
Speaker 1: say that this has been a continual quote unquote problem

629
00:31:21,120 --> 00:31:23,600
Speaker 1: under and Trump. And Trump built a wall, but he

630
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:26,320
Speaker 1: still couldn't figure out how to deal with this the border.

631
00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:28,600
Speaker 3: Look, there's a push pull effect going on. And look,

632
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:30,400
Speaker 3: I do think there are problems at the border, Molly,

633
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:33,520
Speaker 3: but these problems have existed for twenty years, right, Okay,

634
00:31:33,840 --> 00:31:37,200
Speaker 3: because we've refused to address immigration. Remember George W. Bush

635
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:38,880
Speaker 3: tried to get it done, We got close, and it

636
00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:39,560
Speaker 3: didn't happen.

637
00:31:39,720 --> 00:31:41,720
Speaker 1: But you know, I just had Barbara Boxer on this

638
00:31:41,760 --> 00:31:44,640
Speaker 1: podcast and she said, the reality is Republicans they want

639
00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:46,800
Speaker 1: this to be a problem because otherwise they have nothing

640
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:47,320
Speaker 1: to run on.

641
00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:50,360
Speaker 3: Yes, you literally have I'm not going to name them

642
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:52,760
Speaker 3: because there's too many to name, but you literally have

643
00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:56,560
Speaker 3: Congress people coming out even yesterday literally saying this is

644
00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:58,760
Speaker 3: a direct quote. I'm not going to vote for any

645
00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:01,680
Speaker 3: deal that fixes the situation of the border, because I'm

646
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:04,320
Speaker 3: not helping Joe Biden's re election. That's a direct vote.

647
00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:05,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, they don't want a solution.

648
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:09,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that, unfortunately is not indicative of this issue

649
00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:12,640
Speaker 3: that unfortunately is pervasive in Washington, especially when we're an

650
00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,760
Speaker 3: election year, solving problems if it helps the other side,

651
00:32:16,920 --> 00:32:18,360
Speaker 3: you know, we don't want to solve the problem for

652
00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:19,160
Speaker 3: the American people.

653
00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:23,160
Speaker 1: But what's interesting here is you have a situation right

654
00:32:23,200 --> 00:32:25,600
Speaker 1: now where you have a Republican party in the House

655
00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: that is having a lot of trouble getting along with

656
00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:27,760
Speaker 1: each other.

657
00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:29,560
Speaker 3: Molly, what are you talking about. This has been the

658
00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:32,880
Speaker 3: most productive Congress that we have ever seen.

659
00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:37,760
Speaker 1: That's right, except for any legislation.

660
00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:39,840
Speaker 3: Except for the fact that the average bills passed in

661
00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:43,320
Speaker 3: a Congress are three hundred, We've only done thirty. So

662
00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:46,240
Speaker 3: we are the least productive Congress in three decades. The

663
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:49,400
Speaker 3: largest things we've accomplished is we've removed this speaker and

664
00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:52,640
Speaker 3: expelled a member. We're threatening to shut the government down

665
00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:54,959
Speaker 3: every seventy five days. We can't help our friends in

666
00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:59,440
Speaker 3: Israel or Ukraine. We can't even pass like commemorative dog

667
00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:03,080
Speaker 3: points bills for like working dogs out there. There are

668
00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:05,000
Speaker 3: bills that have like two hundred and fifty sponsors. Like,

669
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:07,040
Speaker 3: there's a bill out there that would for all those

670
00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:09,440
Speaker 3: working dogs out there that help people in their daily lives.

671
00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:11,520
Speaker 3: There's a bill to create a commemorative coin.

672
00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:12,520
Speaker 5: There's like two.

673
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:15,720
Speaker 3: Hundred and fifty sponsors of that bill. Democrats are Republicans.

674
00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:17,560
Speaker 3: That bill's not moving. You can't even move that bill.

675
00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:20,080
Speaker 3: Nancy Pelosi, I think, said this morning on Morning Joe,

676
00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:22,080
Speaker 3: this is the worst she's seen it in thirty five years.

677
00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:25,560
Speaker 1: Right, right, we got Mike Johnson in there. Do you

678
00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:28,640
Speaker 1: think that Mike Johnson ends up? You know, there's still

679
00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:31,040
Speaker 1: a one person motion to vacate. You know, he's got

680
00:33:31,040 --> 00:33:33,560
Speaker 1: this tiered cr you know. I mean, do you think

681
00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:35,800
Speaker 1: this ends in shutdown? Do you think this ends in

682
00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:38,520
Speaker 1: him getting kicked out again? I mean you are there

683
00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:40,080
Speaker 1: on the ground. What do you think?

684
00:33:40,360 --> 00:33:42,480
Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean, Mike Johnson has compared himself

685
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:43,240
Speaker 3: to Moses, So.

686
00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:45,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's just like Moses. Yeah.

687
00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:46,720
Speaker 3: Is he going to be the Moses that wandered in

688
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:48,440
Speaker 3: the desert for forty years? Or is he going to

689
00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:50,360
Speaker 3: be the Moses that led us through the red Sea.

690
00:33:50,400 --> 00:33:52,960
Speaker 3: It's unclear. I don't think they will make a motion

691
00:33:53,080 --> 00:33:56,240
Speaker 3: to vacate and actually go through the vote and remove

692
00:33:56,320 --> 00:33:58,280
Speaker 3: him again. I mean, look, they're already doing everything they

693
00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:00,560
Speaker 3: can do to get back into the minority. It's clear

694
00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:02,920
Speaker 3: they want back in the minority in the House. That's

695
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:05,200
Speaker 3: where they feel comfortable. They're not interested in governing, they're

696
00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:08,319
Speaker 3: not interested in helping the American people do anything positive

697
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:10,480
Speaker 3: or moving the country forward, so they're doing everything they

698
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:12,319
Speaker 3: can to get back there. They may there are some

699
00:34:12,400 --> 00:34:15,200
Speaker 3: that may use those mechanisms maybe to force him to resign.

700
00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:18,640
Speaker 3: But by the way, who's gonna want this job. Nobody's

701
00:34:18,640 --> 00:34:21,000
Speaker 3: gonna want this job with a two vote majority and

702
00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:25,080
Speaker 3: an ungovernable you know, amount of members twelve of them

703
00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:27,719
Speaker 3: at any given time that you know can't listen to

704
00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:30,640
Speaker 3: anything and just want to burn the country to the ground.

705
00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:33,759
Speaker 3: Part of me has no sympathy for Mike Johnson. But

706
00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:35,879
Speaker 3: the other part of me, which is like the part

707
00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:38,760
Speaker 3: that cares about someone's mental health, I have no idea

708
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:41,520
Speaker 3: how he's even doing this. Quite frankly, it is just

709
00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:45,719
Speaker 3: unbelievable what that party is going through right now. And

710
00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:48,200
Speaker 3: you know, what it is. Let's just be honest. Donald

711
00:34:48,239 --> 00:34:53,040
Speaker 3: Trump broke them. He broke them. They're still broken, okay,

712
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:55,400
Speaker 3: and they're gonna be this year leading up to the

713
00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:57,920
Speaker 3: election to see whether or not they're gonna have to

714
00:34:58,280 --> 00:35:00,719
Speaker 3: live with Donald Trump for four more years or whether

715
00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:03,640
Speaker 3: Donald Trump will you go to the pages of a

716
00:35:03,760 --> 00:35:08,440
Speaker 3: history book before we remove him? Just kidding, you know,

717
00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:10,279
Speaker 3: this is my first year here. I mean, if this

718
00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 3: is what Congress is now, the American people, if this

719
00:35:12,760 --> 00:35:15,080
Speaker 3: is what Congress is now going forward, the American people

720
00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:17,680
Speaker 3: and US government are being trouble. If this is a

721
00:35:17,680 --> 00:35:19,560
Speaker 3: blip on the radar, it's one thing. But this is

722
00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:24,880
Speaker 3: just an unbelievable moment in history in which the largest

723
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:27,480
Speaker 3: branch of government, because we're four nan and thirty five members, right,

724
00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:30,440
Speaker 3: there's one hundred senators born in thirty luck, we cannot

725
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:32,120
Speaker 3: function and we're showing that to the world.

726
00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:33,719
Speaker 1: Thank you, Congressman.

727
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:34,440
Speaker 5: Appreciate it.

728
00:35:34,480 --> 00:35:35,560
Speaker 3: Molly, thanks for the opportunity.

729
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:41,720
Speaker 1: Sam Brody is a deputy politics editor at The Daily Beast.

730
00:35:42,040 --> 00:35:44,800
Speaker 1: Welcome to Fast Politics.

731
00:35:44,239 --> 00:35:45,919
Speaker 5: Sam Brody, thanks for having me.

732
00:35:46,080 --> 00:35:51,560
Speaker 1: So United States House of Representatives sacred ground filled with

733
00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:54,440
Speaker 1: serious people. Talk to me about yesterday.

734
00:35:54,880 --> 00:35:59,439
Speaker 5: So yesterday was one of the crazier days we've seen

735
00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:03,040
Speaker 5: on full in the House of Representatives in at least

736
00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:05,880
Speaker 5: two weeks. No, I mean by the standards that this

737
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:08,880
Speaker 5: House has set. Obviously, you know, folks will recall what

738
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:12,120
Speaker 5: happened last year and just seams of drama that are

739
00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:15,840
Speaker 5: really unprecedented. Even by those standards, what happened yesterday was

740
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:19,520
Speaker 5: pretty notable, So let's just rewind. Congress began the day

741
00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:24,000
Speaker 5: with an Oversight Committee hearing in which Cornor Biden unexpectedly

742
00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:28,759
Speaker 5: showed up. Nancy Mace began yelling uncontrollably about that he

743
00:36:28,840 --> 00:36:32,000
Speaker 5: had no balls and that he had white privilege in

744
00:36:32,239 --> 00:36:37,080
Speaker 5: showing up. It completely devolved into bedroom and on the

745
00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:41,600
Speaker 5: House floor we got a just really really stark illustration

746
00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:46,319
Speaker 5: of how completely paralyzed this House Republican majority is and

747
00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:52,000
Speaker 5: really how unable Speaker Mike Johnson is to do almost anything.

748
00:36:52,160 --> 00:36:54,560
Speaker 5: So we'll get into the weeds. I guess here briefly,

749
00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:57,080
Speaker 5: but before you do anything on the House floor, like

750
00:36:57,120 --> 00:37:00,279
Speaker 5: literally anything, they need to pass a rule and that's

751
00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:03,520
Speaker 5: just like jargon for that sets the parameters for debate

752
00:37:03,640 --> 00:37:06,000
Speaker 5: and sets you have to pass ultimately or vote on

753
00:37:06,120 --> 00:37:10,200
Speaker 5: whatever bill that you're considering that day. And historically, rule

754
00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:13,319
Speaker 5: votes do not fail. The entire majority party votes are

755
00:37:13,320 --> 00:37:16,200
Speaker 5: the rule. It's pro forma. Nancy Pelosi in twenty years

756
00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:18,960
Speaker 5: of being a speaker not once lost a vote. And

757
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:20,600
Speaker 5: now this is happening on a.

758
00:37:20,719 --> 00:37:23,760
Speaker 1: Rules because it's not something you're supposed to lose.

759
00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:27,640
Speaker 5: Exactly, even if you vote against the bill, ultimately you

760
00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:29,439
Speaker 5: just vote for the rule. If your party's in charge,

761
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:31,920
Speaker 5: that's just what happens. And so now this has happened

762
00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:33,560
Speaker 5: all the time, and it happened a lot at the

763
00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:37,160
Speaker 5: end of McCarthy's tenure. But now what's happening is people

764
00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:41,000
Speaker 5: who backed getting rid of McCarthy are doing the same

765
00:37:41,040 --> 00:37:44,000
Speaker 5: thing to Mike Johnson. So there was a rule just

766
00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:45,919
Speaker 5: to get started. I mean, it wasn't even a rule

767
00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:48,759
Speaker 5: to pass in appropriations bills. Let's also keep in mind

768
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:50,600
Speaker 5: that a partial government shut down is just a few

769
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:53,280
Speaker 5: days away. This was a rule to pass a symbolic

770
00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:57,400
Speaker 5: resolution disapproving of a Biden administration policy on electric cars.

771
00:37:57,800 --> 00:38:02,080
Speaker 5: That rule was defeated and the House was paralyzed. Nothing

772
00:38:02,120 --> 00:38:05,279
Speaker 5: could happen. And the reason that happened is that conservatives

773
00:38:05,360 --> 00:38:09,440
Speaker 5: remain angry that Mike Johnson really has no choice but

774
00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:13,080
Speaker 5: to stick to his spending deal that McCarthy, Biden, and

775
00:38:13,239 --> 00:38:16,120
Speaker 5: Chuck Schumer agreed to you last year for top line

776
00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:18,600
Speaker 5: budget numbers for the coming year. They have had a

777
00:38:18,640 --> 00:38:21,239
Speaker 5: temper tantrum about this for months. It helped result in

778
00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:26,080
Speaker 5: mccarshey's departure. Nothing magically changed when Mike Johnson took the speakership.

779
00:38:26,160 --> 00:38:28,160
Speaker 5: Instead of trying to work with him to get a

780
00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:30,560
Speaker 5: better deal, these conservatives are just holding the House for

781
00:38:30,960 --> 00:38:34,440
Speaker 5: hostage until something happens. We'll see if anything ends up

782
00:38:34,440 --> 00:38:35,120
Speaker 5: happening today.

783
00:38:35,360 --> 00:38:39,040
Speaker 1: So one of the things that we noticed is that

784
00:38:39,560 --> 00:38:43,560
Speaker 1: yesterday there started to be whispering about a motion to

785
00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:48,480
Speaker 1: vacate for Mike Johnson. That would be because you'll remember,

786
00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:51,040
Speaker 1: Mike Johnson never changed the rules, so there still is

787
00:38:51,080 --> 00:38:53,839
Speaker 1: a one person motion to vacate in the House and

788
00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:57,000
Speaker 1: there was some whispering about it yesterday. That's the first

789
00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:01,239
Speaker 1: time that's happened because he did have originally some goodwill, right.

790
00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:05,240
Speaker 1: So we has this cr This continuing resolution to finance

791
00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:07,720
Speaker 1: the government expires I think in two weeks.

792
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:09,759
Speaker 5: So what they did was they split it in half,

793
00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:11,680
Speaker 5: which was a bizarre thing to do, so some of

794
00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:13,040
Speaker 5: the programs.

795
00:39:12,560 --> 00:39:15,560
Speaker 1: It's a tier to cr the first.

796
00:39:15,320 --> 00:39:18,400
Speaker 5: Time ever, Yes, the first time ever. You got to

797
00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:20,480
Speaker 5: wonder why no one's on that before. I believe it's

798
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:23,280
Speaker 5: in a week that the first shut down partial STUTO

799
00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:25,399
Speaker 5: would happen, and then the other round is in about

800
00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:27,759
Speaker 5: a month on the motion to vacate. Yeah, you know,

801
00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:30,319
Speaker 5: to this point, Johnson has enjoyed a little bit of

802
00:39:30,360 --> 00:39:33,359
Speaker 5: a honeymoon period where people are you going to let

803
00:39:33,520 --> 00:39:37,000
Speaker 5: him work and build his you know, operation, and just

804
00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:39,640
Speaker 5: sort of see what happened. And yesterday there was a

805
00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:42,200
Speaker 5: really pivotal moment I think that heightened the drama of

806
00:39:42,239 --> 00:39:44,919
Speaker 5: everything that happened, which is there was this private House

807
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:48,440
Speaker 5: Republican conference meeting in which Johnson was briefing members on

808
00:39:48,719 --> 00:39:51,839
Speaker 5: the kind of renewed agreement that they came to, and

809
00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:55,240
Speaker 5: people just stormed out, even people incline to support Johnson saying,

810
00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:57,480
Speaker 5: you know, this is a joke. This guy, Warren Davidson

811
00:39:57,520 --> 00:39:59,880
Speaker 5: from Ohio said, you know, we never should have hired

812
00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:03,080
Speaker 5: Johnson in the first place. The more establishment a line

813
00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:05,680
Speaker 5: people are just throwing up their hands and remarking about

814
00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:08,240
Speaker 5: how they literally can't do anything. I mean, you're seeing

815
00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:10,920
Speaker 5: members say on the record like that it is a

816
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:13,440
Speaker 5: complete disaster, which is just shocking.

817
00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:17,000
Speaker 1: What I think is interesting, though, is that what happened

818
00:40:17,080 --> 00:40:20,080
Speaker 1: here is that you have a pretty large section in

819
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:25,280
Speaker 1: this House Republican Party that their entire ethos is burning

820
00:40:25,320 --> 00:40:30,319
Speaker 1: down the federal government. So those people continually are furious

821
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:35,240
Speaker 1: whenever their speaker has to do something that is about

822
00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:38,680
Speaker 1: funding the federal government. I mean, that's really where we are.

823
00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:40,879
Speaker 1: That's why they keep ending up in physticoffs.

824
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:43,759
Speaker 5: Right, Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, like this is

825
00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:47,279
Speaker 5: the story of the modern Republican Party, which is there

826
00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:50,879
Speaker 5: is a critical mass of members of the House who

827
00:40:51,320 --> 00:40:55,040
Speaker 5: have no incentive really to govern, to compromise, to put

828
00:40:55,080 --> 00:40:58,799
Speaker 5: forward spending, because their constituents will view anything that has

829
00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:02,839
Speaker 5: any democratic support, any part of the process as a capitulation,

830
00:41:02,960 --> 00:41:04,719
Speaker 5: and it's going to get you a primary challenger, and

831
00:41:04,760 --> 00:41:06,839
Speaker 5: your life is going to be made more difficult. There's

832
00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:09,480
Speaker 5: just enough of these people who are willing to just

833
00:41:09,520 --> 00:41:12,520
Speaker 5: say screw it, whatever, We're going to say no to everything.

834
00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:15,040
Speaker 5: They are not going to get punished really for it

835
00:41:15,160 --> 00:41:17,919
Speaker 5: by their voters at least, And so you know, we've

836
00:41:17,960 --> 00:41:22,200
Speaker 5: seen that that dynamic just completely turbocharged in this House

837
00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:25,399
Speaker 5: Republican majority. But here's where it gets interesting a little

838
00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:28,000
Speaker 5: bit with the motion to vacate, because you're right in

839
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:32,200
Speaker 5: that it's starting to get mentioned. The sort of Damocles

840
00:41:32,280 --> 00:41:34,800
Speaker 5: is always hanging there over Mike Johnson. Sometimes it's like

841
00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:37,000
Speaker 5: you don't really need to say it's there. Everyone knows

842
00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:40,359
Speaker 5: it's there. But Chip Roy has talked about it, and

843
00:41:40,440 --> 00:41:45,400
Speaker 5: so I remain skeptical that anything will come of this.

844
00:41:45,640 --> 00:41:47,600
Speaker 5: I'll talk a little bit about why. I think. For one,

845
00:41:48,040 --> 00:41:50,960
Speaker 5: the McCarthy situation was e me and I think the

846
00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:55,160
Speaker 5: revolt over McCarthy was really personal in vibe space as

847
00:41:55,239 --> 00:41:56,520
Speaker 5: much as it was anything else.

848
00:41:56,719 --> 00:42:01,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was Matt Gates, right, Matt Gate's mad at macarthy.

849
00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:03,680
Speaker 5: Exactly, mac Gates, Hayden McCarthy, And it's sort of known

850
00:42:03,760 --> 00:42:06,640
Speaker 5: on Capitol Hill in large part because of the ongoing

851
00:42:06,680 --> 00:42:10,280
Speaker 5: ethics investigation into Matt Gates, which mcarthy couldn't do anything about,

852
00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:13,680
Speaker 5: and the others wanted publicity and all that kind of thing,

853
00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:17,200
Speaker 5: so it wasn't about policy, and so they got the trophy.

854
00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:20,680
Speaker 5: McCarthy went down. Mcates will take many victory laps, and

855
00:42:20,719 --> 00:42:22,640
Speaker 5: I think it's been telling. I mean, Matt Gates himself

856
00:42:22,680 --> 00:42:25,320
Speaker 5: dismissed talk of the motion to day hate their support

857
00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:28,880
Speaker 5: for Johnson, and I think even the most delusional of

858
00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:32,399
Speaker 5: this crew probably understand that what good is it going

859
00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:35,000
Speaker 5: to do them to get rid of Mike Johnson and

860
00:42:35,080 --> 00:42:38,120
Speaker 5: go through this process again. I mean, it broke the

861
00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:40,799
Speaker 5: party last time. If it happened again, it would be

862
00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:44,839
Speaker 5: a nuclear level event from which the party probably could

863
00:42:44,840 --> 00:42:47,399
Speaker 5: not recover. And that's probably a scenario where you'd see

864
00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:50,279
Speaker 5: a moderate speaker or compromise speaker or something like that

865
00:42:50,280 --> 00:42:51,479
Speaker 5: that was talked about last time.

866
00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:54,200
Speaker 1: There is no one right, this guy is number four.

867
00:42:54,640 --> 00:42:57,600
Speaker 1: We had McCarthy was out. Then they was talk of

868
00:42:57,640 --> 00:43:00,440
Speaker 1: Steve Scale. Steve Scalice is not even in Congress right now.

869
00:43:00,440 --> 00:43:01,719
Speaker 1: He's getting treatment, right.

870
00:43:01,880 --> 00:43:04,200
Speaker 5: No, Johnson was number seven, Oh.

871
00:43:04,120 --> 00:43:07,680
Speaker 1: Okay, so perfect seven. So then Emmers who tried and

872
00:43:07,719 --> 00:43:10,879
Speaker 1: Trump was like, no, little buddy, And then I thought

873
00:43:10,960 --> 00:43:12,640
Speaker 1: Johnson was four in the in.

874
00:43:12,600 --> 00:43:16,760
Speaker 5: The leadership that honor is is a least of phonic oh.

875
00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:19,560
Speaker 1: A least upon right, I guess the least upon it

876
00:43:19,719 --> 00:43:22,400
Speaker 1: who did not run for anything, because she's running for

877
00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:23,280
Speaker 1: a vice president.

878
00:43:23,680 --> 00:43:28,719
Speaker 5: Well but yeah, but your point is right. There was

879
00:43:28,800 --> 00:43:31,799
Speaker 5: no one. And I remember covering the speaker drama and

880
00:43:32,520 --> 00:43:35,040
Speaker 5: members would say, you know, when they when they landed

881
00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:37,480
Speaker 5: on Johnson, I had a remember, tell me, like Johnson

882
00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:39,560
Speaker 5: is one of the two or three people who could

883
00:43:39,560 --> 00:43:43,480
Speaker 5: get this that seeing a lot, and so you know,

884
00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:48,120
Speaker 5: they all know who like they are all structural problems.

885
00:43:48,120 --> 00:43:51,640
Speaker 5: These are all problems with their party. Johnson is inheriting

886
00:43:51,680 --> 00:43:55,520
Speaker 5: this and he's attempting to govern, and so this is

887
00:43:55,520 --> 00:43:57,880
Speaker 5: always going to be the conflict, is that no matter

888
00:43:57,880 --> 00:44:00,759
Speaker 5: how conservative the person is that gets the position, no

889
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:03,920
Speaker 5: matter how much they ally themselves with the hardliners, if

890
00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:07,040
Speaker 5: you're in that post, you're going to be expected to

891
00:44:07,160 --> 00:44:10,200
Speaker 5: keep the place moving. And so that's the contact we're

892
00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:11,200
Speaker 5: seeing play out.

893
00:44:11,360 --> 00:44:15,319
Speaker 1: And these Republicans whole goeshtald is to not keep the

894
00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:16,000
Speaker 1: place moving.

895
00:44:16,280 --> 00:44:18,360
Speaker 5: That's right. And I mean I think it should be

896
00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:21,239
Speaker 5: said too that there is a pretty large wing of

897
00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:25,680
Speaker 5: the party that does want to pass these appropriations bills.

898
00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:29,240
Speaker 5: They are very, very mad at the state of affairs.

899
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:30,600
Speaker 5: I mean, these are the guys who are coming out

900
00:44:30,640 --> 00:44:32,960
Speaker 5: of the conference meeting and sort of just lamenting their

901
00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:36,360
Speaker 5: inability to govern and talking about how they don't deserve

902
00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:39,640
Speaker 5: the majority and things like that. They're watching the party

903
00:44:39,719 --> 00:44:41,920
Speaker 5: lose their majority in real time. I mean, you have

904
00:44:42,400 --> 00:44:46,360
Speaker 5: members on the record talking about their failure to pass

905
00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:49,800
Speaker 5: appropriations bills, to do the literal most basic thing that

906
00:44:50,239 --> 00:44:52,360
Speaker 5: Congress is supposed to do. How that's going to affect

907
00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:55,880
Speaker 5: their chances in November. Steve Warmackle of Arkansas, he's a

908
00:44:55,960 --> 00:45:01,279
Speaker 5: very establishment, governing wing aligned Republican, made this yesterday and

909
00:45:01,360 --> 00:45:04,760
Speaker 5: so they all know that this is probably where it's heading.

910
00:45:04,840 --> 00:45:07,680
Speaker 5: So while it's important to talk about how much power

911
00:45:07,760 --> 00:45:10,160
Speaker 5: these hardliners have to just grind everything to a halt,

912
00:45:10,160 --> 00:45:13,640
Speaker 5: and how the intensives for them are just to do that,

913
00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:17,240
Speaker 5: Johnson is under a lot of pressure from important members

914
00:45:17,280 --> 00:45:19,239
Speaker 5: of his party, including the people who are going to

915
00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:22,960
Speaker 5: make or break the majority in November, to get something done.

916
00:45:23,080 --> 00:45:25,200
Speaker 5: And so that's the position you find himself in.

917
00:45:25,440 --> 00:45:28,279
Speaker 1: But one of the big problems that Johnson has is

918
00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:31,600
Speaker 1: that his majority is keep shrinking. So talk to us

919
00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:32,040
Speaker 1: about that.

920
00:45:32,320 --> 00:45:35,120
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, it's it's pretty crazy. But last Kevin

921
00:45:35,160 --> 00:45:38,959
Speaker 5: in December, there's a couple other members who actually are

922
00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:43,040
Speaker 5: retiring and can't seemingly get out of there fast enough

923
00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:46,200
Speaker 5: and are even filling the rest of their terms but

924
00:45:46,239 --> 00:45:47,160
Speaker 5: are leaving.

925
00:45:47,560 --> 00:45:49,360
Speaker 1: Yes, isn't that unusual.

926
00:45:49,640 --> 00:45:52,439
Speaker 5: It's pretty unusual. Sometimes you'll see a member of lead

927
00:45:52,520 --> 00:45:56,560
Speaker 5: early for like a time sensitive job or something else,

928
00:45:56,840 --> 00:45:58,880
Speaker 5: but it's unusual this level.

929
00:45:59,160 --> 00:46:02,240
Speaker 1: They lost santa I mean, I think, like, in my mind,

930
00:46:02,560 --> 00:46:06,880
Speaker 1: like one of the most evocative moments in this Congress

931
00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:11,759
Speaker 1: was Republicans decided to do this vote on Santos and

932
00:46:11,800 --> 00:46:15,960
Speaker 1: then at the last minute, the entire leadership team changed

933
00:46:16,040 --> 00:46:18,440
Speaker 1: from kick him out to keep them because it was

934
00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:19,880
Speaker 1: like all of a sudden, they were like with a

935
00:46:19,960 --> 00:46:21,080
Speaker 1: napkin doing math.

936
00:46:21,480 --> 00:46:24,160
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was that. And I'm sure they wanted him

937
00:46:24,200 --> 00:46:26,680
Speaker 5: to stay, but they were wary of being seen as

938
00:46:26,760 --> 00:46:29,399
Speaker 5: working too hard to keep him, and so I think

939
00:46:29,440 --> 00:46:31,799
Speaker 5: they tried to slip the baby there in a way

940
00:46:31,840 --> 00:46:34,480
Speaker 5: that just totally didn't work out at all. But yeah,

941
00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:36,879
Speaker 5: I mean, there's a reason McCarthy didn't do anything about

942
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:39,279
Speaker 5: Santos would use in charge. You knew what was going

943
00:46:39,320 --> 00:46:41,400
Speaker 5: to happen, and so that's where they are.

944
00:46:41,640 --> 00:46:44,560
Speaker 1: So now they have a special election coming in New

945
00:46:44,640 --> 00:46:49,040
Speaker 1: York three, and then they have a majority that is like,

946
00:46:49,239 --> 00:46:52,360
Speaker 1: what are the numbers. It's a bunch of non voting seats, right,

947
00:46:52,440 --> 00:46:56,160
Speaker 1: and then one or two voting seats, right.

948
00:46:56,440 --> 00:46:59,800
Speaker 5: So there's two vacancies right now, and there's two hundred

949
00:46:59,800 --> 00:47:02,160
Speaker 5: and twenty many Republicans and two hundred and thirteen Democrats.

950
00:47:02,200 --> 00:47:05,160
Speaker 5: So the vacancies are the Santo seat and the McCarthey seat,

951
00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:08,239
Speaker 5: and they will not be filled. This special election for

952
00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:10,600
Speaker 5: New York three is in February, I guess, and then

953
00:47:10,640 --> 00:47:14,080
Speaker 5: I think the election for mccarthury seat is in a

954
00:47:14,600 --> 00:47:16,160
Speaker 5: few more months. But then they're going to have another

955
00:47:16,239 --> 00:47:18,200
Speaker 5: vacancy because some guy in Ohio is leaving to become

956
00:47:18,239 --> 00:47:20,040
Speaker 5: a university president. So you're going to just kind of

957
00:47:20,080 --> 00:47:23,240
Speaker 5: continually have these problems. Also, you know, we're seeing members

958
00:47:23,239 --> 00:47:26,600
Speaker 5: since coming back from the break, more coming out to

959
00:47:26,640 --> 00:47:29,520
Speaker 5: announce they're not running for reelection. State filing deadlines are

960
00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:32,759
Speaker 5: coming up. I expect we'll see more members announce their

961
00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:35,560
Speaker 5: plans to retire, and some of those may also include

962
00:47:35,680 --> 00:47:38,360
Speaker 5: people who leave before the term is up. You just

963
00:47:38,360 --> 00:47:42,879
Speaker 5: don't know. The margins could not possibly be higher. It

964
00:47:42,960 --> 00:47:47,960
Speaker 5: really is. Underscore is just how impossible Mike Johnson's situation is.

965
00:47:47,960 --> 00:47:51,399
Speaker 5: He has no breathing room whatsoever. Even if he did,

966
00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:54,160
Speaker 5: he has a crew of about a dozen Republicans in

967
00:47:54,200 --> 00:47:56,759
Speaker 5: his own cow friends who basically have the power to

968
00:47:56,760 --> 00:47:58,960
Speaker 5: make or break anything that happens on the poor and

969
00:47:59,000 --> 00:48:01,680
Speaker 5: there doesn't seem to be a and he has no experience.

970
00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:05,600
Speaker 5: That's really the thing to underscore is he's been around

971
00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:09,040
Speaker 5: in Congress since twenty seventeen. He had a minor position

972
00:48:09,080 --> 00:48:12,440
Speaker 5: in the leadership. He was a conservative guy from the sidelines,

973
00:48:12,480 --> 00:48:15,960
Speaker 5: a committee guy, no leadership like true experience on like

974
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:19,640
Speaker 5: how do you run the place, didn't sit on appropriations

975
00:48:19,719 --> 00:48:22,399
Speaker 5: or any of the big governing committee, and he has

976
00:48:22,440 --> 00:48:26,239
Speaker 5: had to build his operation as all of this has

977
00:48:26,280 --> 00:48:28,560
Speaker 5: been going on. I think that's what makes the motion

978
00:48:28,600 --> 00:48:31,439
Speaker 5: to vacate stuff really empty from somebody like chip Roy

979
00:48:31,480 --> 00:48:34,320
Speaker 5: who does know how the place works. I imagine that

980
00:48:34,400 --> 00:48:38,600
Speaker 5: Chip Roy understands that if you vacate Johnson, okay, get

981
00:48:38,640 --> 00:48:40,799
Speaker 5: somebody else in there, and then they're going to have

982
00:48:40,880 --> 00:48:43,640
Speaker 5: to build an organization from the ground up. Again, how

983
00:48:43,719 --> 00:48:45,320
Speaker 5: is that going to help? I think something that was

984
00:48:45,800 --> 00:48:48,680
Speaker 5: telling of the whole situation with Thomas Massey, who is

985
00:48:48,680 --> 00:48:52,239
Speaker 5: a very right wing conservative from Kentucky, once.

986
00:48:51,960 --> 00:48:55,200
Speaker 1: A libertarian, now just a person who wants to destroy

987
00:48:55,239 --> 00:48:56,120
Speaker 1: the federal government.

988
00:48:56,400 --> 00:48:58,919
Speaker 5: Yeah. Yeah, and you know he's a little weird because

989
00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:01,680
Speaker 5: he's like a big the Stantusk guy Trump guy. Anyway,

990
00:49:01,680 --> 00:49:03,919
Speaker 5: he did back McCarthy, but he is somebody who votes

991
00:49:04,040 --> 00:49:07,720
Speaker 5: no on almost every piece of legislation. He did support McCarthy,

992
00:49:07,840 --> 00:49:11,360
Speaker 5: but he tweeted a meme I think yesterday that was

993
00:49:11,360 --> 00:49:13,520
Speaker 5: a photo of McCarthy and it just said miss me yet.

994
00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:16,920
Speaker 5: And I think that does encapsulate how even a lot

995
00:49:16,920 --> 00:49:21,480
Speaker 5: of conservatives are feeling, which is that, yeah, maybe McCarthy

996
00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:24,440
Speaker 5: got some stuff wrong, he didn't like him on some prospects,

997
00:49:24,480 --> 00:49:27,640
Speaker 5: or didn't trust him, whatever, but that he was probably

998
00:49:27,680 --> 00:49:30,760
Speaker 5: the only person who was positioned to run the conference.

999
00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:33,600
Speaker 5: Now he's gone and shuck with Mike Johnson and they

1000
00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:37,120
Speaker 5: are careening towards the shutdown with no real plan exactly.

1001
00:49:37,239 --> 00:49:41,080
Speaker 1: I mean. Now, the one I think data point here

1002
00:49:41,200 --> 00:49:43,480
Speaker 1: that's useful is that, I mean, the thinking is that

1003
00:49:43,480 --> 00:49:47,160
Speaker 1: the base will love a shutdown. Those hearings yesterday where

1004
00:49:47,560 --> 00:49:50,840
Speaker 1: we had Marjorie Tayler Green chasing Hunter Biden out of

1005
00:49:50,920 --> 00:49:53,719
Speaker 1: the room, right, and then she wasn't really but Hunter

1006
00:49:53,760 --> 00:49:57,439
Speaker 1: Biden was there. You know, the Republican Comm's Operations sent

1007
00:49:57,480 --> 00:50:00,760
Speaker 1: out a tweet that said, Marjorie Teller Green and chases

1008
00:50:01,160 --> 00:50:05,520
Speaker 1: Hunter Biden out of the hearing. Do the Republicans think

1009
00:50:05,800 --> 00:50:08,400
Speaker 1: that this is I mean, do they feel like is

1010
00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:10,640
Speaker 1: this their caravan? Is this what they're going to be

1011
00:50:10,640 --> 00:50:12,839
Speaker 1: doing for the twenty twenty election? And do they think

1012
00:50:12,880 --> 00:50:13,879
Speaker 1: this helps them?

1013
00:50:14,160 --> 00:50:15,160
Speaker 5: The Hunter Biden stuff?

1014
00:50:15,400 --> 00:50:18,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, and also just the really embarrassing bad behavior that

1015
00:50:18,840 --> 00:50:21,160
Speaker 1: kind of you know, screaming, you know, you have no balls,

1016
00:50:21,239 --> 00:50:22,000
Speaker 1: I mean that stuff.

1017
00:50:22,120 --> 00:50:24,120
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean they you know, the most consequential thing

1018
00:50:24,160 --> 00:50:26,400
Speaker 5: that happened now is the representatives yesterday was that Marjorie

1019
00:50:26,400 --> 00:50:31,000
Speaker 5: Taylor Green showed pictures of Hunter Biden dick I mean again, yeah,

1020
00:50:31,080 --> 00:50:34,360
Speaker 5: again again after a hold ust up about a percent. Look,

1021
00:50:34,719 --> 00:50:38,759
Speaker 5: here's the way I do it is Republicans are hopelessly divided.

1022
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:41,360
Speaker 5: The level of acrimony within the party is at just

1023
00:50:41,719 --> 00:50:45,839
Speaker 5: unbelievable highs. There is not much that really unites them

1024
00:50:45,880 --> 00:50:48,120
Speaker 5: and gets them growing in the same direction except for

1025
00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:51,279
Speaker 5: really two things, the border and Hunter Biden. And so

1026
00:50:51,440 --> 00:50:54,279
Speaker 5: you better believe that they're going to desperately try and

1027
00:50:54,360 --> 00:50:57,600
Speaker 5: change the subject and focus on the only things that

1028
00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:02,319
Speaker 5: really unite them. Look, you know, they've clearly decided that,

1029
00:51:02,360 --> 00:51:04,839
Speaker 5: you know, from a political perspective, they're going to use

1030
00:51:04,880 --> 00:51:07,920
Speaker 5: these probes to bloody the president and see what happens

1031
00:51:07,960 --> 00:51:09,879
Speaker 5: and create a lot of smoke and see if it'll

1032
00:51:09,880 --> 00:51:11,960
Speaker 5: stick with voters. I think they're already kind of too

1033
00:51:12,000 --> 00:51:15,120
Speaker 5: far down that road to change, but yeah, you know,

1034
00:51:15,239 --> 00:51:17,719
Speaker 5: it probably was a welcome thing to change the subject.

1035
00:51:17,800 --> 00:51:21,040
Speaker 5: I think they'd probably rather have the media talking about

1036
00:51:21,040 --> 00:51:23,560
Speaker 5: Margie Taylor greens Inox then the fact that they, you know,

1037
00:51:23,800 --> 00:51:26,640
Speaker 5: could not fulfill even the most basic task of governing

1038
00:51:26,640 --> 00:51:27,600
Speaker 5: in the legislative body.

1039
00:51:27,800 --> 00:51:31,000
Speaker 1: Sam Brody, that was great. I really appreciate you, and

1040
00:51:31,160 --> 00:51:33,200
Speaker 1: that was exactly exactly right.

1041
00:51:33,239 --> 00:51:36,440
Speaker 5: Thank you, thanks for having me. I always love talking

1042
00:51:36,440 --> 00:51:38,000
Speaker 5: about the House of Representatives.

1043
00:51:39,960 --> 00:51:44,600
Speaker 1: They're mormical Fuent, Jesse Cannon.

1044
00:51:45,040 --> 00:51:49,879
Speaker 6: Molly jung Fest. You know, Elon, he's always tweeting through it,

1045
00:51:49,920 --> 00:51:55,600
Speaker 6: but somehow some people can't see the very obvious hints

1046
00:51:55,640 --> 00:51:57,680
Speaker 6: at what his political ideology is.

1047
00:51:58,000 --> 00:52:02,280
Speaker 1: Elon Musk was right wing, or at least he certainly

1048
00:52:02,360 --> 00:52:05,440
Speaker 1: seemed right wing, but he has, as he has been

1049
00:52:05,480 --> 00:52:10,239
Speaker 1: tweeting through it, revealed himself to be redpilled, to be maga,

1050
00:52:10,719 --> 00:52:14,000
Speaker 1: to be anti immigrant, and in fact every.

1051
00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:15,920
Speaker 6: Tweet I think we could go a little further and

1052
00:52:15,960 --> 00:52:17,600
Speaker 6: just go full on white supremacists.

1053
00:52:17,640 --> 00:52:21,200
Speaker 1: At this point, he really has become the kind of

1054
00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:24,879
Speaker 1: South African billionaire that I, in my heart always knew

1055
00:52:24,880 --> 00:52:27,360
Speaker 1: he was. You're going to see a lot of him

1056
00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:33,760
Speaker 1: complaining about the caravan, him worried about bloodlines.

1057
00:52:33,640 --> 00:52:37,200
Speaker 6: Referring people to Stephen Miller's white grievance slaw firm.

1058
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:41,120
Speaker 1: And also he'll probably start using Stephen Miller's hair and

1059
00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:42,000
Speaker 1: a can.

1060
00:52:43,760 --> 00:52:45,040
Speaker 6: Now he bought the good stuff.

1061
00:52:45,080 --> 00:52:50,360
Speaker 1: Come on, anyway, all of this is why Elon Musk,

1062
00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:56,360
Speaker 1: beneficiary of government contracts and white nationalists is our moment

1063
00:52:56,400 --> 00:53:00,680
Speaker 1: of fuckery. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics.

1064
00:53:01,000 --> 00:53:03,920
Speaker 1: Tune in every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to hear the

1065
00:53:03,960 --> 00:53:07,400
Speaker 1: best minds in politics makes sense of all this chaos.

1066
00:53:07,680 --> 00:53:10,239
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send it to

1067
00:53:10,280 --> 00:53:13,680
Speaker 1: a friend and keep the conversation going. And again, thanks

1068
00:53:13,680 --> 00:53:14,320
Speaker 1: for listening.