WEBVTT - An Insult To Clowns: David Drucker Talks to A&G 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.600 Let's talk about some of these spicy stories going on 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.880 right now with David Drucker, senior writer at The Dispatch. 0:00:06.240 --> 0:00:08.240 Prior to that, of course, he was senior correspondent for 0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:10.360 The Washington Examiner, and David's also the author of the 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:12.920 book In Trump's Shadow, The Battle for twenty twenty four 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:14.080 in the Future of the GOP. 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:16.480 David, welcome, How are you hey? 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:17.400 Good to be here. Thank you. 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:20.640 How are you liking working at the Dispatch so far? 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:26.400 I really like it, no sarcasm. It's a great gig. 0:00:26.440 --> 0:00:27.800 I think we do a lot of really good work 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:31.160 and they free me up to just pursue and report 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:31.960 really good stories. 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:35.040 Yeah, and you're awesome on there, and one of the 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:37.280 reasons I want to have you on today, in addition 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:40.000 to the fact that you're probably the best at reporting 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:44.560 on stuff like the Republican House Speaker fight. You seem 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:47.760 pretty fired up as I was about the failure of 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:52.320 the prestige US media on Tuesday, going ahead and announcing 0:00:52.320 --> 0:00:55.200 that Israeli Israel had bombed a hospital before they knew 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:57.240 what was going on, which really pisses me off. 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:01.120 Well, because this is pretty typical. I'm not even the 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:04.320 biggest look, I'm in the media, so rather than criticize 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:06.600 the media, I just try to do my job. But 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:10.039 I will say, as an observer of American and Middle 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:12.800 East politics for decades, I'm just old enough that now 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:15.360 I've been able to observe this for decades. This is 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:17.800 par for the course. This might be new to some people, 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.280 but this always happens. People jump to conclusions what it 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:25.480 has to do with Israel, conclusions. They don't jump to 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:28.680 what it has to do with other countries and other 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:32.520 nonstate actors. And you know, in this case, it's just 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:36.280 in the middle of a very volatile situation that has 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:41.080 the potential to have a real damaging impact in the 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:45.800 region and domestically. But I wasn't surprised because this is again, 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:46.840 it's just what. 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:50.920 Happens well there. As a number of people have pointed out, 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:54.960 one of the problems with that is the media, which 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:58.840 usually leans left and supports democratic policies, hurt the president's 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:01.400 owned policies as he had to cancel some meetings, hurt 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:04.400 the prospect for peace which would help Palestinians. I mean, who, 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:07.640 I don't even understand their motivation other than hating on 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:08.600 israel I guess. 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:11.320 I think, well, I think, look, I think you're some 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:16.160 people might be over thinking this. You know, even though 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:19.160 the media can and has demonstrated over the years to 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:22.440 have a left leaning bias, they're not. There's not some 0:02:22.600 --> 0:02:24.760 place where they all go meet and decide with the 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:27.520 with the party's messages for the day. And so I 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:29.840 think this has to do with a worldview, not a 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.800 political bias necessarily, but just a worldview about how they 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:37.160 viewed the Israeli government. And the point I was trying 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:40.639 to make, not that anybody cares, was that it's our 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:44.720 job as journalists to be skeptical of everything and everyone. 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:50.200 But but skepticism doesn't deserve to be dished out equally. 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:54.640 In the case of Hamas, which is a terrorist organization 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:59.920 that purposely targets civilians. Just stepping back from whatever you 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:04.640 opinions of the Israeli Palestinian conflict and dispute, his are. 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:11.040 This group is not a normal army that operates according 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:13.720 to the law, the international laws of war. They never 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:17.639 have and they've even shown a willingness to put their 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:21.880 own people in danger just to get Israel to get 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:25.000 blamed for one of the misfortunate that then befalls their 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:29.600 own people or the death, and that's how they operate. 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:33.600 So my response to this isn't you should believe the 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.960 Israeli government. No, you shouldn't believe the Israeli government, but 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:40.720 you should show Hamas more skepticism than you do the 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:43.880 Israeli government and just say you don't know and wait 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:45.880 until you know and have enough information. 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:48.720 Well, my final thought on the topic is if you're 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:53.520 going to be completely credulous and print somebody's claims about something, 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.240 the fact that that somebody was Hamas and they printed 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:58.240 those claims as just. 0:03:58.360 --> 0:03:59.520 Astounding to me. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.440 But moving along with David Drucker of The Dispatch, David, 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:07.280 I've been referring to the contest to elect a House 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:09.120 speaker as a clown show. 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:11.200 Is that unnecessarily harsh in your opinion? 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.080 No, I think you're being disrespectful to clowns. That's an 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:18.560 honorable question because you actually make people laugh and do 0:04:18.640 --> 0:04:19.680 a service. 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:24.200 Right, beautiful, somebody will get a balloon animal at the end. 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:28.520 I mean, there's benefits to it. So where are we currently. 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:36.839 Nowhere? Republicans can't agree amongst themselves on anybody when it 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.000 comes to delivering two hundred and eighteen votes for the gabble, 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:44.080 and so there's a lot of discussion now about elevating 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:48.800 or I should say empowering Speaker pro Tem path Patrick McHenry, 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:54.120 a North Carolina Republican with a lot of the authority 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.200 that goes along with being the actual Speaker of the House. 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:00.680 Isn't allow the Chamber to get back to work move legislation. 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:03.920 We're about a month away from the government running out 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.640 of money again, or the President this evening is going 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:10.160 to pitch a big aid package or Israel, Ukraine and 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:14.159 we think Taiwan and possibly some domestic border security money, 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:18.440 although it's unclear, but we know that Israel, ad for Israel, 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.480 and Ukraine are going to be packaged together. At least 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:23.320 that's what the President is going to propose, and that's 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:26.359 what I think the Senate is going to move on. 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:30.600 And so in order to pass this legislation is going 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:33.760 to need to be operable, and so Republicans are going 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:35.479 to have to figure out what they want to do. 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:38.760 I don't know that we're near this McHenry solution, but 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:44.520 it's what's being discussed because nobody wants to look I do. 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.000 I'm talking long here, but The reason Republicans are in 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:49.640 this mess is because there are not enough of them. 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:52.440 They want to follow their own rules. Their rules say 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.640 that in an internal conference election, whoever gets the most 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:59.560 votes above a certain number is the speaker designate when 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:01.760 they're in the and they're all supposed to vote for 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:05.599 that person on the floor. It's not that it's binding constitutionally, 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:09.120 that that's the rules they have for themselves. They wouldn't 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:11.200 honor it with Kevin McCarthy, they wouldn't honor it with 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:15.160 Steve's falife, and so now members that always go along 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:18.320 because they want to govern and be pragmatic finally said 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:20.400 I've had enough. If you don't have to follow the. 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:24.120 Rules and needed a lot, well you're a fine psychic, 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:26.320 is I was just going to say. The crazy part 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:28.600 to me is that you know they can't arrive at 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.200 a result is too bad, But they can't even arrive 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:34.560 at a process. Apparently all of the rules and customers 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:37.080 are out the window. So let's move on to what's 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.040 it look like behind the scenes. I understand there's some 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:43.880 serious arm twisting to vote for Jordan, backlash, et cetera. 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:51.719 Look, Jordan has been trying to bring his opponents along, 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:54.520 but I don't think he can. There's a lot of 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:57.320 ill will in the conference right now. We talked about 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:01.080 it as being a dysfunctional conference, but it's now also factionalized. 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:03.840 There's a lot of ill will. There are a lot 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:07.119 of hurt feelings. There's a lot of frustration, and whether 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:10.880 or not Jordan is responsible for this or look the 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:13.880 other way, or even whether or not he told his 0:07:13.960 --> 0:07:16.320 allies off of Capitol Hill please stop and they just 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:20.680 didn't listen. One of the problems that the Republicans who 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:23.920 oppose him have is that they feel like Jordan and 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:28.280 his allies were bringing outside pressure to bear and threatening them, 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:32.440 threatening them with primary challengers, that they're that these these 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:38.960 pro Jordan activists were even sending in death threats and wow, 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:41.400 and and it gets to the fact that that's what 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.000 some members have alleged and and they've really statements for 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:44.480 that effect. 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:46.240 Well, if I got a death threat, and I thought 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:47.760 if I got a death threat, and I thought it 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:51.080 came from Jordan's people, especially with his knowledge, yeah I 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:52.280 wouldn't be real likely. 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:53.520 To vote for him. 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:55.480 Yeah. Well. I think the other thing though, too, is 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:59.360 so when conservative activists and somehow Republicans who support Jordan 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:01.800 make the case that this is what the voters want. 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.400 What a lot of House Republicans pier is, Oh, so 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:10.040 I'm supposed to do whatever Jordan wants because your voters, 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:13.120 my voters like him better than me, and he's going 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.120 to use that against me. And and members of Congress 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:19.000 want to be the stars in their own district. They 0:08:19.080 --> 0:08:21.640 understand that when there's a president that their voters like, 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:25.440 they're under pressure to work with that president or even 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:29.400 just support that president without you know, too much, you know, 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:33.800 without without too much trouble. But when another when a 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.559 congressional leader says, do what I say, or your voters 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:39.320 are going to be angry. It's as opposed to I'm 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:41.560 going to help you succeed in your district. It's just 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:44.480 it's not the way you win a congressional leadership race, 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.600 which was is different than running for office where voters 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:50.760 of the constituency versus members of Congress. 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:54.640 So how certain are you that the Patrick McHenry move 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:55.800 is the next step? 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:58.720 Is there just no other road to take at this point? 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:01.000 It appears that there's no other road to take at 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:02.760 this point, but I'm not sure if it's necessarily the 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:05.199 next step versus no step, And it sort of depends 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:07.760 on how many House Republicans are willing to go along 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:10.840 and do this, because you're going to have a you know, 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.800 some significant member of the conference, even though it maybe 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:17.680 a minority, that's going to oppose doing this, And so 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:20.200 the thinking would be that Democrats would join in with this, 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:22.600 and you know, mckenry sort of has to be willing, 0:09:22.840 --> 0:09:24.360 Like I guess he could say forget it, I'm not 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:27.840 going to serve. But I think we just kind of 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:31.000 need to see whether Jordan calls another vote today. My 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:35.640 sources tell me that he's likely likely to lose more votes, 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:39.080 that there are more members than we saw in the 0:09:39.080 --> 0:09:41.400 first two votes that are opposing him, but they want 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:43.680 to stagger their vote so that it's clear if that 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:47.679 it's like it's going backwards wow, versus even staying the same. 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:51.920 But you know, this has been such a volatile, uncertain process. 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:54.840 I'm hesitant to make predictions versus just kind of tell 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:55.640 you what I'm hearing. 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:00.720 So clown show an appropriate poop show, I suppose more appropriate. 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:02.880 I'll be going with that in the future. Final question, David, 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:06.040 we're chatting about this earlier. Have you heard whether the 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:08.880 president's address eight o'clock eastern tonight is going to be 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:09.800 live or not. 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:11.320 He's an old man, you see. 0:10:11.840 --> 0:10:13.600 No, it's going to be live. Yeah, No, you don't 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:15.559 do it. Office of Dress. It's not live. Yeah. And 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:18.760 it's eight eastern five o'clock Pacific, which means, you know, 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:21.520 people are you know, theoretically off work or on their 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:23.960 way home. It's not home yet. That's why you wait 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:24.840 until late o'clock. 0:10:24.920 --> 0:10:26.480 Well that's pretty late in the day after. 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:29.160 That's pretty late in the day after a long trip 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:30.920 and a lot of time zones and all that sort 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:32.360 of stuff. For him. 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:35.520 Yeah, well look, I mean, you know, I understand how 0:10:35.520 --> 0:10:39.680 people feel about his age, but he'd been able to 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:43.160 do this before and and so, you know, be interesting 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:45.760 to see what's in the speech. The speech just about 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:49.520 Israel and Ukraine. He had been planning an address about 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:53.360 Ukraine before Hamas attack Israel in October seventh. So now 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:55.520 we've got the sort of combined address. I wonder if 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:58.920 it's his first Oval address. I have to check. But obviously, 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:01.199 you know, presidents use the Old Office for these addresses 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.559 very sparingly, not to dilute the significance of it and 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:07.240 the power of it, and we'll see you know what 0:11:07.280 --> 0:11:10.480 he says and how Americans react with. 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:14.440 David Drucker, Senior writer at The Dispatch. His latest book 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:16.400 is In Trump's Shadow, The Battle for twenty twenty four 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:18.280 in the Future of the GOP. Good to talk to you, David, 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:19.640 Thanks a bunch anytime. 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:22.920 Guys, Thank you, Armstrong and Getty.