Speaker 1: Welcome in his verdict to a Senator Ted Cruz Ben
Speaker 1: Ferguson with you, Senator, what a way to go back
Speaker 1: to Washington to bring people up to date on what's happened.
Speaker 1: Twenty House Republicans have voted for someone other than Kevin McCarthy.
Speaker 1: There were multiple votes that were held. They've decided to
Speaker 1: basically end it until noon on Wednesday. Some people said, well,
Speaker 1: that's just because there's a lot of family members in town.
Speaker 1: I think the world was spending for Kevin McCarthy. You're
Speaker 1: there in Washington. I think everybody in politics is surprised
Speaker 1: by how this played out so far. Well, it's a
Speaker 1: big deal. What's happening. It's the first time in a
Speaker 1: hundred years that the House speaker vote went to multiple ballots.
Speaker 1: And right now the House is in recess until noon
Speaker 1: on Wednesday. And noon on Wednesday we'll find out what
Speaker 1: happens next. There were three rounds of balloting, and on
Speaker 1: each of the three nobody had the two hundred and
Speaker 1: eighteen votes needed to win the speakership. And so this battle,
Speaker 1: this battle is waging. You and I are are recording
Speaker 1: this on Tuesday evening, after the House is adjourned, but
Speaker 1: before they've gathered in the morning. I am confident there
Speaker 1: are multiple furious conversations ongoing right now all across Washington.
Speaker 1: Conversations between Kevin McCarthy and his allies, conversations between the
Speaker 1: rebels who are opposing McCarthy, and and they're they're likely
Speaker 1: our negotiations going on right now, but we won't know
Speaker 1: at least until tomorrow what happens. Uh And and it's
Speaker 1: uh uh, it's not going to be dull. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: not going to be dull. Let's talk about the history
Speaker 1: of this. There there are people, and this is even
Speaker 1: on the Democrat side, that say, hey, we don't like
Speaker 1: this type of precedent, because then what you could end
Speaker 1: up happening in the future is when you have tight
Speaker 1: elections like we just add in November, if certain people
Speaker 1: on either side of the aisle refuse to kind of
Speaker 1: you know, coalesce behind their team, then you could always
Speaker 1: be holding good people hostage. That's how this has kind
Speaker 1: of played out on TV. There have been others have
Speaker 1: said this has just become too personal with three or
Speaker 1: four or five different members of Congress and Ken McCarthy,
Speaker 1: where it really isn't about the country. It's more of
Speaker 1: a personal issue. I think this is a very unique
Speaker 1: moment where you see twenty people say, all right, maybe
Speaker 1: we go with a Jim Jordan. We've heard people talk
Speaker 1: about Steve Scalisee. Does that really change anything? And if
Speaker 1: you're a member of Congress right now, especially a new
Speaker 1: member of Congress, how confused are you by all of
Speaker 1: this on your first day. Well, let me say several things.
Speaker 1: First of all, I'm staying out of the speaker fight
Speaker 1: in the House. I've got plenty of fights over on
Speaker 1: the other side of the Capitol and the Senate. We
Speaker 1: are in the middle of big, big battles in the Senate,
Speaker 1: and so I am watching with considerable interest, but not
Speaker 1: engaging in the middle of their leadership fight. That being said,
Speaker 1: I'll make several observations. Number one, A big part of
Speaker 1: the reason this is playing out is because the election
Speaker 1: was disappointing. The election, we did a lot less. Republicans
Speaker 1: did a lot less in the election than we should have.
Speaker 1: We should have a majority in the Senate, we should
Speaker 1: have a big majority in the House. If we'd come
Speaker 1: out of the election and it was a thirty thirty
Speaker 1: five vote Republican majority in the House, I doubt this
Speaker 1: fight would be playing out at that level. I think
Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy would have had pretty easily the votes to
Speaker 1: be elected speaker. And if you win a big victory,
Speaker 1: that is typically the result. What is driving this is
Speaker 1: it was instead a very frustrating election where we didn't
Speaker 1: win a majority in the Senate. In fact, we lost
Speaker 1: a seat in the Senate, which is beyond infuriating. And
Speaker 1: in the House, the Republicans have a majority, so that's good,
Speaker 1: but it's the narrowest majority imaginable. It is a four
Speaker 1: vote majority. Now, I'll say for any speaker, being speaker
Speaker 1: of a House with a four vote majority is an
Speaker 1: absolute mess because you're right, when you have a tiny majority,
Speaker 1: all sorts of groups of members are incentivized to hold
Speaker 1: out for what they want. And that's true from conservatives,
Speaker 1: from moderates, from liberals across the spectrum. I think it's
Speaker 1: also more true on the Republican side. On the Democrats side,
Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi had a very small majority, but the Democrats
Speaker 1: are command and control, the Democrats are authoritarian, the Democrats
Speaker 1: follow orders. It's a strength of theirs, and it's a
Speaker 1: weakness of theirs on the Republican side, A strength and
Speaker 1: weakness we have as Republicans is we're a bunch of
Speaker 1: individualists were all over the map. That's true in the
Speaker 1: Senate and it's true in the House. And so what's
Speaker 1: playing out here in significant part, is playing out because
Speaker 1: the majority is so narrow and what it led to
Speaker 1: look you and I Ben have talked to on this
Speaker 1: podcast about the leadership battles in the Senate, and I
Speaker 1: led the fight in the leadership battles of the Senate
Speaker 1: to reevaluate what our leadership was doing. And in particular,
Speaker 1: I was the one that made the motion to delay
Speaker 1: leadership elections until after the Georgia runoff, to delay them
Speaker 1: and to have a real debate about how Republicans should lead.
Speaker 1: And I ended up getting eleven votes that well, getting
Speaker 1: sixteen votes in favor of delaying the election, and then
Speaker 1: ultimately there were eleven votes cast either against Mitch McConnell
Speaker 1: or one senator who wouldn't know who voted present. That
Speaker 1: was a big deal. We needed twenty five to have
Speaker 1: delayed the elections. We got within nine of that happening.
Speaker 1: That's the first leadership battle in the Senate we've had
Speaker 1: in the decade I've served in the Senate, every other
Speaker 1: time Mitch McConnell has been elected by acclamation. The same
Speaker 1: forces that drove that leadership battle in the Senate are
Speaker 1: driving the leadership battle in the House. But why is
Speaker 1: the result playing out differently? And there's a very important
Speaker 1: structural difference between the Senate and the House, which is
Speaker 1: why you're getting a lot more drama on the House side.
Speaker 1: In the Senate, the Senate Republican leader is elected only
Speaker 1: by Republicans. In other words, it was the vote of
Speaker 1: what was then fifty of us, and so Mitch to
Speaker 1: remain Senate Republican leader had had to win twenty six
Speaker 1: of those fifty. He had those votes pretty solidly in
Speaker 1: his pocket. In the House, last month, the House Republicans
Speaker 1: got together and Kevin McCarthy won a sizable majority of
Speaker 1: House Republicans. But the way the House operates is different
Speaker 1: because the very first thing after the new members are
Speaker 1: sworn in that happens in the House is you have
Speaker 1: what we're seeing right now, a vote on the floor
Speaker 1: of the House to elect the speaker. And it's not
Speaker 1: just a vote Republicans if this was a vote of
Speaker 1: only Republicans. Kevin McCarthy would have won handily like he
Speaker 1: did last month. This is a vote of every House member,
Speaker 1: and to be speaker you need a majority of the
Speaker 1: members who are present and voting. So they're four hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty five members of the House. One member, a
Speaker 1: Democratic member passed away, so they're only four hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty four members right now. That means you need two
Speaker 1: hundred eighteen. What happened on the first ballot Andy Biggs
Speaker 1: from Arizona, it's a conservative, it's a good friend of mine,
Speaker 1: and he ran against Kevin McCarthy, and it ended up
Speaker 1: that there were nineteen votes cast against Kevin McCarthy. Mind you,
Speaker 1: five was sufficient, he could only lose four. Well, the
Speaker 1: second ballot, instead of Andy Biggs being the lead opposition player,
Speaker 1: it was Jim Jordan, and this time there were nineteen
Speaker 1: votes for Jim Jordan. Now there is some irony in
Speaker 1: this and that Jim Jordan is at least at present,
Speaker 1: vocally supporting Kevin McCarthy to be speaker. Yeah. Ji. He
Speaker 1: actually told one member that voted for him, like, I
Speaker 1: don't want this job, and they said, tough luck. Basically,
Speaker 1: we're gonna nominate you and vote for you anyway. Well,
Speaker 1: and it's even more than that. Jim Jordan, on the
Speaker 1: second ballot had literally stood up and nominated Kevin McCarthy.
Speaker 1: So he was nominating Kevin McCarthy, and in turn, Matt
Speaker 1: Gates got up and nominated Jim Jordan, and nineteen Republicans
Speaker 1: voted for Jim Jordan. Then the third ballot, chip Roy
Speaker 1: nominated Jim Jordan. Chip Roy is my former chief of staff.
Speaker 1: It's a strong conservative, is a very dear friend. Chip
Speaker 1: Roy gave a passion speech for Jim Jordan. And what
Speaker 1: happened next was significant. Look in these battles of momentum matters,
Speaker 1: and so everyone is watching, Okay, are the vote totals
Speaker 1: going up? Are going down? And on the third ballot,
Speaker 1: McCarthy's numbers went down, and in particular Jim Jordan. Instead
Speaker 1: of getting nineteen, which is what he got on the
Speaker 1: second ballot, Jordan got twenty and and and the vote
Speaker 1: that flipped was Byron Donalds, who is a second term
Speaker 1: House member from Florida. He's African American. He's a good principal,
Speaker 1: very well liked member. There were gasps of the floor
Speaker 1: of the House when Byron shifted his vote. That dynamic,
Speaker 1: I think played a real part in the decision to say, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's suspend everything till noon tomorrow. When you look at
Speaker 1: that suspension and before we actually before I even ask
Speaker 1: you that I want to go back to Chip Rowing,
Speaker 1: what he said was something that I think was very
Speaker 1: interesting because I was watching this on all the channels
Speaker 1: when it was happening, and even CNN said, Okay, Chip
Speaker 1: has a point he's making here. He wasn't opposing Kevin
Speaker 1: McCarthy as much as he was advocating for actually debating
Speaker 1: amendments and having transparency in government from the floor of
Speaker 1: the House, and even the panels said, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of Americans they're gonna watch Chip Roy, maybe for the
Speaker 1: first time ever, that are going to look at this
Speaker 1: and say, you know what, what he's saying right now
Speaker 1: actually make some pretty good sense. Just take a list
Speaker 1: and if you miss this, America, this is what he
Speaker 1: had to say from the four of the House. So
Speaker 1: this is what the chamber looks like when we're actually
Speaker 1: debating in the bodies or in the chairs. How many
Speaker 1: times have we been down here giving speeches and there's
Speaker 1: not a soul in the chamber yet. This is what
Speaker 1: it takes to get four hundred, four hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: five people in the chamber and have an actual debate.
Speaker 1: The American people are watching, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: What we're doing is exercising our rights to vote and
Speaker 1: have a debate and have a discussion about the future
Speaker 1: of this country through the decision of choosing a speaker.
Speaker 1: This is not personal, it's not This is about the
Speaker 1: future of the country. This is about the direction of
Speaker 1: the country. American people who are looking at this body
Speaker 1: and wondering why we can pass one point seven trillion
Speaker 1: dollars bills that are unpaid for it. They can just
Speaker 1: slide in forty five billion dollars for Ukraine but not
Speaker 1: pay for it, forty billion dollars for emergency spending and
Speaker 1: not paid for a ten percent increase in defense spending,
Speaker 1: six percent increase in non defense spending, and not pay
Speaker 1: for it, and not do a thing except put language
Speaker 1: in a bill that prohibits our ability to use the
Speaker 1: money to secure the border. That bill gets rammed through,
Speaker 1: and we know exactly how it gets rammed through because
Speaker 1: the defense world and the non defense world come together
Speaker 1: and say, you know what, We're gonna cut a deal
Speaker 1: and we'll all go to the mic, so we'll all
Speaker 1: give speeches, and the American people are the big losers.
Speaker 1: That's what happens. We know, that's what happens. The Rules
Speaker 1: Committee sits up there and passes a bill, sends it
Speaker 1: to the floor, and we have no debate on the
Speaker 1: floor of this body. We haven't been able to offer
Speaker 1: an amendment on floor of this body since May of
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen. The former leader and I've discussed this right here.
Speaker 1: That's true. But the fact is this place has to change.
Speaker 1: It has to change, and the change comes by either
Speaker 1: adopting rules and procedures that will make us actually do
Speaker 1: our job, or it comes from leadership. And people ask
Speaker 1: me what do you want. I want the tools or
Speaker 1: I want the leadership to stop the swamp from running
Speaker 1: over the average American every single day. I mean, Senator,
Speaker 1: when you hear that, as he said, this is not
Speaker 1: about the speaker as in the person's name. This is
Speaker 1: about rules and procedure. I understand now why Chip was
Speaker 1: your chief of staff and why you like him so much,
Speaker 1: because for many Americans whether you are a Republican or Democrat,
Speaker 1: you hear what he just said and it makes a
Speaker 1: lot of sense. Yeah. Look, Chip is very smart, he's
Speaker 1: very principled. As you noted. When I was newly elected,
Speaker 1: he was my very first chief of staff, so I
Speaker 1: had been in a lot of foxholes side by side
Speaker 1: with Chip, and he is absolutely right at having this
Speaker 1: debate about what Republicans will stand for is important irrespective
Speaker 1: of a speaker election. It's important to say how are
Speaker 1: we going to operate and lead because I believe one
Speaker 1: of the reasons we didn't have the kind of election
Speaker 1: that you and I wanted us to have in November
Speaker 1: is that Republican leadership was not leading boldly and drawing
Speaker 1: a clear contrast. And I've focused my time and attention
Speaker 1: on the Senate, that's obviously the body in which I serve,
Speaker 1: and on trying to press Mitch McConnell to stand up
Speaker 1: and be willing to fight. I think Chip is exactly
Speaker 1: right that this omnibus was an absolute monstrosity. It was
Speaker 1: a disgraceful bill. Now here's one of the weird dynamics.
Speaker 1: Mitch McConnell was urging Republicans to support the one point
Speaker 1: seven trillion dollars omnibus because he said it would help
Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy. Kevin McCarthy was publicly urging Republicans in the
Speaker 1: Senate to vote against the omnibus. He said it will
Speaker 1: hurt me, hurt Kevin McCarthy. That dynamic playing out is ongoing.
Speaker 1: And you know Chip's point about we're actually sitting in
Speaker 1: the chamber talking to each other. That happens so rarely
Speaker 1: in either House that having a debate about Okay, we
Speaker 1: shouldn't fight on everything always, that doesn't make any sense,
Speaker 1: but we should have a strategy to pick issues that
Speaker 1: matter and stand and fight for them and deliver for
Speaker 1: the American people. Now, Chip has been leading the insurgents
Speaker 1: in the House, and the main thing he has been
Speaker 1: pressing for is something that is called the motion vacate,
Speaker 1: which it used to be that any individual member could
Speaker 1: stand up in the House and file a motion to
Speaker 1: vacate the chair and you could force another vote like
Speaker 1: the vote we're having right now, you could force at
Speaker 1: any time. That meant that the given speaker at any
Speaker 1: given point had to be able to hold two hundred
Speaker 1: and eighteen votes. That makes the job of speaker significantly
Speaker 1: more perilous. It is the tool that was used to
Speaker 1: topple John Bayner, who I think was truly an abysmal speaker.
Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi changed those rules, and she changed those rules
Speaker 1: to prevent an individual member from filing emotion to vacate. Why.
Speaker 1: Because she didn't want to get toppled. She didn't want
Speaker 1: any rebels to be empowered. And so what those who
Speaker 1: are opposing McCarthy are pressing for is a procedural step
Speaker 1: that an individual House member can file emotion vacate. Why
Speaker 1: are they pressing for it? Well, the argument they give
Speaker 1: is that it then gives a check on leadership. McCarthy,
Speaker 1: at least so far, has been unwilling to agree to that.
Speaker 1: He's publicly agreed to allowing emotion to vacate that five
Speaker 1: members support, but not that an individual member support. Right now,
Speaker 1: I think there are a number of things that are
Speaker 1: going on. Number One, it is entirely possible, and I
Speaker 1: will say I have zero inside knowledge on this piece,
Speaker 1: but it is entirely possible that McCarthy's team is negotiating
Speaker 1: with the ring leaders of the opposition, and perhaps they
Speaker 1: make concessions on the procedural grounds sufficient to get their support.
Speaker 1: That's one outcome we could see at noon on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Another outcome is you could see growing support behind Jim Jordan.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that will happen or not. As
Speaker 1: I said, Byron, Donald's vote was significant. A third outcome
Speaker 1: is you could see a potential third candidate. You could
Speaker 1: see someone else. Steve Scaliz, who's the number two behind
Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy, has been discussed as that now Steve nominated
Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy. Steve is publicly and vocally supporting McCarthy. But
Speaker 1: in chaos, all sorts of strange things happen. A fourth
Speaker 1: outcome that would be a terrible outcome is it is
Speaker 1: possible some of the more moderate or liberal Republicans could
Speaker 1: team up with Democrats and we could end up with
Speaker 1: a speaker that's a true train wreck, that is either
Speaker 1: an extremely liberal Republican or god forbid, a Democrat. Now,
Speaker 1: I think the chances of a Democrat speaker coming out
Speaker 1: of this chaos are very very low. I don't know
Speaker 1: that they're zero, but they're very very low. But a
Speaker 1: disastrously left wing Republican speaker is a possibility. I don't
Speaker 1: think that will happen. But in a world of chaos,
Speaker 1: all sorts of things can happen, and so those negotiations
Speaker 1: I think we're happening all across DC right now. I
Speaker 1: think we'll end up with a resolution, and we'll end
Speaker 1: up with a resolution that will either be a negotiated
Speaker 1: solution or a consensus candidate somehow emerges. At this point,
Speaker 1: I have no idea. All right, let me ask you
Speaker 1: this before we wrap this up, because obviously there's a
Speaker 1: lot that we don't know. But there is the optics
Speaker 1: of this. The media is playing this Senator. The headlines
Speaker 1: are everywhere right now. You can see it all over
Speaker 1: the country. The establishment media is saying the Republicans are
Speaker 1: in chaos, this is anarchy, This is making the squad
Speaker 1: look normal, as one headline put it refer to the
Speaker 1: AOC and the crazies on the left, making them look rational.
Speaker 1: As another way it was put a moment ago on TV.
Speaker 1: I don't believe this is catastrophically negative in any way
Speaker 1: for the Republicans. I think a grand debate is not
Speaker 1: a bad thing. Do you see this as some massive
Speaker 1: debacle taking place? Or is that just the media doing
Speaker 1: what the media does saying, let's seize on this moment.
Speaker 1: Look like this is insanity when it really this isn't.
Speaker 1: This is just watching the sausage be made. Look, the
Speaker 1: media are left wing propagandists. They hate having a debate
Speaker 1: about Republicans leading about Republicans being conservative. The media are
Speaker 1: apoplectic about it. By the way, one of the reasons
Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi didn't face this kind of challenge is she
Speaker 1: just gave in to the radicals. AOC was basically the
Speaker 1: speaker last term. On every radical left wing issue. Nancy
Speaker 1: Pelosi just said yes, yes, yes, you can have it,
Speaker 1: impeach the president, Okay, yes, do it again, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: everything you want, yes, yeah, I mean, and they all
Speaker 1: just followed the extreme left. That's the difference. The Democrats
Speaker 1: the last two years ran hard hard left, and they
Speaker 1: had unity running hard hard left. The reason there's disagreement
Speaker 1: among Republicans is is there some Republicans that want to
Speaker 1: be strong conservatives. There's others who disagree with that, and
Speaker 1: you end up with something like the one point seven
Speaker 1: trillion dollars omnibus in the Senate. What was it? All
Speaker 1: the Democrats and a handful of Republicans. You see that
Speaker 1: pattern over and over and over again. I will say
Speaker 1: one of the complicated pieces of this also is Donald Trump.
Speaker 1: So Trump likes Kevin McCarthy. They are friends. In fact,
Speaker 1: Trump with some regularity refers to Kevin McCarthy as Mike Kevin,
Speaker 1: and they just on a personal level get along. Well.
Speaker 1: I get that. I like Kevin McCarthy personally, a very
Speaker 1: affable guy. He's difficult to dislike on the one on
Speaker 1: one basis. Trump has been vocally supporting McCarthy not long ago.
Speaker 1: An NBC reporter tweeted out exclusive. Former President Trump declined
Speaker 1: to say if he's sticking by his endorsement of Kevin
Speaker 1: McCarthy for speaker tonight, telling me in a brief phone
Speaker 1: interview he has had calls all day asking for support,
Speaker 1: and quote, we'll see what happens. We'll see how it
Speaker 1: all works out. That's a potential big deal depending on
Speaker 1: what Trump does in the next twenty four hours. If
Speaker 1: he continues to support Kevin, that's one outcome. If he
Speaker 1: decides to withdraw his support or support another candidate, that
Speaker 1: could change the dynamic very significantly. Well, and in that
Speaker 1: tweet that you just mentioned to talk about the five
Speaker 1: that started this. Congressman Gates immediately tweeted that out, saying,
Speaker 1: you know, in quoting it, and then said Trump knows
Speaker 1: McCarthy can't get there, so he sees that moment to say, Aha,
Speaker 1: see I'm winning here because Donald Trump didn't come out
Speaker 1: tonight and say I still stand behind Kevin McCarthy. Well,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately, you're also seeing divisions within within the House
Speaker 1: that that are getting pretty tense. You know, Marjorie Taylor
Speaker 1: Greene went out and blasted Chip Roy and blasted Matt
Speaker 1: Gates because she's supporting Kevin McCarthy, and so she had
Speaker 1: had some very angry things to say. Um, they're all
Speaker 1: sorts of strange dynamics. Look, one of the things that
Speaker 1: drove it, as I understand it, is the House Republican
Speaker 1: Conference met today and I wasn't in the room. I'm
Speaker 1: not in the House, but from the public reports, leadership
Speaker 1: came out really strong and aggressive. Indeed, anonymous quote supporting leadership,
Speaker 1: we're saying that McCarthy quote, they'd never seen anyone taken
Speaker 1: to the woodshed as much as as Kevin took the
Speaker 1: the the rebels to the woodshed. And in particular. H
Speaker 1: It's been reported that Mike Rodgers stood up and threatened
Speaker 1: Republicans who didn't vote for Kevin would lose their committee assignments,
Speaker 1: that they would be punished and stripped off of committees,
Speaker 1: and that Chip Roy has been very vocal that that
Speaker 1: pissed him off, and that threat, if anything, drove the
Speaker 1: numbers the other way. And and I could see that
Speaker 1: sometimes leadership gets punitive. And you know what, if you've
Speaker 1: got a thirty vote majority, leadership can be punitive. If
Speaker 1: you've got a four vote majority, it's it's pretty dangerous
Speaker 1: to make threats because it can end up making those
Speaker 1: who disagree with you dig in. And and that may
Speaker 1: be playing out there as well. It's gonna be very
Speaker 1: interesting how this ends up. What a way to go
Speaker 1: back to Washington for a new Congress. I still agree
Speaker 1: with you in what you said a moment ago. This
Speaker 1: is just going to be entertaining to watch. I do
Speaker 1: not believe this is quote hurting the Republican Party or
Speaker 1: some sort of horrible debacle that will never you know,
Speaker 1: will never be able to overcome. I just don't buy
Speaker 1: those liberal headlines from the lefties. Over the next ten
Speaker 1: twelve hours center. It's good to get back in a
Speaker 1: rhythm with you. I know you're exciting. And let me
Speaker 1: say one more thing as we wrap up. Yeah, which
Speaker 1: is something else happened today that I thought was actually
Speaker 1: quite shocking, and it was on the Senate side. So
Speaker 1: on the Senate side, the new senators was sworn in.
Speaker 1: That always happens. That's swearing in happens on the floor
Speaker 1: of the Senate and the Vice presidents who's the president
Speaker 1: of the Senate, swears them in, and then afterwards you
Speaker 1: go to the historic Senate Chamber and you do a
Speaker 1: reenactment of the swearing in. And the reason you do
Speaker 1: that is because family members are not allowed on the
Speaker 1: floor of the Senate, so when you're actually getting sworn in,
Speaker 1: your wife can't be there, your husband, your kids, your parents,
Speaker 1: and so what has always happened, certainly for as long
Speaker 1: as I'm aware of it, is after the officials swearing in,
Speaker 1: you go to the historic Chamber and the Vice President
Speaker 1: will swear you in. And you know, in my case
Speaker 1: when I was sworn in ten years ago, Heidi holds
Speaker 1: the Bible and your kids are there, your parents are there,
Speaker 1: your family's there, and it's Look, it's a great like
Speaker 1: it's it's a big exciting thing when you're being sworn
Speaker 1: into the Senate. It's nice to be with your family
Speaker 1: and celebrate it. Well, something an historic first occurred, which
Speaker 1: is Kamala Harris's office put out a notification to the
Speaker 1: senators being sworn in that anyone attending the the swearing
Speaker 1: in reenactment must have a negative COVID test within twenty
Speaker 1: four hours performed by a capital physician, or you wouldn't
Speaker 1: be allowed in. And this was true for anyone over
Speaker 1: two years of age. Wow. And I gotta say, look,
Speaker 1: the vice president, particularly in a fifty one forty nine Senate,
Speaker 1: has almost zero responsibilities. You know. The old, uh famous
Speaker 1: quote from John Nance Gardner is the is the vice
Speaker 1: president is presidency isn't worth a bucket of warm spit
Speaker 1: About the only thing the vice president does is swear
Speaker 1: in the new senators. You break a tie, but in
Speaker 1: a fifty one forty nine Senate, they're going to be
Speaker 1: a lot fewer ties. Um. And so Kamala is literally
Speaker 1: saying I'm not gonna do my damn job. And it
Speaker 1: was astonishing, and I have to admit offensive. And it
Speaker 1: pissed me off. And and and I'm gonna give a
Speaker 1: shout out to one of the new senators, Mark Wayne
Speaker 1: Mullen is new Republican from Oklahoma who who decided he
Speaker 1: and his family screw you, We're not going to do it.
Speaker 1: And he put out a quote that says COVID just
Speaker 1: exists for those who are in the bubble, and that
Speaker 1: his family has things to do back in Oklahoma, such
Speaker 1: as going to a school and wrestling tournament. The senator
Speaker 1: said he didn't want a false positive on a COVID
Speaker 1: test unnecessarily complicate things when going back to Oklahoma, and quote,
Speaker 1: I really don't care about a picture with Kamala Harris.
Speaker 1: He added, Now you've taught for you to take him
Speaker 1: to dinner, right, This isn't This could be your new
Speaker 1: best friend. Look good for him for standing up. But
Speaker 1: I gotta say like that the absolute dripping arrogance and
Speaker 1: condescension of I will not allow you to be in
Speaker 1: the room with me unless you take a COVID test,
Speaker 1: and I won't do my job as a result. I've
Speaker 1: never seen anything like it. And including two right relationships
Speaker 1: between the White House and the Senate, we're already not
Speaker 1: very good. And and and this that was just Marie
Speaker 1: Antoinette would be proud of Comula's performance today. You can't
Speaker 1: make it up. Senator. It's going to be a very
Speaker 1: very interesting year in Washington. We'll keep you all updated
Speaker 1: on it. We'll have the latest on what happens with
Speaker 1: the Speakers vote that we can promise you that again,
Speaker 1: great to be back with you in the new year, sir.
Speaker 1: I know you had a nice little vacation with your
Speaker 1: family as well. Uh. And we'll be back with all
Speaker 1: you guys that are listening right now in just a
Speaker 1: couple of days.