Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Mollie John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
Speaker 1: where we discuss the top political headlines with some of
Speaker 1: today's best minds. And Representative Clay Higgins you'll remember him
Speaker 1: as having worked for the worst Senate podcaster from the
Speaker 1: great state of Texas, Lion Ted Cruz. Clay Higgins says
Speaker 1: Jack Smith's days are numbered. They are, in fact not.
Speaker 1: We have such a great show for you today. Congressman
Speaker 1: Eric Swalwell tells us about how DEM's are actually running
Speaker 1: the government, what since the Republicans are too dysfunctional to
Speaker 1: do it for themselves. Then we'll talk to yet another Congressman,
Speaker 1: my personal friend Robert Garcia, about the expulsion of congressman
Speaker 1: and botox enthusiast. I'm not casting aspersions here, George Santos.
Speaker 1: But first we have hosts of the next level, the Boworks,
Speaker 1: Tim Miller. Welcome back to Fast Politics. The funniest and
Speaker 1: the most attractive.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, Tim Miller, Oh, this is.
Speaker 3: So much pressure now, you know I gotta be funny
Speaker 3: and attractive. Yeah, well, I don't have to be attractive
Speaker 3: on audio. People can imagine how attractive I look right now.
Speaker 3: I was in Costa Rica last week. I get a
Speaker 3: little tan to just picture that. Imagine we have a
Speaker 3: few more muscles than I really have.
Speaker 1: We were talking about the sort of Republican party. So
Speaker 1: this is an amazing moment in a strange way, because
Speaker 1: you have, like the Koch Brothers last cycle, they did
Speaker 1: not endorse a candidate in a general. They had five
Speaker 1: people who were there preferred picks, all of whom were
Speaker 1: not Donald Trump. So basically everyone bout Donald Trump. Try
Speaker 1: and imagine with me the internal panic in the Coke
Speaker 1: network as they decided they just had to endorse Nikki Haley.
Speaker 1: I mean, talk me through what happened here, because it's amazing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that there's some face saving happening. You know,
Speaker 3: Charles Coke is not like Donald Trump, and so I
Speaker 3: guess I want to just clear the decks with this.
Speaker 3: It's better to oppose Donald Trump than to be for him.
Speaker 3: So yes, kudos to you, Charles Coke. I'm not really
Speaker 3: one to give kudos for those sorts of things that said.
Speaker 3: This doesn't feel like a real effort to beat Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: You know, like you put out this memo from the
Speaker 3: big donors and their strategists talking about how you're endorsing
Speaker 3: Nicky Haley. And you know, I'm kind of like, well,
Speaker 3: that wasn't really that helpful. Actually, Republican voters hate the
Speaker 3: big donors, So did you need to make a big
Speaker 3: announcement about it. Couldn't you have just started running ads
Speaker 3: and then you see the ads and they're not so aggressive.
Speaker 3: I did an X post. I know I still am
Speaker 3: weak and I go to X sometimes. I'm also on threads.
Speaker 1: I'm not casting dispersions. Look, we are content makers. We
Speaker 1: are not better than anything. Thank you, period paragraph no
Speaker 1: offense or anything.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're not.
Speaker 3: We're at the bottom of the barrel as far as
Speaker 3: dignified work is concerned.
Speaker 1: We would have a union, but it would be too sad.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So South Carolina blogger I follow posted a picture
Speaker 3: of the first door hanger that they saw from the
Speaker 3: COC Networks pro Haley effort, and it's just like vote
Speaker 3: Nikki Haley. It's a picture of Earth her arms crossed,
Speaker 3: reclaim the American Dream, fiscal responsibility, energy potential, secure the border.
Speaker 3: And then that's it. And I'm like, who thinks this
Speaker 3: is gonna work? This just seems like some rich guys
Speaker 3: saying like instead of giving money to I don't know,
Speaker 3: unhoused youth or something useful. I'm just gonna make sure
Speaker 3: that my friends know that I kind of did something
Speaker 3: to try to stop Donald Trump, and so we're gonna
Speaker 3: run this generic pro Haley campaign that is maybe marginally
Speaker 3: helpful at best, maybe actively harmful actually, because you know
Speaker 3: you can. I was like talking about this in Charlie
Speaker 3: God Love. I'm Charlie Sykes, like wrote a thing yesterday.
Speaker 4: For the Bulwark.
Speaker 3: It's like like this matters, it's better than not, and
Speaker 3: I agree with that. But then like right after I
Speaker 3: see him on my feed, the next post is from
Speaker 3: insane maga person I follow with like a million followers,
Speaker 3: and they're like Democrats and open borders donors go in
Speaker 3: for NICKI Haley. I'm like the crazy person that I follow,
Speaker 3: Like more Republican primary voters are reading that person. Then
Speaker 3: Charlie like there's some so anyway, long story short, I
Speaker 3: guess it's something. It's better than nothing. But I had
Speaker 3: a fun fact that I saw this morning. I'm supposed
Speaker 3: to be following this stuff, but so whenever I get
Speaker 3: surprised by a fact, I feel like I like to
Speaker 3: share it because the listeners probably don't know it. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna quiz you. Actually, I think this tells you more
Speaker 3: about the state of the Republican Party than the Koch decision.
Speaker 3: Mollie junk Fast, how many Republican senators, congressmen, and governors
Speaker 3: active do you think have endorsed Nicki Haley's presidential campaign
Speaker 3: combined governors, House members, senators, not many. It's one. It's
Speaker 3: one from her state.
Speaker 4: Only one.
Speaker 3: And it's like, these are the people that are actual
Speaker 3: in the political game, right, It's like the donors are
Speaker 3: wish casting, the cable pundits are wish casting. The strategists
Speaker 3: are just saying, please don't make daddy. Yeah, they're cashing checks,
Speaker 3: and they're they're like hoping against hope that maybe a
Speaker 3: lightning strike will hit mar Lago. Right, But the people
Speaker 3: that are actually in politics and need to get support
Speaker 3: from Republican voters, none of them are for Nicki. And
Speaker 3: now I'm sure in the next month, you know whoever
Speaker 3: mint will come out and likes Susan Collins or somebody,
Speaker 3: but you know, so she'll get up to four or something.
Speaker 3: But the one is from her state. There's zero for
Speaker 3: people outside of her state. We're six weeks away from Iowa.
Speaker 3: This is the big Nikki momentum week, and so mate, whatever,
Speaker 3: even if this comes out this afternoon and we're like
Speaker 3: in nicki Owa's Campaign's like we're making a big announcement
Speaker 3: where it's our congressional leadership team and it's like six people,
Speaker 3: It's like, still, that's like nobody, I mean one person,
Speaker 3: Like this party is a cult and it's at the
Speaker 3: same day I saw this fact is one day after
Speaker 3: e last, Stephanic is in their meeting saying you got
Speaker 3: to put the Trump badge on your email, and.
Speaker 1: If you get the Trump badge on your email, you'll
Speaker 1: get more donations, right, I mean, it's like Ponzi scheme stuff.
Speaker 1: The thing I was struck by was watching Nicki Haley
Speaker 1: talking in Iowa about how important it was that they
Speaker 1: had to reform Social Security and Medicare, and I was like, really,
Speaker 1: I was like, because that worked so well for Paul Ryan.
Speaker 1: I mean, I actually don't think it's true. But even
Speaker 1: if it is true, which again, why things that are
Speaker 1: true matter? Here are who even knows? Right? I just wonder, like,
Speaker 1: you don't win elections, you got Trump giving people heroin
Speaker 1: and Nicki Haley is like, no, that's really bad for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, give some broccoli.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Look, I used to be Republican. If we want to
Speaker 3: reform social Security so some rich people don't get as
Speaker 3: much to make it a little more solvent, Okay, I
Speaker 3: fine with that, you know, I hope. I don't think
Speaker 3: my dad listened to your podcast. I don't think he
Speaker 3: needs to get to cash in on his Social Security.
Speaker 3: We can put that back in the trust fund. That's fine.
Speaker 3: He did well for himself.
Speaker 1: By the way, people hate that.
Speaker 2: Rich people.
Speaker 1: I hate that.
Speaker 3: Rich people hate that. Regular people hate that. Old people
Speaker 3: hate that exactly. They're coming for me next.
Speaker 1: It's so amazing because I know so many rich people
Speaker 1: who are like I have to have my Social Security
Speaker 1: And I'm like, you know, you have a plane, yeah,
Speaker 1: or like you have a boat, right, you could just
Speaker 1: not use the boat. I mean, why are you entitled
Speaker 1: to that? Anyway?
Speaker 2: Go on.
Speaker 3: Sorry, this is where like my communist tendencies and Mike
Speaker 3: and my free markets tendencies kind of match together. I'm like,
Speaker 3: I like, I don't like rich people, but I also
Speaker 3: think we should have a balanced budget. Anyway, where was
Speaker 3: I You got me distracted? Talking about privatization of social security. Okay,
Speaker 3: here we are. Here's the important thing in your observation,
Speaker 3: which is what do Republican voters want? And this time
Speaker 3: is directly back to the Coke thing and to Nikki
Speaker 3: Haley's policy prescriptions. The Republican voters have spoken with unanimity
Speaker 3: that they hate the Koch brothers political aga. They do
Speaker 3: not like, you know, being more open to immigrants. They
Speaker 3: do not like reforming our entitlements. They do not care
Speaker 3: about corporate tax cuts. Okay, this Republican Party cares about
Speaker 3: woke stuff the border, being mean to immigrants, being mean
Speaker 3: to liberals, you know, making fun of cat ladies in
Speaker 3: New York. Like, that is what this Republican Party cares about.
Speaker 3: They have full throatdly rejected the agenda put forth by
Speaker 3: the Kochs and Paul Ryan and Karl Rove and my
Speaker 3: old people and Nicki Haley. And so it's like, why
Speaker 3: then do we have to pretend like an endorsement from
Speaker 3: the people that the voters have already rejected over and
Speaker 3: over again. Matters if we could go into an imaginary
Speaker 3: world where Nicky Haley won because Donald Trump ate the
Speaker 3: cheeseburger of my dreams. That's fine with it, that's great.
Speaker 3: I'm probably still going to vote for Joe Bien. Anybody
Speaker 3: that worked for Donald Trump does not pass my one
Speaker 3: issue to Trump Arrangement syndrome litness test, Like it would
Speaker 3: be much better for our society. But it's just like
Speaker 3: it's we also have to live in reality, and the
Speaker 3: reality is Republican voters don't like this stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I mean I think that's a really good point.
Speaker 1: You're trying to appeal to something that doesn't exist. So basically,
Speaker 1: what you think how this plays out? And again, we're
Speaker 1: not supposed to predict the future, because, as Margaret Sullivan
Speaker 1: said rightly and I quoted her in my column about
Speaker 1: how bad polls are and how they get us focused
Speaker 1: on the wrong things, we are bad at predicting the future.
Speaker 1: But that said, this is like in AA when you
Speaker 1: say you're not going to cross talk and then you
Speaker 1: just cross talk. But it does seem like this is
Speaker 1: a last ditch effort to try to pour money into
Speaker 1: a possible, non trumpy future that won't work.
Speaker 3: It is a last ditch effort, and she is a
Speaker 3: more appealing candidate than DeSantis, just just candidate skills wise,
Speaker 3: putting aside policy elements. But yeah, it's just the math
Speaker 3: is very like Trump is over fifty, right, And you
Speaker 3: know I was doing this. I did this for the teens.
Speaker 3: If you have any teens in your life. I have
Speaker 3: a Snapchat show for teens. It's called not My Party.
Speaker 3: You just tell them it down, let's snapchat. It's like
Speaker 3: it's got a lot of memes.
Speaker 4: It goes like.
Speaker 1: Three minutes in Snapchat.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like I'll say one sentence and then it'll
Speaker 3: be Timothy Shamalay will pop in, you know, to keep
Speaker 3: him interested.
Speaker 1: I know what social media network is popular. When my
Speaker 1: teens tell me please never go on it.
Speaker 3: There you go, So don't go on if you're a parent.
Speaker 3: But if you have a team in your life, dog's politics,
Speaker 3: tell them to check out Not my Party. I did
Speaker 3: the math for the teens this week, and it's like,
Speaker 3: let's do the bowl case for Nicky.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: It's just like Christy gets out and endorses her, and
Speaker 3: she gets all his support, and Doug Bergham gets out
Speaker 3: and whoever else is left I don't even know, like,
Speaker 3: and she gets there two percent and then a handful
Speaker 3: of good nature Democrats and Independence crossed the aisle to
Speaker 3: go vote for her, which bumps up even more. And
Speaker 3: then she gets a little momentum bump of a few points.
Speaker 3: It's still like really hard to get to fifty, you know,
Speaker 3: because Trump's over fifty and that is in New Hampshire,
Speaker 3: a good state, you know, because it has Independence that vote,
Speaker 3: and there's a lot of you know, kind of flinty
Speaker 3: Northeasterners that don't really aren't really into the true thing,
Speaker 3: that are more moderate. You go down to the south,
Speaker 3: I mean here in Louisiana, the last pole I saw
Speaker 3: had it was Trump seventy five, DeSantis eight, Niki four.
Speaker 3: How does she get from four to sixty? So yeah,
Speaker 3: it's a last ditch effort. But the math is just
Speaker 3: very the math is very challenging.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it is also so interesting to me because
Speaker 1: like DeSantis, I mean, I think the chances of him
Speaker 1: now being the nominee are like zero, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: do you think that's fair?
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess they're less than zero because a
Speaker 3: little slightly no kind of that would have been funnier.
Speaker 3: I guess there's slightly more than zero because i'd Bret
Speaker 3: Easton Ellis in my mind, because you know, Trump could die.
Speaker 3: I mean, he's not gonna but we can all whatever.
Speaker 3: Trump could die, and then I don't know, and I
Speaker 3: head to head with him and Nikki. If Trump dies,
Speaker 3: maybe Vivek would take it. Actually, it's hard to know
Speaker 3: what would happen with the Trump cultists in that scenario.
Speaker 3: So I would call it, let's give him, let's we'll
Speaker 3: do this. So you're saying there's a chance for Desanta's,
Speaker 3: well give him. We'll give him a point eight percent
Speaker 3: chance based on death and other unforeseen instances.
Speaker 1: But what is important about to Santus, I think is
Speaker 1: that he shows that this is not about policy, that
Speaker 1: these Trump supporters you can't win them on policy.
Speaker 3: No, I mean you can lose them on policy. I
Speaker 3: guess there's like a negative polarization, right if your policies
Speaker 3: feel like the policies of the George Bush era or
Speaker 3: of the Libs are too nice or Rasheeta to late, right, Like,
Speaker 3: you can do things and say things about policy that
Speaker 3: turn them off, but you can't go give them a
Speaker 3: checklist of maga agenda items, you know, like I will
Speaker 3: build the moat with the alligators in it, and I
Speaker 3: will whatever you know take away MSNBC's carriage rights, saying
Speaker 3: I think about Kim Jong un. You can't like you
Speaker 3: can't do a positive list that doesn't work. It's about
Speaker 3: there's more to it.
Speaker 1: We've now entered the young Guns section of the podcast,
Speaker 1: where we make fun of the young guns. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I know that you know some of the young guns.
Speaker 2: Intimately, I have to tell you.
Speaker 3: Can we This probably won't make the actual podcast, but
Speaker 3: can I tell you I just be full surprise. I
Speaker 3: just spent a full day with Eric cant in New
Speaker 3: Hampshire with Jeb, and he was one of the most
Speaker 3: dour individuals I've ever encountered in my life. And he
Speaker 3: was so negative and so sad and so panantic and
Speaker 3: and we're about halfway through the day. It's like the
Speaker 3: car way of a driver and it's Jeb and it's
Speaker 3: me and it's Eric cantor we're just driving for a
Speaker 3: Ventad event and like in between the second the least
Speaker 3: famous of the young guns, in between the second and
Speaker 3: the third event, I get on the phone with the
Speaker 3: campaign manager and I was like, I don't ever want
Speaker 3: to see Eric Canter in the car for another fucking day.
Speaker 3: The rest of this campaign. Okay, he is just making
Speaker 3: Jeb sad and like he and none of the voters
Speaker 3: like him. Just send him to a Doner meeting or something.
Speaker 3: I never want to see him in the car again.
Speaker 3: So anyway, that's my Young Guns store.
Speaker 1: Is making Jed sad. So Young Guns was the book
Speaker 1: that Eric Canter, the least famous of the group, but
Speaker 1: probably the most attractive, possibly though it was depressed.
Speaker 3: I kind of like Kevin McCarthy's muppet face. I don't
Speaker 3: know if I had to pick.
Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan wrote a book the three
Speaker 1: of them together, and now it seems as if Kevin
Speaker 1: McCarthy is on it. So he's on a sort of
Speaker 1: trying to get a cable news contributorship tour at this point,
Speaker 1: I think, because you saw somebody leaked that he told
Speaker 1: Trump fuck you on the phone, maybe discuss Yeah.
Speaker 3: He has been humiliated. To me, it's kind of been
Speaker 3: shocking that he stuck around to keep taking the pain.
Speaker 3: And like he does interviews, like he does these gangles
Speaker 3: in Congress, and he looks so sad. I mean, I
Speaker 3: don't feel sad for him. He's made his bed, but
Speaker 3: he died, looks really sad. It's like, if I was him,
Speaker 3: I would just stay in my office and only come
Speaker 3: out when absolutely necessary and start and start like calling
Speaker 3: Jamie Diamond or whoever's going to hire me to be
Speaker 3: a lobbyist. I don't know, but I did see that.
Speaker 3: I guess he told Trump whatever f off after Trump
Speaker 3: didn't want to help him. In the speakers. I hope
Speaker 3: that happened, because it's just really funny, you know, it's
Speaker 3: really it's like, it's really funny.
Speaker 4: I mean, you just you.
Speaker 3: Begged, you groveled, you gave him the right color star burst,
Speaker 3: you went down to see him when he was sad,
Speaker 3: and then like the one time you need him, Trump's
Speaker 3: like fuck you. That is such an allegor. And you know,
Speaker 3: Marcarty's like, no, fuck you. It's like, sorry too late,
Speaker 3: but you finally found your backbone after you've lost everything.
Speaker 3: Like that is a great allegory for the Trump era.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's amazing. It's so clear to me how
Speaker 1: you cannot do business with Trump, you cannot trust him.
Speaker 1: But again, Santos, it sounds like we're not going to
Speaker 1: future cast. But I'm not sure you can count on
Speaker 1: Santos's vote, So that gets them down to four or three.
Speaker 1: Then if McCarthy resigns early, which he's threatening to, that
Speaker 1: gets him down to two or three. That's not a
Speaker 1: huge majority. I'm sorry, I'm not a mathematician here, but
Speaker 1: that seems like less than four or five.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it does seem like, Liz, there's some oldies in
Speaker 3: that the congquers. I know, it's kind of a MacB
Speaker 3: podcast here, but you know, who knows that could keep dropping. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's not good. He's not gonna be able to pass anything,
Speaker 3: and these guys are already out out to get them.
Speaker 3: Who knows, maybe they'll decide an election. You're it's worth
Speaker 3: waiting it out. I always said when McCarthy got the job,
Speaker 3: and when Johnson got the job, I was like, look,
Speaker 3: the jackals will give them a leash of one or
Speaker 3: two times where they have to get Democrats to get
Speaker 3: a vote passed before you know, the sort of Bannon
Speaker 3: conservative media world starts to come for them. Right, So
Speaker 3: Johnson might have one other one other he's already done
Speaker 3: to do it once. He might have one other budget
Speaker 3: vote where they let him do it. But like they
Speaker 3: can't pass anything. We all live through this. They're dysfunctional,
Speaker 3: They're incapable of passing anything on their own. To pass
Speaker 3: any legislation, they need Democrats and eventually the right wingers.
Speaker 3: Then we'll use that against them. I'll call them right
Speaker 3: wingers kind of so whatever, the maga nihilist freaks will
Speaker 3: use the fact that they had to ask Democrats for
Speaker 3: help to come for them. So you know, we're kind
Speaker 3: of in a never ending cycle on this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, unbelievable stuff. Just give me the TLDR. On we
Speaker 1: have a sort of like run up to this caucus
Speaker 1: Super Tuesday. I mean you just expect more drama. I
Speaker 1: mean more sound and noise signifying nothing, if that makes
Speaker 1: sense from the few republics. You know, like they're going
Speaker 1: to have sort of a primary ish right, I mean,
Speaker 1: even though nobody can win against Trump, they'll still go
Speaker 1: through the motions until Super Tuesday.
Speaker 3: I guess yeah. I mean, yes, there's some going to
Speaker 3: go through the motions. I think Nicki's gonna run through
Speaker 3: the tape. I think that all these people who have
Speaker 3: fantasies about what the party is that we've been discussing,
Speaker 3: there is some argument right for NICKI to try to
Speaker 3: get a clear second, so that then in twenty twenty eight,
Speaker 3: maybe people turn their eyes to her again. I don't
Speaker 3: think that's going to happen because that misunderstands the party,
Speaker 3: but other rationales for keeping going. And I talked to
Speaker 3: a Desanta super Pac guy. Boy this is three or
Speaker 3: four months ago now, was quite candid with me that
Speaker 3: he was like, we really don't know what's going to
Speaker 3: happen with the Jack Smith trial. And he's like, there's
Speaker 3: kind of an argument if you're DeSantis. Now this is
Speaker 3: when things are looking a little better for him, so
Speaker 3: maybe the has changed, But at that time he was saying,
Speaker 3: there's an argument for sticking around and getting seconds and
Speaker 3: thirds and getting some delegates because who knows, right, Like,
Speaker 3: there is this big known unknown out there of how
Speaker 3: what happens if Trump gets convicted before the convention. I
Speaker 3: don't really think that would change anything necessarily, but I
Speaker 3: do think that all of that Trump weirdness, you know,
Speaker 3: and the fact that we're in uncharted waters, it's going
Speaker 3: to mean at least Nikki, maybe DeSantis, maybe Christy. I
Speaker 3: don't know. I hope not the past time for him
Speaker 3: to get out, but maybe some of these people will
Speaker 3: stick around, just just as a back to the dumb
Speaker 3: and dumber for the So you're saying this chance purposes.
Speaker 1: Tim Miller, I appreciate you so much.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 4: I appreciate you.
Speaker 3: Molly.
Speaker 4: Let's do it.
Speaker 1: Against Congressman Eric Swahwow represents California's fourteenth district. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to Fast Politics, Congressman Eric.
Speaker 4: Swah Wow, Molly, thanks for having me back.
Speaker 1: Well, it's very exciting to have you. I've had you
Speaker 1: on this podcast so many times when you were in
Speaker 1: the majority, and now that you are in the shit
Speaker 1: show that is the minority. The minority is not the
Speaker 1: should show. The majority of this one hundred and eighteenth
Speaker 1: Congress is the shit show.
Speaker 2: But wow, I.
Speaker 1: Mean, what is it like to work there?
Speaker 5: Honestly, we're the firewall. In fact, we are the majority.
Speaker 5: What are you talking about? The debt ceiling, the well
Speaker 5: City ours that we've passed. The majority of the votes
Speaker 5: came from Democrats. So I think jeffries on the shit
Speaker 5: that matters is the speaker. Yes, exactly, Molly. I would
Speaker 5: say this is why these elections are so critical. That
Speaker 5: the red wave was supposed to wipe us out and instead,
Speaker 5: you know, it ended up being a very narrow majority
Speaker 5: for the Republicans in the House, by the way, the
Speaker 5: same number that Pelosi had, and it looked like, you know,
Speaker 5: she did it with ease as far as like the
Speaker 5: landmark legislation she passed, and a couple seat majority in
Speaker 5: the Senate. But because we stem that red wave, we
Speaker 5: have been able, you know, to be the firewall in
Speaker 5: the Congress. And so for anyone who you know, was
Speaker 5: down about Democrats losing the House, you know, we didn't
Speaker 5: lose it by that much. And we are united, and
Speaker 5: that unity has given us a lot of leverage to
Speaker 5: protect so many of the rights that your viewers care about.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that's a really good point. But I want
Speaker 1: to talk about the insanity of this Republican party for
Speaker 1: another minute, because today George Santos had a press conference
Speaker 1: where usually the speaker has a press conference, right that
Speaker 1: the steps are usually reserved for the speaker of the House.
Speaker 2: He's not the speaker, really not yet.
Speaker 4: Okay, I guess I should delete the Emaility.
Speaker 1: Said you just ignore it.
Speaker 5: There's a sort of a narrative arc here to take
Speaker 5: you a little bit back, and this is all the
Speaker 5: old timers who I served with tell me started with
Speaker 5: New Gingrich. He had very masterfully, if you will, in quotations,
Speaker 5: used c span to his benefit to kind of create
Speaker 5: theater around politics. And then had you know, Donald Trump,
Speaker 5: who had been a decades long entertainer come into politics
Speaker 5: and was had no interested in governing, you know, just
Speaker 5: had mostly interested in ruling and showmanship. And so it's
Speaker 5: not a surprise that someone like George Santos would say, well,
Speaker 5: I could do that job. I could you know, completely
Speaker 5: invent a character who would fit into, you know, the
Speaker 5: circus that Donald Trump has brought to Washington. So this
Speaker 5: just seems like the natural logical arc that started a
Speaker 5: while back and then continue through Trump.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's right. One of those things I
Speaker 1: had the academic on the podcast earlier and we were
Speaker 1: talking about the idea that the Republican Party has turned
Speaker 1: against democracy, small the democracy. Do you think that's right?
Speaker 1: And more importantly, I mean, you serve with these people.
Speaker 1: They are kind of doing a show, right.
Speaker 5: It's completely a show, and it's for the benefit of
Speaker 5: you know, one very corrupt, very dangerous, very incompetent person
Speaker 5: and Donald Trump, you know, he is the only you know,
Speaker 5: conversion therapy that's ever worked for people that you know
Speaker 5: buying the conversion therapy. They've been converted because so many
Speaker 5: of them spoke out against Trump, including Speaker Johnson. And
Speaker 5: to your question of like do they believe in democracy
Speaker 5: or not, go back to the press conference that Speaker
Speaker 5: Johnson had the night that he was elected by the
Speaker 5: Republican Conference, and he's got the whole conference standing behind him,
Speaker 5: and you know, he stands before a microphone apparently to
Speaker 5: answer questions, and the first question is about Johnson being
Speaker 5: the architect of effort to overturn the election, and he
Speaker 5: just says no, and the whole conference just starts booing
Speaker 5: and shaming the reporter in such a barbaric way as
Speaker 5: if they don't have to answer, you know, to anyone anymore.
Speaker 5: And so yes they are. They're anti democratic and then
Speaker 5: they're anti freedom. We just released an AD and I'll
Speaker 5: send it to you, but it's defining Johnson and it
Speaker 5: uses that press conference. And in the ad we propose, like,
Speaker 5: how would he have answered other questions that are important
Speaker 5: to you, like on abortion, like on no fault divorces,
Speaker 5: which he's opposed to.
Speaker 1: No fault divorces were actually signed into law for the
Speaker 1: first time by a little known Republican. It's called Ronald Reagan.
Speaker 4: Yeah exactly.
Speaker 5: So, yeah, we have run this ad where we have
Speaker 5: kind of a fictitious reporter asking questions about freedom, and
Speaker 5: we keep going back to each answer with that mob,
Speaker 5: you know behind Johnson, just booing them and shaming the
Speaker 5: reporters because they are a party that's interesting interested in
Speaker 5: ruling and taking away your freedoms, and then they have
Speaker 5: no interest in governing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I mean just absolutely sort of spectacularly fucked up.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about the House right now. The vote I
Speaker 1: think will be tomorrow, right for the Santos vote.
Speaker 5: Yes, so that should be tomorrow. Look, I think he's
Speaker 5: a Gonner. It's shocking to me that it's taken so long.
Speaker 5: I don't take a vote like this lightly, Molly, and
Speaker 5: I get the take that, you know, we've only done
Speaker 5: this for people who fought for the Confederacy and people
Speaker 5: convicted of a felomy. Except with George Santo's he has
Speaker 5: admitted to most of what he's been accused of. Now
Speaker 5: there's criminal liability that he's facing, but as far as
Speaker 5: defrauding the voters, he's copped to that, and then you
Speaker 5: have this ethics report as well.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 5: I do believe that some Republicans are worried that if
Speaker 5: they throw out Santos. There's a really really good question
Speaker 5: as to why won't you throw out Trump? Because I mean,
Speaker 5: Trump has more felony charges against him than Santos does.
Speaker 5: He has admitted, you know, uh to was it Billy Bush.
Speaker 5: You know that how he treats women and how he
Speaker 5: views he can do that. So you've got multiple Santos
Speaker 5: like or worse ad missions from Trump and so but
Speaker 5: it just seems that, you know, the voters like Trump,
Speaker 5: at least enough of them in the Republican Party that
Speaker 5: he's gonna be the nominee, and Santos to them is
Speaker 5: just kind of an embarrassment and he's a political liability.
Speaker 1: It's also Santos is Republicans want to keep the House,
Speaker 1: which seems unlikely. But for those five Republicans in swing
Speaker 1: districts in New York, Santos is a tangible way to
Speaker 1: show that they're not partisan, even though they obviously are.
Speaker 5: That's exactly right, and they're worried primarily about their own
Speaker 5: job and being associated with Santos because they all campaigned
Speaker 5: together to flip those New York seats and so that
Speaker 5: this is really, you know, just survival. There's no I
Speaker 5: wouldn't give them any medals of honor for what they're
Speaker 5: doing here. And as I said, any good reporter should
Speaker 5: follow up and say, okay, applying and projecting your logic
Speaker 5: onto Trump, why have you endorsed Trump?
Speaker 4: And it just doesn't add up.
Speaker 1: As you're looking at all of this kind of drama
Speaker 1: in the House, and then there's drama and the Senate.
Speaker 1: Just back to this idea of Hakeem Jefferies as the
Speaker 1: actual Speaker of the House, which I think is really relevant.
Speaker 1: It does seem like Mike Johnson is not able to
Speaker 1: pass a lot of this stuff. Like so he passed
Speaker 1: his Continuing Resolution, which will kick all the spending problems
Speaker 1: right the spending bills until January, but he can't pass
Speaker 1: some of the underlying though, right talk to us about
Speaker 1: where you guys are with that.
Speaker 5: He did exactly what McCarthy did, and it cost McCarthy's job.
Speaker 5: I think that's very telling though, that the Republicans never
Speaker 5: trusted McCarthy and they always feared that he was always
Speaker 5: just about himself, and he, you know, would do anything
Speaker 5: to say in power and cut any of these deals
Speaker 5: with Johnson.
Speaker 4: They know that he is really one of them.
Speaker 5: He is, you know, an extreme Maga Republican proudly calls himself,
Speaker 5: you know, Mega Mike. And so he did the same
Speaker 5: thing and suffered no penalty. And here we are, you know,
Speaker 5: with fifty days away until another potential government shut down,
Speaker 5: and he has said, Speaker Johnson that he's not going
Speaker 5: to do another continuing resolution because again I think he
Speaker 5: sees that he probably got a mull again for the
Speaker 5: first one. But they are empowered, you know, the far
Speaker 5: far right to just put another speaker in if he
Speaker 5: does it again. And so we'll see. I've been in
Speaker 5: convers for eleven years, have been through multiple.
Speaker 2: Shutdowns longer than he has.
Speaker 4: But Molly, we've.
Speaker 5: Never had a shutdown in the last eleven years, with
Speaker 5: multiple shutdowns in an election year, and that I think
Speaker 5: is going to be really interesting to see if they
Speaker 5: want to play with fire, because again Democrats will be united.
Speaker 5: We just want to govern, We want to get shit done,
Speaker 5: and we recognize we're in the minority, and so we're
Speaker 5: a firewall to protect against cuts to the Inflation Reduction Act,
Speaker 5: to the Jobs Act, to the Chips Act what they want,
Speaker 5: and now the Affordable Care Act, which they want to
Speaker 5: go after, but it would be playing with fire if
Speaker 5: he's going to shut down the government rather than pass
Speaker 5: a funding bill. And by the way, they cannot even
Speaker 5: among themselves pass these different appropriations bills. They're just the failures.
Speaker 5: They're not fit for governing. That's not what they came
Speaker 5: here to do. They came here to entertain, and they're
Speaker 5: finding that the governing part of the job is actually difficult.
Speaker 1: There have been a lot of retirements this month.
Speaker 4: Enough trying Eric, lots of me to retire.
Speaker 1: There have been a lot of retirements in Congress. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you read. J mart had a really
Speaker 1: good column on this, and he talked about how like
Speaker 1: a lot of people were retiring. Are not the superstars
Speaker 1: like you. They're the backbenchers who are quietly doing, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of legislating, largely Republicans but some Democrats. Those
Speaker 1: people do not get replaced by people who are the
Speaker 1: same as them, right, talk to us about that phenomenon.
Speaker 5: Most Republicans who retire will be replaced by someone much
Speaker 5: farther to the right, who will likely run, as I said,
Speaker 5: as a maga Republican slash you know, entertainer. And when
Speaker 5: I came to Congress, I formed this bipartisan group called
Speaker 5: United Solutions Caucus. It was the freshman Republican and Democratic
Speaker 5: members in my class, about thirty members in it. We
Speaker 5: knew we couldn't do big things, but we wanted to
Speaker 5: focus on building trust and working on small pieces of legislation,
Speaker 5: figuring one day we would all be, you know, in
Speaker 5: leadership and we could do big things. Well, when Trump
Speaker 5: came in, that group evaporated, in large part because many
Speaker 5: of them on the Republican side lost their primaries and
Speaker 5: so they were replaced by far right Republicans, and the
Speaker 5: ones who were still around found that it was very
Speaker 5: unpopular to say publicly that you were working with a Democrat.
Speaker 5: And so again this has been kind of a long
Speaker 5: time coming since Trump brought that Circus Act to town.
Speaker 5: But for your viewer's sake, who I know, you know,
Speaker 5: Democrats can be very anxious and pessimistic and of the
Speaker 5: bed wedding lot, We're going to get through this, and
Speaker 5: we should be the confident ones. And I would rather
Speaker 5: be us than them, because Donald Trump, his best day
Speaker 5: for himself and MAGA was on the election night in
Speaker 5: November twenty sixteen, and he's lost almost everything since. So
Speaker 5: we know how to do and so that the pathway
Speaker 5: to is no different than what we've did in eighteen
Speaker 5: or we did in twenty and twenty two, and we
Speaker 5: recently did in Ohio and Virginia. And by the way,
Speaker 5: want a flag e Moally, I know you're tracking this,
Speaker 5: sing you post about it. In Florida, they are so
Speaker 5: close Republicans, Democrats, independents to putting abortion rights on the ballot.
Speaker 5: They're just inches away from having the voter signatures that
Speaker 5: they need. That in November twenty twenty four on the
Speaker 5: ballot in Florida could be the same abortion legislation that
Speaker 5: was on the ballot in Ohio and Michigan and Kansas,
Speaker 5: and that will protect an important right but also be
Speaker 5: just a really galvanizing force put House seats into play
Speaker 5: and send the Senate seat into play. And frankly, Donald
Speaker 5: Trump's gonna have to defend Florida because women are not
Speaker 5: going to want that right taken away in that state.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a Carl Rove playbook. That's a play from
Speaker 1: the Karl Rove book of putting gay marriage on the
Speaker 1: ticket two thousand and four in order to support Bush.
Speaker 1: And I do think that's a really important thing when
Speaker 1: you see the sort of like machinations of adding stuff
Speaker 1: done in Congress. I mean, is there any way that
Speaker 1: the numbers are so small for Johnson? I mean, I
Speaker 1: know he's much nicer to deal with, or what I've
Speaker 1: heard from other members of Congress is much nicer to
Speaker 1: deal with. Kevin people liked but was dishonest, but nobody
Speaker 1: liked Jim Jordan and Mike Johnson is much more likable.
Speaker 1: But do you think there's any world in which our
Speaker 1: West wing fantasy occurs and he makes a deal with
Speaker 1: Democrats or is it just the party is just too
Speaker 1: far to the right.
Speaker 2: Nice is never the problem, right right, Well except with
Speaker 2: Jim Jordan.
Speaker 1: I feel like people were just like, he's so mean,
Speaker 1: We're not going to do this, yeah, right.
Speaker 4: Right, I say, like, nice is not the problem with Johnson.
Speaker 4: It's just what he believes. But he does not have
Speaker 4: that much to do, if we're being honest.
Speaker 5: He's got to keep the guvernment open and on the
Speaker 5: needs for Ukraine and the Middle East and even the
Speaker 5: border where I think Democrats are interested in helping there.
Speaker 4: We have to have a funding package.
Speaker 5: And I do predict though, if it's a bundle package
Speaker 5: of Ukraine, Middle East and border, there will be more
Speaker 5: Democrats voting for than Republicans. Again, and it's a matter
Speaker 5: of will they tolerate that and let him stay on
Speaker 5: a speaker. But after we do that, Molly, there's nothing
Speaker 5: to do that. There's no peace of legislation Republicans that
Speaker 5: the Senate would pass and the President would sign into laws,
Speaker 5: so he doesn't really have to do that much. That's
Speaker 5: why it's just so bewildering that, you know, we're in
Speaker 5: this position where we could be in another shutdown because
Speaker 5: he's actually got just a few things to do, and
Speaker 5: then we're in the twenty twenty four election.
Speaker 1: Unbelievable. Eric Swahlwell, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 4: Thanks Molly.
Speaker 1: Congressman Robert Garcia represents California's forty second district. Welcome back,
Speaker 1: too fast politics. Congressman Robert Garcia.
Speaker 2: Thank you, happy to be back.
Speaker 1: You're in your office. Tell us what you're about to do.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm about to go to the floor of the
Speaker 2: House and make the case as to why we should
Speaker 2: expel George Santos.
Speaker 1: Walk us through what a privileged resolution is and how
Speaker 1: this works.
Speaker 2: Let me go a few months back and explain the process.
Speaker 2: It's about nine months ago. George Santos hit my radar
Speaker 2: early on, we're both freshman members, saw him at orientation,
Speaker 2: you know, immediately just got bad vibes, and then of
Speaker 2: course all all the news about his just deceit and
Speaker 2: lies started coming out. So, you know, I called for
Speaker 2: his expulsion early on when we both got installed in Congress,
Speaker 2: and was the first person to call for his expulsion
Speaker 2: nine months ago. I made the decision then to put
Speaker 2: forward an expulsion resolution against him. I reached out to
Speaker 2: a couple of my colleagues, particularly another freshman, Dan Goldman
Speaker 2: from New York, who within my class and I built
Speaker 2: a relationship with, and you know, we put forward the
Speaker 2: expulsion resolution, and by doing that, we essentially triggered a
Speaker 2: vote of the House. The House put the expulsion resolution forward,
Speaker 2: and at the time, while Democrats were felt really strongly
Speaker 2: about moving forward, Republicans chose to punt and instead called
Speaker 2: for this holpse Ethics a report that Kevin McCarthy was
Speaker 2: trying to put together and so I know we that
Speaker 2: went forward, and here we are nine months later and
Speaker 2: the Ethics Canity report is out. It's incredibly damning, and
Speaker 2: all those folks that were on board then should be
Speaker 2: on board now and it's time to expel them and
Speaker 2: he's got to go forward.
Speaker 1: Republicans could have put up this resolution, right, they chose
Speaker 1: not to.
Speaker 2: Right, And so what actually happened, like procedurally, is when
Speaker 2: the House opened this week, Republicans could have decided to
Speaker 2: make the resolution privileged essentially means that it forces the
Speaker 2: vote to happen in the next couple of days after
Speaker 2: I had filed my expulsion resolution. They chose not to
Speaker 2: do so, and so we did is we basically forced
Speaker 2: them to file a privileged one themselves or they would
Speaker 2: have had to vote it essentially my resolution. They want
Speaker 2: to be the ones who actually claimed the vote, and
Speaker 2: so for us, it was always strategies filu privileged resolution
Speaker 2: because they hadn't. They keep wallowing and wailing about when
Speaker 2: this is going to happen, So we force the vote,
Speaker 2: then they have to file their own privilege resolution later
Speaker 2: that evening, and now we're forced to have this vote,
Speaker 2: which will happen tomorrow and will be debated. But we're
Speaker 2: opening the debate on the vote today.
Speaker 1: I mean, wouldn't it have looked better for them if
Speaker 1: they had done.
Speaker 2: It one hundred percent? We don't know why. I mean,
Speaker 2: the ethic is going to be cheerman. He actually filed
Speaker 2: the resolution about a week ago, but did not make
Speaker 2: it privileged. And so when you file a resolution and
Speaker 2: you don't make it privileged, it's really up to the
Speaker 2: speaker at that point to schedule that resolution at some point.
Speaker 2: But we had no idea when this woul happened. They
Speaker 2: could just stn't wall this. I mean, they've saved George
Speaker 2: Santos now multiple times, why would they do it again?
Speaker 2: So by us filing it as privileged, we are essentially
Speaker 2: forcing the vote this week, and so it's a little
Speaker 2: bit of insurance policy to make sure that they actually
Speaker 2: did it this week. The report is out and this
Speaker 2: guy is a con man of the Donald Trump order
Speaker 2: and he must be renew immediately.
Speaker 1: Do you think that part of why they don't want
Speaker 1: to remove Santos is because they need the votes, or
Speaker 1: do you think part of the reason they don't want
Speaker 1: to remove Santos is because these Republicans really know that
Speaker 1: if they start going out after people for doing crimes, right,
Speaker 1: the leader of their party is facing ninety one criminal
Speaker 1: and diamonds.
Speaker 2: I think it's both things. I think that the Republican
Speaker 2: Party is broken. The standard for integrity and service has
Speaker 2: been completely changed because of Donald Trump, and so I
Speaker 2: think that's certainly a piece. And when you have members
Speaker 2: still defending him saying, oh, well, you know he deserves
Speaker 2: a day court even though the ethnic Timoty has already
Speaker 2: provided all the evidence. You know, these are folks that
Speaker 2: love Donald Trump that'll you know, do whatever they can
Speaker 2: to support someone that will likely be running president from jail.
Speaker 2: And at the same time, I think, you know, they
Speaker 2: have a slim majority, and you know Sanchos for McCarthy
Speaker 2: especially was a vote, and so they use, you know,
Speaker 2: the integrity of the House for power and that's wrong
Speaker 2: and it needs to.
Speaker 1: You're going to go on the floor tell us a
Speaker 1: little bit about how this is going to work now.
Speaker 2: So because the Republican we're going to be voting on
Speaker 2: the Republican Privileged Resolution that we triggered. There'll be four debate,
Speaker 2: you'll be hearing essentially mostly from the needs or Republicans,
Speaker 2: and they'll be making their case, and you'll also hear
Speaker 2: from me, and then I will be weave negotiated with
Speaker 2: the Republicans to have four times so that we would
Speaker 2: allow them essentially have their resolution come up first, and
Speaker 2: then I'll speak. He'll have the same amount of time,
Speaker 2: so we have an hour debate. He's dodn't have to
Speaker 2: defend what we all say. And at the end of that,
Speaker 2: the bay will close. And then Friday, first thing in
Speaker 2: the morning, we will take a vote and then we'll
Speaker 2: see and who actually can actually has the integrity at
Speaker 2: the House to do the right thing. I don't know
Speaker 2: how there could be any member of the US House
Speaker 2: representatives that can read that report and not think this
Speaker 2: is deserving of expelling. For the House.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you will need two thirds right to expel.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 2: We will need essentially a united Democratic caucus, which we'll
Speaker 2: have I think close to all the Democrats who had
Speaker 2: voted not to expel them the last time for a
Speaker 2: variety of reasons, most of which was they were waiting
Speaker 2: for the ex committee report. They've all signif a vote
Speaker 2: to expel, and then there were about maybe you're twenty
Speaker 2: four to twenty five republic insident, but are ready to expel.
Speaker 2: The last time that number you've had another probably you know,
Speaker 2: twenty five to thirty say on top of them that
Speaker 2: they're ready to expel in now. And so we're close
Speaker 2: to the threshold. I mean, we need really about eighty
Speaker 2: Republicans depending on the vote count to it's sure that
Speaker 2: he is expelled. And I think signs point to you
Speaker 2: to an expulsion for me and you never know. I mean,
Speaker 2: but surely these folks aren't exactly on profiles encourage.
Speaker 1: And there's not exactly a genius whip counter out there
Speaker 1: whipping the votes right.
Speaker 2: No, these people have literally no idea what they're doing.
Speaker 2: It's still uncertain. Look either way, neither we expel. You know,
Speaker 2: this complete fabrication of a person from Congress or B Republican,
Speaker 2: You're are going to have to stand up and say
Speaker 2: that they once again saved this criminal who has lied,
Speaker 2: who has stolen, who has cheated, who's already admitted to fraud,
Speaker 2: who is likely going to jail, and we are going
Speaker 2: to remind about that every single day. So that's their choice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's really an incredible choice. Right, you're in Congress. Now,
Speaker 1: why do you think Mike Johnson didn't want this to
Speaker 1: come up just because he was right about the votes?
Speaker 1: Or do you think that he just didn't know how
Speaker 1: to do it, or I mean, do you have a
Speaker 1: take on that.
Speaker 2: I just think that he probably is looking at that
Speaker 2: vote count. I mean, look, he hasn't come out against
Speaker 2: the expulsion, which is a decent sign. But he also,
Speaker 2: of course has has endorsed a full throttle vote to
Speaker 2: expel him. And so I think he's you know, again,
Speaker 2: he's weak. He has a very thin majority, He doesn't
Speaker 2: really have a huge constituency, even with his own caucus,
Speaker 2: and so I don't know that he honestly has a
Speaker 2: big following. So I think I think people are going
Speaker 2: to vote the way they want to vote. And quite frankly,
Speaker 2: the New York Republicans, I mean those five New York
Speaker 2: Republicans are begging their colleagues to please get rid of them.
Speaker 2: This is going to I mean, they really want to
Speaker 2: try to keep the majority, which were you know, we are,
Speaker 2: of course on our side, are intent for that not
Speaker 2: to happen. They need to expel this guy, and he's
Speaker 2: when they're back home. That's all they hear about, and
Speaker 2: so are going around doing the best they can to
Speaker 2: whip their to whip their members. We are answering questions
Speaker 2: on our side, and I think you're going to see
Speaker 2: it by partisan unit unity tomorrow and we're expel thement.
Speaker 2: You know, the second that he gets expelled, he will
Speaker 2: be walked out of the house by the Sergeant of Arms,
Speaker 2: And I'm sure he will make an incredible spectacle of it,
Speaker 2: as he always does. Right, but at least we'll be
Speaker 2: doing the right thing and be able to move forward
Speaker 2: without you know, this kind of circus that he's created.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll say really incredible. He gave a press conference
Speaker 1: today where he wore fare Gamo shoes and also was
Speaker 1: pretty indignant. Did you watch the press conference? And also
Speaker 1: he opened the door to trying to go after Representative Bowman.
Speaker 1: Talk to me about that.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, he's delusional. First, I think like everyone else,
Speaker 2: I also want to know where did he spend six
Speaker 2: thousand dollars for about but what did he buy?
Speaker 4: Pobby?
Speaker 2: The shoes he was to hold it.
Speaker 1: Up right exactly and iermaz.
Speaker 2: Maybe was that pink suit? I mean, I have crohoos.
Speaker 2: I mean the forid trip, the trips around the country,
Speaker 2: around the world, all the money that he's essentially embezzling
Speaker 2: is really shameful. And so I think that he is delusional.
Speaker 2: I think that he's doing whatever he can in this
Speaker 2: the last few hours of his time in Congress to
Speaker 2: try to attack others, try to expel Jamal Bildman, which
Speaker 2: is going to go absolutely nowhere. Of course, members of
Speaker 2: his own party have said so. I told this to
Speaker 2: his face when we had an online conversation of Twitter
Speaker 2: x spaces, that he should do the country and constituents
Speaker 2: a favor and just resign.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to tell him again, was he mad
Speaker 1: at you when you said that?
Speaker 2: Oddly enough?
Speaker 6: He was not.
Speaker 1: He's such an odd guy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, strange. We went into a back and forth, and
Speaker 2: you know, I think our conversation lasted twenty minutes or
Speaker 2: twenty five minutes, you know. And I will say this,
Speaker 2: and I want to kind of just say this as well.
Speaker 2: I like wish him no personal harm, you know, I feel,
Speaker 2: honestly sometimes I'm saddened by like what he's allowed to
Speaker 2: happen to himself and to people he represents. But he
Speaker 2: has to be held accountable, and we have a justice
Speaker 2: system and a process in the House to deal with this,
Speaker 2: and he has to live up to the fact that
Speaker 2: he won't give a full floated apology. Also tells me
Speaker 2: that he has no remorse. That's very concerning, and he
Speaker 2: should take the time and go work on his court truck.
Speaker 2: I mean he and Donald Trump are gonna end up
Speaker 2: in the same place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he is really facing a lot of
Speaker 1: legal jeopardy as well.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, this is going to take up some.
Speaker 1: Time now, but then you're going to have time before
Speaker 1: you start trying to get through this cr So January
Speaker 1: is going to be like pretty much, if you'll excuse
Speaker 1: my French, a shit show for you guys, portals show,
Speaker 1: because you're going to have these tiered crs that you're
Speaker 1: gonna happen to negotiate. Do you think Johnson has the
Speaker 1: will of his caucus or do you think this ends
Speaker 1: in a shutdown?
Speaker 2: It's hard to know that he's such an unknown still
Speaker 2: and has so few relationships with folks, including our own leadership,
Speaker 2: that it's really hard to know. What I think is
Speaker 2: becoming a parent in the last couple of days. Is
Speaker 2: he's trying to, you know, show up his conservative base
Speaker 2: by moving forward with an impeachment of the president. I
Speaker 2: think that's pretty clear. I mean, obviously there's no evidence
Speaker 2: and there's nothing there.
Speaker 1: Do you think that impeachment vote is going to take
Speaker 1: place this week?
Speaker 2: The impeachment vote for the president will happen after some
Speaker 2: kind of formal inquiry that they will do.
Speaker 1: Are they going to do the vote on starting the inquiry?
Speaker 1: Because he said he was going to do a vote
Speaker 1: the way that McCarthy didn't. But do you think that
Speaker 1: happens And if so, do you think that happens soon?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean I think if he chooses to move forward
Speaker 2: and makes the final decision that they're going to go
Speaker 2: for the impeachment. I think the impeachment inquiry vote I
Speaker 2: think is likely to happen. I think he has said soough,
Speaker 2: but we just don't know yet. And so the reality
Speaker 2: is that anything this Republicans say, especially in the leadership,
Speaker 2: basically they just flip flopped. They lie, they say one thing.
Speaker 2: Another thing is you know, you can't trust what if
Speaker 2: they say. And I think that's the.
Speaker 1: Problem, and that ultimately was the end of mcarth Are
Speaker 1: they right? He just couldn't. People wouldn't trust.
Speaker 2: Him, they wouldn't trust him, they didn't like him, And
Speaker 2: I think that's a big part of it. I think
Speaker 2: he just made a lot of enemies really bad.
Speaker 1: But we really could be facing down another shutdown.
Speaker 2: I mean we could be, and I hope to god
Speaker 2: we're not. You know, there's millions of people that depend
Speaker 2: on jobs and these federal jobs and benefits, and it's
Speaker 2: really sad and it hurts real people. And the way
Speaker 2: that some of these House Republicans just kind of laugh
Speaker 2: it off like it's some big joke, I think he's
Speaker 2: really disgraceful. So, yeah, it's a really serious issue, and
Speaker 2: I think it'll become kind of crystal clear by Christmas
Speaker 2: what the direction of the Republicans are going to be.
Speaker 1: Are you worried about Republicans trying to enact revenge for
Speaker 1: Santos despite the fact that Santos is not trying to
Speaker 1: impeach Biden is a way of Trump enacting revenge. Do
Speaker 1: you worry that Republicans will try that was a sort
Speaker 1: of revenge for Santo's kind of scenario.
Speaker 2: Perhaps, But at the end of the day, the vote's
Speaker 2: going to be bipartisan, and I think Republicans want have
Speaker 2: gone too. I think he is the real aberration. He
Speaker 2: is is someone that is these kind of people usually
Speaker 2: don't exist in Congress. He's a walking lie. You know,
Speaker 2: I don't put past Republicans to do just about anything.
Speaker 2: I mean, they're absolutely horrible legislators. So they're going to
Speaker 2: continue to do things like try to impeach, you know,
Speaker 2: President Biden, or impeach the ticcature may orcus or whatever
Speaker 2: other crazy planer, insane like plan they have. And so
Speaker 2: I think it's our job is just to focus on
Speaker 2: good governing, on integrity and winning the House back. And
Speaker 2: I think winning the House we got to. We got
Speaker 2: to get the House back and take the gavels from
Speaker 2: these lunatics.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Congressman.
Speaker 2: Absolutely anytime, there no moment.
Speaker 1: Ofecly Jesse Cannon, Maley, Jung Fast.
Speaker 6: You know, James Comber initially told Hunter Biden he could
Speaker 6: choose to testify in private or public, but who James
Speaker 6: Comer's word never means a thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So Republicans are completely obsessed with Hunter Biden. They're
Speaker 1: hoping that it will muddy the waters, that this will
Speaker 1: be the corruption that will make a false equivalency between
Speaker 1: Biden and Trump. They are going to do it in
Speaker 1: any way they can. I think the reason why they
Speaker 1: want Hunter to testify in a private forum is because
Speaker 1: the last two hearings they held that were like this,
Speaker 1: the one about impeaching Biden right and the last Weaponization
Speaker 1: of Government Committee hearing. Both of those made Republicans look
Speaker 1: really stupid. And even the most recent hearing on gun
Speaker 1: violence yesterday, they kind of look like morons. So I
Speaker 1: do think Republicans and Congress are getting more and more
Speaker 1: concerned about how they look during these hearings. But let
Speaker 1: me just say James Comer, who thinks he's too smart
Speaker 1: by half for doing this hearing in private, he doesn't
Speaker 1: get the publicity. He can't drive the news cycle if
Speaker 1: no one sees the hearing. So there we have James Comer.
Speaker 1: Checkmate liberal, You've checkmate it yourself, and you are our
Speaker 1: moment of Fuckeray. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics.
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Speaker 1: for listening.