The MAGA Republicans holding Kevin McCarthy’s bid for speaker of the House hostage are embarrassing both themselves and Kevin McCarthy—and bad, says Kurt Bardella, a Los Angeles Times columnist and former House Oversight Committee staffer on the Republican side.
Bardella joined the latest episode of The New Abnormal podcast with show co-host Danielle Moodie to talk about the GOP speaker of the House shitshow happening right now, starting with a big question from Danielle: How the hell did we get here?
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“How did the party get this way? How did Donald Trump hijack them? The answer is very simple. Every single time there was a confrontation, a conflict, the Republican establishment just rolled over. They just literally said, ‘Yes, sir, may I have some more?’ as Trump smacked the crap out of them all over the place,” he says. “It’s insane, Danielle, to think that right now less than 10 percent of the Republican caucus is holding the entire thing hostage. And what is McCarthy’s response to it? It’s to give them more. It’s to try to negotiate. There’s a reason why the official policy in the United States of America is ‘We don't negotiate with terrorists.’”
“This is a Republican vs. Republican situation and they look like a bunch of ass-clowns,” he adds.
Bardella also paints a grim picture (for McCarthy) of what could happen if he loses the speaker bid—and an even grimmer picture if he wins it.
“It will pave the way for a potential economic catastrophic showdown that could result in the full faith and credit United States going underwater,” he says, adding that he doesn’t think McCarthy will go down without a fight, given all he has to lose.
Rep. Mondaire Jones also joins the pod to discuss the so-called “Never Kevin-ers” like Reps. Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert—and the real reason he thinks that Republicans are embarrassed by George Santos.
And both guests have thoughts on Rep. Byron Donalds, a Black Republican from Florida, being "paraded" around as a potential speaker.
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