Rep. Adam Schiff rejoins the pod to warn that “we“ ”re at a very tenuous point in the history of our democracy” with “singularly destructive voices like Tucker Carlson” and “people running around the country still pushing the Big Lie to strip independent elections officials of their duties and get them over to Trump acolytes who will overturn the next election if they lose it. It“ ”s a pretty frightening moment.”
“Are they pretending to be crazy,” asks host Molly Jong-Fast, ”or are they genuinely crazy?”
“I think the MTGs are legitimately nuts, but most of the Republican conference that's pushing the Big Lie understands it’s a big lie. They're not stupid. They know exactly what they’re doing. And then it is just craven capitulation to Donald Trump because they fear a primary, because they want to advance within the party,” says Schiff. “For every one Liz Cheney, there are at least five willing to say, ‘If you’re not willing to push the Big Lie, I volunteer. You know, nothing’s more important to me than my ambition. And if it means tearing down one of the pillars of our democracy… then sign me up.’ Sadly, that’s where most of the Republicans are right now.”
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And Schiff—a member of the select committee probing Jan. 6 and the author of the new memoir, Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could—talks about how Steve Bannon, who’s refused to testify before the committee, shows how “Today’s GOP, it’s become a cult.
“A man runs for president on a platform of building a wall that he says Mexico’s going to pay for. It’s an absurd idea to begin with. He becomes president. Of course he doesn’t build a wall because Mexico is not going to pay for him. And then his buddies, including Mr. Bannon, raise money from his own supporters to purportedly build a wall, steal it. And then he pardons them for stealing from his own people. It’s the most consummate den of thieves and grifters imaginable.”
And then Molly has some thoughts on a “little bow-tied twerp”: “He basically runs the network now, right. He’s the boss,” because why else would Fox air Tucker Carlson’s coming Patriot Purge special? “And maybe he’s psyched. Maybe he owns some company that's going to do very well off of an American civil war. But for those of us who are normal, this whole thing is just a complete disaster…
“He’s obviously doing this for the fish sticks. I mean, that’s the only thing that makes sense. No! I mean the whole thing is a complete and utter total nightmare!”
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