One thing I dislike immensely about republican punditry, specifically as it relates to internal dynamics, is their tribal narrative engineering. The example from Breitbart about President Trump’s discussion of the next speaker of the House is a case study.
Take out Matthey Boyle’s woven narrative; and remind yourself that Boyle is writing from a position of DeSantis advocacy; read just the direct quotes from President Trump about the risk of House Speaker if the party doesn’t align to support Kevin McCarthy, and the position is pragmatic.
Essentially, if not Kevin McCarthy, and the House vote is dependent on Democrat support, the result will likely be worse.
Just the Trump quotes: “I think it’s a very dangerous game that’s being played,” Trump said. “It’s a very dangerous game. Some bad things could happen. Look, we had Boehner and he was a strange person but we ended up with Paul Ryan who was ten times worse. Paul Ryan was an incompetent speaker. I think he goes down as the worst speaker in history. We took [out] Boehner—and a group of people, some of whom are the same, and they’re very good friends of mine. All those people are very good friends of mine.”
[…] ““Think of it—we ended up with Paul Ryan. Boehner was like Winston Churchill compared to Paul Ryan,” Trump said. “Boehner wasn’t perfect—nobody’s perfect—but Paul Ryan was a disaster for the Republican Party. That’s what we got. Now we have to live with him. He’s destroying Fox and he’s destroying the New York Post. We got to live with this maniac. This guy, Paul Ryan, couldn’t have gotten elected in his own area of Wisconsin. I went with him after I won the election and we had a tremendous crowd of people and they booed him off the stage. You remember that? They booed him off the stage. This guy is now telling Fox what to do.”
[…] “Look, I think this: Kevin has worked very hard,” Trump said. “He is just—it’s been exhausting. If you think, he’s been all over. I think he deserves the shot. Hopefully he’s going to be very strong and going to be very good and he’s going to do what everybody wants.”
[…] “Now, I’m friendly with a lot of those people who are against Kevin. I think almost every one of them are very much inclined toward Trump, and me toward them. But I have to tell them, and I have told them, you’re playing a very dangerous game,” Trump said. “You could end up with the worse situation. I don’t even want to say what it is, but I could tell you it’s a worse situation. You could end up with some very bad situations. I use the Boehner to Paul Ryan example. You understand what I’m saying? It could be a doomsday scenario. It could be. You could end up with somebody who would be a disaster like Paul Ryan was.” (LINK)
I see absolutely nothing ‘controversial’ in those statements.
President Trump is correct. The conservative House took down John Boener, the creepy and emotionally unstable 60-year-old sitting at the end of the bar who hits on your 21-year-old daughter. What came next was Paul Ryan, the current brother-in-law to radical SCOTUS Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, and the Wisconsin politician married to a Democrat lobbyist.
Ryan then blocked any effort to hold the FBI accountable for their role in the 2016 election and the promotion of Russiagate. Then followed that obstruction with an intentional effort to lose the 2018 midterm election, while announcing his own resignation.
Kevin McCarthy might suck, but at least he sucks in a controlled environment.
I’m not a fan of Kevin McCarthy, few would dislike him more than I; however, in the final analysis who else has put their name in the hat and is going to -or could- get the entire republican caucus on their side?
The GOP only has a five-vote House margin.
It takes a simple majority to confirm the House Speaker.
What other method, candidate, representative or alternative position is there to take?