Day 3 & Still No Speaker

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's a mega drama that's taking place for the MAGA
movement and watch in DC. That's how one newspaper put
it this morning. Another one Trump can't say McCarthy even
after he came out saying it's time to end this.
How long will it last? Well, we're on ballot number seven.

(00:21):
If you want to know how long it's gonna last.
There's one individual that you should listen to, mad Gates.
Mad Gates. He's an individual that says he doesn't trust
Kevin McCarthy. Mad Gates has made it clear he's kind
of been the ringleader of the rebellion here and he says,
I'm sorry, we just don't trust him. We don't want him.

(00:41):
He's lied to us too much. Now. He did his
longest interview last night since we've gone to the day
three of this, and I want you to hear what
he had to say about all of these issues on
Fox and thank you so much for coming off. Kevin
McCarthy tonight did not want to hold a vote in

(01:04):
the House because he believes he might be getting closer.
Do you think that's a fair assessment. Well, there's a
reason Kevin McCarthy doesn't want to continue having votes, and
it's because with each vote he seems to be decreasing
in his vote share, and we've only increased with votes
in our vote share in opposition to Kevin McCarthy. We
suspect that that trend is likely to continue. And I

(01:25):
think this ends one of two ways. Trace Either Kevin
bows out realizing there's no path for him to become
Speaker of the House even if he picks up one
or two, or three or five of the twenty who
have opposed him half dozen times on the floor, or
he essentially has to wake up, bring the house into
session and put on a strait jacket with a rules
package that we've presented to him that doesn't allow a

(01:48):
lot of discretion for the Speaker of the House. The
reason we've demanded that is that we do not trust
Kevin McCarthy. And it's not a small body of work.
The guy's been in leadership in Washington, DC for fourteen years,
and this town to change, and we're going to change
it one way or the other, either by changing out
the speaker or by having the most fundamental rewrite of
the rules in really my lifetime. Now, if you hear

(02:12):
what Gates is saying, there are a lot of people
are gonna say, Okay, he's been in leadership fourteen years.
Have we done him last fourteen years? Many would argue,
we've Republicans have not done a good job of delivering
on what they promised they were going to deliver as Republicans.
Is Kevin McCarthy the guy that you want? Is Kevin

(02:33):
McCarthy the guy that you need to change things? His
argument again, No, it's not gonna be him now. He
can only lose three or four of these people out
of the twenty are out of every Republican to get
this job. And I think what you're hearing here from
Matt Gates is you may be able to callback one

(02:56):
or two or three out of the twenty, you are
not going to be able to call back every one.
Your day is over and it's done now. Then the
question becomes, what are his other options? Can Kevin McCarthy
get together with some Democrats who walk out of the
chamber to lower the threshold needed to become the speaker?
That is another possibility that's been floated. He would have

(03:17):
to give concessions to Democrats for them to do that.
So far, the Democrats seem to be loving this chaos,
and the Democrats have decided. I think it's pretty clear
now that is not in their best interest. They want
to keep this going for as long as they can.
There's another option, and that is Kevin McCarthy decides to

(03:38):
step aside or do a more of a in the
middle moderate type speaker. And that moderate type speaker is
I think who they really want. Is that a good decision?
I would argue, no, that would also not be a
good decision. That would be something that I think would
make many conservatives extremely angry. Would Kevin McCarthy do that

(04:02):
just to spite many on the left? I would argue,
there's a very good or on the right, I should
say there's a decent chance Kevin McCarthy could get so
angry that he is not going to become the speaker
in that scenario that he would say, fine, you're gonna
screw me this way. You're gonna screw all this up,

(04:23):
referring to these twenty or even to five. At that point,
people individuals that won't get on board, then I'll show
you what it looks like and the American people can
judge you. Now. Bobert has also got into this with
Matt Gates. They become very famous. Their name recognition, name
ID is going up. Is this hurting them? They do

(04:44):
not believe that it's hurting them. Yet they believe that
this is helping their value. Their stock price has gone up.
More people know about some of these new members of
Congress than ever before of any other member of Congress.
That's part of the appeal of being in the one

(05:04):
of twenty. Now, I'm not saying that all of them
are doing it for that reason, but obviously some of
them are. Now, I'll go back through this Gates conversation,
and I want you to hear him lay out more
of Lyne saying I'm not budging. There seems to be
a lot of confusion though about exactly what this group
of twenty wants. You say, rules changes. A lot of
people have said a lot of different things. Is there

(05:27):
something specific, Congressman that you want that would gain your
vote to Kevin McCarthy if that thing was fulfilled. Well,
I'm not voting for Kevin McCarthy. But there are some
of the twenty who I suspect might if we got
control of the Rules Committee and the Appropriations Committee in
the hands of folks that don't vote for bad rules
and bad appropriations bills. Remember, before this last Sommibus, Kevin

(05:50):
McCarthy was paving the way for some of the worst legislation,
driving our country deeper into debt and borrowing against the
futures of the next generation. And so if we got
control of those key committees in the hands of conservatives,
I think there are some of the twenty who might
vote for Kevin McCarthy. If things stand as they are,
I would suspect that the opposition will only grow. Yeah,

(06:12):
you've got people like former Congressman Trade Gaudy who said
they call this opposition a clown show. On national television.
The former Speaker of the House, Nuke Gingridge, has said
that you are holding the house hostage. What is your
response to that type of criticism? And before you hear
Matt Gates's response there, one of the reasons why I
want to play that for you is this. There have

(06:33):
been some people that have been really stupid in all
this all right, and they're Republicans. I'll give you a
perfect example. Dan Crenshaw has called them terrorists, referring to
these twenty. You really think that they're going to come
and work with you and agree on all of this. No, okay, no,

(06:58):
I want to make that clear. That's never going to
help or work or it's never going to happen. Okay,
it's not. And if the Republicans in the majority right
outside of these twenty were really smart, if they were intelligent,

(07:20):
they wouldn't have been named calling and saying the things
that they're saying. New Gingrich, who I do like, I
know him well. I think the way that he has
berated them on TV is only going to make these
guys dig in right, It's only going to make things worse.
It's not going to make things better. I want to
be very very very clear about that. When you start

(07:45):
attacking these people this way, it's the dumbest thing you
could possibly do. They're not gonna budge. I don't believe that.
I want to be very very clear here. I don't
believe that Kevin McCarthy is going to be able to
be speaker because of the name calling his allies. When

(08:05):
you go out there and you call your people and
your same party terrorists, and your top people are mocking
them this way, and you have people going out there
on TV saying what's being said about them. It's not
going to make them go, oh, moment of clarity, you're
right now. This goes back to leadership. I do believe
Kevin McCarthy has bungled this thing since the very beginning.

(08:27):
Moving his things in the speaker office was a dumb
move before he was a speaker, all right, going and
having a vote on the speakership knowing he didn't have
the votes was bungling it. That was stupid. Then having
your allies go out there and mock these twenty individuals
and try to burn down their houses when you need

(08:50):
their votes was stupid. If Kevin McCarthy ultimately does not
become the speaker, there is no one to blame but
himself the way that he actually did this. There's another
question that people keep asking, and that is who would
the other candidates even be. There's a lot of different

(09:10):
scenarios that have been talked about. Steve Scalise is the
House Number two. I think he's obviously the front runner here.
If Kevin McCarthy does in fact decide to drop out
and realizes there doesn't seem to be a pathway for
him to be the speaker, now, would Steve Scalise be
a guy that a lot could get behind. I think,

(09:30):
so what makes a good speaker? Number one, You got
to be an effective fundraiser, You got to be an
effective communicator. You have to be able to whip the
votes up when you need them. Those are all things
that Steve Scalise can do. He also is a guy
that literally is bled for the party. If you remember,
he was shot and almost killed in that attack on

(09:53):
the Republican members of Congress that we're at the baseball
practice for that congressional baseball game. He is known for
surviving that mass shooting back in twenty seventeen. This is
an individual that has served his party and bled for
his party literally, Okay literally, I think he is probably

(10:19):
the front runner. And if you listen to what Matt
Gates says about what is going to happen moving forward,
he says, I'm not voting for Kevin McCarthy. He's just
dug in here because of all of the attacks on him.
This may be the next best option for Republicans. Listen, well,
Trey Gaudy would know something about clown shows. That's probably

(10:41):
how a lot of us would categorize to Benghazi hearings
that resulted in people screaming at each other in a
big report, but no real accountability. I remember the Trey
Gaudy who went on your network as a congressman and
said that he had reviewed what had gone on with
the FBI and the Department of Justice and that they
had done nothing wrong and that actually the American would
be happy of what they were looking at with President Trump.

(11:02):
We now, of course, know that to be false, and
even Trey Gaudy has expressed regret about that. So I
don't exactly take a lot of armchair quarterbacking from someone
who during his time in Congress wasn't among the fighters.
Representative elect Mike Lawler said the following. Listen and I'll
get your response. The people who are voting against Kevin

(11:23):
McCarthy in the Republican Conference are aiding Joe Biden, aiding
Hakim Jeffries, and aiding Chuck Schumer. How can you come
together and do what you promised the American people you
would do as Republicans after this kind of chaotic House
speakership vote well. I think the world of Mike Lawler.
He's a terrific representative and he's going to do a

(11:44):
great job for the people of New York. But I
wouldn't exactly call this like insurmountable chaos. Keep in mind, Trace,
I mean there are days in the United States Congress
where the only vote that happens is to rename one
post office. So if we could do that for a day,
if there are days where all we vote on or
how we are going to take the next vote, then
maybe taking two or three days or several weeks to

(12:08):
select the person who is second in line to the
presidency is worth our debate and deliberation. And after that,
absolutely we will come together. I have every confidence that
we'll be able to come together and we'll actually be
an effective fighting force if we're able to get rid
of Kevin McCarthy and get somebody like a Jim Jordan,
a Byron Donalds in that speaker's chair. And you notice

(12:28):
there he mentioned two names, A Jim Jordan, a Byron Donalds.
Do they have the votes? No. That's why I go
back to what I just said about Steve's Kalise. And
the worry here is they're going to keep doing this
even if you give them another candid like as Steve's Kalise.
There's others that have thrown up another name that is
a guy by the name of Tom Cole. I'm going
to give you who these names are because you need

(12:49):
to understand where this could go. He's a guy that
understands Republican politics. He's older seventy three. He worked the
Republican National Committee before joining the House in two thousand three.
He's been a member of the powerful Rules and Appropriations committees.
Tom Cole also served as Deputy Minority Whip and chaired
the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is about getting people elected.

(13:13):
His name has been thrown out there because he's more
at the end of his career. He's never seeked really
the limelight, and he understands how to help get other
people elected now. He's a member of the Chickasaw Nation.
He would be the first Native American speaker if his
name was put out there. Another one is Patrick McHenry.

(13:37):
Patrick McHenry failed to secure enough votes in the fifth
speaker ballot. He's been a member of the House since
two thousand and five. North Carolinis McHenry has his sightset
on becoming chair of the House Financial Services Committee's term.
He's a forty seven year old. He's been trained to
really work on banking issues. He had regulars that were

(14:00):
created under the Dodd Frank Bill passed after the O
eight financial crisis. Specifically, he had come up with a
consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He served as a Chief Deputy
Whip in the past, helping keep House Republicans in line
on key party goals that would serve him well as speaker.

(14:20):
Also there's Elistefoni, the youngest Republican woman ever elected to Congress.
Her name has been brought up over the last twenty
four hours. She's thirty eight. She's quickly risen through the
ranks by moving with the political tides. She was elected
in twenty fourteen by the voters of a northern New

(14:41):
York district as a moderate conservative who had worked at
President George W. Bush and Paul Ryan. Then she became
an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump, especially during his first impeachment.
Sephonics loyalty helped her win the number three spot in
House Republican Conference in twenty twenty one, replacing Liz Cheney.

(15:02):
Her name has been on the list. A man who's
set out loud multiple times he doesn't want the job
keeps coming up. Jim Jordan a former college wrestling coach.
If you don't know who Jim Jordan is a guy
that doesn't like to wear a jacket very often. If
you see him on Fox News, you know who I'm
talking about. He's from Ohio, that's an important state. Jordan

(15:24):
takes a, you know, a very blunt approach to politics.
He uses the rules, he uses committee hearings to grill
democratic officials. He's a guy that's asked a lot of
questions of social media companies and they're bias against conservatives.
And he's an individual that believes that we need to

(15:46):
investigate Joe Biden and Hunter Biden. He's also a founding
member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. Jordan is a
guy that's experienced but still vigorous at fifty eight. He's
also a staunch defender of Donald Trump, who awarded him
the Presidential Medal of Freedom Awards shortly before leaving office.

(16:08):
As the incoming chair of the House Judiciary Committee, that's
what he really wants. He doesn't want to be speaker.
He had pledged to lead investigations into business dealings of
President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. That's what he
says he wants to focus on. There are the other
names that are being been put out there. Do any
of these have a realistic chance of getting elected? We

(16:30):
honestly don't know, because if five people hold out here,
it doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. And that's what
Matt Gates seems to be making clear here. We're gonna
hold you hostage and burn this place down. I still
go back to where the big mistakes were made by

(16:52):
Kevin McCarthy and his team, having his allies, having people
go out there on TV, having people say things like
Dan Crenshaw said on the twenty Republicans who oppose McCarthy,
we cannot let the terrorists win. That was a stupid move.
Trey Goudy last night said on TV again mocking these individuals,

(17:12):
saying this is a clown show. You're never going to
get some of these people, Sean, I mean, they live
to be an opposition to Republicans. But people watching your
show need to call and say, you know what, I
didn't work my tail off in November to watch y'all
look like a clown show on national television. So y'all
get behind Kevin. You got your motion to vacate. As

(17:35):
a relates to President Trump. They love him when they
need a pardon, they love him when they need attention.
But when he says Kevin's my person, all of a sudden,
they know better. They know better than the Republican Conference.
Kevin got eighty five percent of the vote in the primary,
and yet they know better. His whole point is, you'll
never be able to work with these people when all

(17:56):
they're trying to do is make themselves that famous. Now,
maybe you agree with that statement, all right, Maybe does
it help saying it out loud and making them dig
in even more. Bobert barely won her reelection, for example.
We're talking like, at one point they said she had
lost the election, and then it came down to one
hundred and handful of votes. You really think that she

(18:20):
cares right now about anything else but winning this battle.
She feels like the Republican Party is broken, and there
is a reason they say that. New Gingrich said, it's
hard to explain to Gee or Putin what's going on.
Freedom is messy and sloppy. I'm okay with this battle.

(18:43):
I've said that from the very beginning. I don't like
fixed elections, rigged elections. I don't like this you know,
we're gonna pick the guy that has, you know, and
not ask questions. I'm okay with a grand debate. What
I'm not okay with is people that are using to
negotiate just so they get more Twitter followers, just so

(19:07):
they get more TV time. That's why I've been an
advocating for Chip Roy from the very beginning. What he's
been saying about the rules and what he's been saying
about the changes he wants. I understand him. But there's
some in this twenty that they're just doing this because
they don't like the fact that they that Kevin McCarthy

(19:28):
and the Republican leadership doesn't agree with him on every
single thing. That is the problem, because it's not that
they're standing up for America, okay, It's what they're doing
is they're sitting up for themselves. Now. I also don't
agree with new gingrich On. I'm saying, it's hard to
explain what's having to putin gee, I don't really care,
and he's saying, you know, these guys need to get

(19:49):
in line. Well, that's how you got your speakership. With
all due respect, I did a tweet today saying it's
really hard to explain to Putin or Jiping or Kim
Jong Len exactly what what's going on, because this is freedom,
and freedom is messy and sloppy and also remarkable, remarkably creative.
We'll get there and we'll have a speaker probably, I think,

(20:12):
probably sometime tomorrow. And I just checked a few minutes ago.
The last time this happened in nineteen twenty three, it
took nine ballots, and the following election the Republicans picked
up twenty two more seats. So people shouldn't assume this
is the end of the Republican Party in any way.
This is a healthy, tough, serious conversation, and I think

(20:33):
probably by sometime tomorrow, virtually all not all, but virtually
all of the conference will have found a way to
come back together. Now the ending of what Gingard said,
there yea thank goodness for saying it that way. I
couldn't agree with you more. I don't think that this
is a disaster or debacle. I warned you in the

(20:54):
first show that we did about this right after the
first couple of votes. I said it, and I'll say
it again, in the way that they describe it, I
couldn't agree more. Okay, This is not a debacle, This
is not an embarrassment. I love healthy debates. I think
everything in Washington is definitely broken. The way that we've

(21:17):
talked about it, I believe it's absolutely broken. I think
there are major issues here that need to be changed.
And I think there are major issues here that need
to be changed. I am glad, I am thankful that
we are having this debate. Is it worth two or

(21:38):
three days? Yeah, I really do believe it is. In fact,
I would argue this is probably some of the most
productive days that we've had in Congress of a real
fundamental change. I do also worry about the future that
people are going to realize every time there's a vote,
if it's tight like this, that then they say, all right,
I can get on national TV. Motive right here is everything.

(22:01):
Some of the people have genuine and authentic motives for this.
There's others that do not. But having this debate is
not the end of the world. And to say, well
that if Kevin McCarthy gets he's gonna be the weakest
speaker in history, I don't buy that either. I think
we'll move on from this. I think we'll move on
from it. You know, Bobert, for example, she's loving this

(22:24):
moment almost out of Congress. Saw a bunch of people
kind of show their hand about how much they don't
like her. And then she goes on TV now and
she's got her mojo back. She believes she's famous again.
She's going against the guy that made her famous in
the first place, in the MAGA movement, Donald Trump. Here's
what she had to say on Hannity last night. You
said complimentary things about President Trump. Needs to tell Kevin

(22:45):
McCarthy that, sir, you do not have the votes. It's
time to a draw. Let me turn the tables, cargress woman.
Kevin McCarthy is two hundred and two three votes. Your
site has twenty. So if I'm going to use your
words and you're a teodology in your math, isn't it
time for you to pack it in in your side

(23:05):
to pack it in considering he has over two hundred
and you have twenty. Sean, I understand the frustration, I
promise you, but not frustrated. You didn't answer my question,
and we are hearing. We are hearing from frustrating who
are still voting with Kevin McCarthy. Quotative of what we're doing,
and they're cheering us on. So there are more for

(23:25):
us than are against us, and they are waiting for
Kevin t Kets certainly frustrated by I'm frustrated by you
not answering a direct question you said to President Trump.
You said earlier today that President Trump needs to tell
Kevin McCarthy, you don't have the votes. Come up? Can
I finish handidate to elected? Can I finish the House?

(23:48):
You don't have the votes and it's time to withdraw.
He has two hundred and three, your side has twenty.
Why is it time for him to withdraw and not
you when he has so many more votes? Well, Sean,
he needs two eight and he does not have to eighteen.
We've been trying to do in private, as you said,
for months, but Kevin McCarthy didn't even want to listen
to us until his disappointing minterms. We all want a

(24:13):
you hear her. She says, we have more people that
are with us and against us. I don't think that's true.
Handy's point here of saying, I want to I want
to direct answer to a direct question you said to
President Trump. You and you said earlier today that the
President needs to tell Kevin McCarthy you don't have the votes,
and he's like, well, using that logic, neither to you.

(24:34):
You've got twenty votes and that number could change depending
on who the next candidates that you guys pick the
twenty people. And this is how I'm going to look
at this as we go into this next round of voting.
Today need to do a better job of explaining what
it is they want, and if it is what Bobert

(24:56):
is saying here, then I do believe it's time to
move on because her reason is I don't like Kevin McCarthy.
I'll give htt Gates credit. He's at least said I
don't trust him. I think he's a liar. I don't
believe him. I don't trust him. He's not going to
get my vote. I appreciate that candor and transparency. This

(25:18):
is not, by the way, a bad thing for the
Republican Party, and everybody on TV and everybody in the
raids like, oh this is a disaster, debacle that it's not. Okay,
this is not a debacle. This is not a disaster.
I also will say one of the thing about Kevin McCarthy,
and I'll leave you with this as we go into
these votes today. If Kevin McCarthy can't even get the

(25:44):
Republican Party together to surround him on speaker, why do
we think he would make a great speaker where he
could get Republicans around him on actual issues that need
to be voted on when he needs to wrangle the votes.
I don't believe he's the right guy for the job
based on that. As many of you saw, we uploaded

(26:06):
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