Plus Marjorie Traitor Greene's Failed Book Signing In Florida
Some MAGAt foot soldiers were tried for the insurrection and some are in jail. Trump has been campaigning for their release, calling them “hostages.” Worse yet, none of the higher ups— Trump and his cronies— have been held accountable yet. Over a third of Republicans believe that the FBI organized the J-6 insurrection. That's Trump's base and the rest of the GOP has chosen to go along with them for the ride. “The whitewashing of Jan. 6,” wrote Myah Ward, “has been a yearslong project of Trump and his allies. And it’s been one of the more central elements of his race to win back the presidency. Trump’s eagerness to recast Jan. 6 rather than bury its memory has agitated elected Republicans, many of whom look on that day with anger and shame. But its potency with the party’s base is hard to dispute. Few of Trump’s primary opponents have attacked him consistently or with vigor for his actions leading up to or on that day. Only a handful of congressional Republicans supported his impeachment over it. Virtually all of them have been critical of the criminal cases he faces because of it. The dynamics are wholly different on the Democratic side of the aisle, where operatives and candidates are eager to see the coming campaign turn into a relitigation of that day. Hours before Trump spoke on Friday, Biden delivered a speech of his own. The setting, Valley Forge, and content were designed specifically to place Jan. 6 and broader threats to democracy at the center of the race ahead. ‘We nearly lost America— lost it all,’ Biden said. ‘We all know who Donald Trump is,’ he added. ‘The question we have to answer is who are we?’”
It shouldn’t be news to any DWT reader that House Republicans prefer political theater to passing laws. In fact, yesterday, Dan Pfeiffer dismissed the GOP as the party of insurrection with Trump, not exiled but “stronger than ever and the [GOP’s] undisputed leader. He is more popular among Republicans than during his presidency and leading Joe Biden in the polls— something that never happened during the 2020 cycle. Nearly every Republican of consequence has endorsed his presidential campaign; and even those yet to endorse him explicitly or implicitly, endorsed the idea that the 2020 election was stolen... Standing by the Big Lie that led to January 6th is the price of admission into the GOP. You have to either believe the election was stolen or pretend to believe it. Apocalyptic rhetoric and kooky conspiracies are the norm.”
Going back to Altschuler, a professor of American Studies at Cornell, with a background in analyzing American politics and government reiterated what we’ve all been hearing— the 118th Congress has been the least productive in at least 50 years— less than 30 bills (most of which were not substantive) have become law and instead of working for the American people the GOP has just put its energy into bickering, holding unnecessary hearings, stalling bills on partisan grounds and focusing on flashy announcements while failing to deliver concrete results.
“House Republicans,” he wrote, “are the main culprits of this congressional dysfunction. With a slim majority for their party, GOP extremists— for whom refusal to compromise has become a point of pride and doing nothing preferable to governing— have spent their time engaging in partisan political theater. In 2023, the Republicans chose and then deposed a Speaker; spent 26 days without a Speaker, the longest such period since 1962; and censured three House Democrats, the most since 1870. Members routinely introduced “poison pill” riders to appropriations bills— limiting access to mail order abortion medication; prohibiting research on climate change; ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs; banning Pride Flags; and defunding the Office of Special Counsel Jack Smith— that virtually guaranteed the underlying legislation would be dead on arrival in the Senate. And three House committees, Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means, continued to search for but not find evidence to justify a Biden impeachment. Over the next few weeks, as Congress considers a supplemental aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and appropriations bills to avoid a partial government shutdown, Republicans will have to decide how far to go with ‘just say no.’”
What Alschuler doesn’t say is that all of this is being done— or not done— as part of the Trump presidential campaign, especially the coming government shutdown. “Aware of polls indicating that around half of GOP voters believe the U.S. should reduce its global commitments, a substantial number of House Republicans oppose additional aid to Ukraine. More important, perhaps, they (and Donald Trump) appear to prefer letting the border crisis fester rather than supporting remedies embraced by Biden.”
And so, even as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer noted that “the world is watching. We know autocrats like Putin and Xi are hoping for us to fail” in Ukraine, Speaker Mike Johnson has indicated he does not feel obligated to bring a bipartisan Senate bill to the House floor.
“We are going to have a huge fight over spending in both January and February” 2024, Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the minority whip, recently predicted. In the spring of 2023, Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden cut a deal to raise the debt ceiling to prevent a government default, spending $1.59 trillion on the discretionary budget and an additional $69 billion on non-defense programs. 71 House Republicans voted against the compromise.
In the fall, House Republicans passed bills reducing the top-line number to $1.5 trillion, cutting domestic programs popular with Democrats, and reneging on the $69 billion. Senate Republicans and Democrats, who remain committed to the original agreement, ignored the House legislation.
With time running out— the deadline for approving appropriations bills was October 2023, and across-the-board cuts would go into effect when the continuing resolution to keep the government open expires— Johnson has hinted that absent “good conservative wins,” he will only support a budget extension if it has additional reductions in domestic spending.
75 percent of Americans believe politicians should not shut down the government to achieve their political or policy goals— but twice as many Republicans as Democrats say they should. Almost as many Americans indicate they would blame a shutdown on Biden and congressional Democrats as on Republicans. With so many House members in safe seats (thanks in no small measure to gerrymandering), that may be more than enough for GOP hardliners to ignore the advice of their conservative colleague Rep. Patrick McHenry (NC): “You can’t simply will your way into policy outcomes with a narrow majority. We need people to be realists— not just blind ideologues.”
The shutdown threat lets House Republicans stick with what they know best, political theater, come what may in Ukraine and damaging the U.S. economy and the lives of millions of Americans in the process.
Meanwhile you had Trump threatening the Supreme Court that if he’s prevented from running because of the 14th Amendment he’ll call out the dogs of war. At a MAGA rally in Iowa Friday, he said “I just hope we get fair treatment. Because if we don’t, our country’s in big, big trouble. Does everybody understand what I’m saying?” Oh, yes, they did.
And… there was Trump appendage Marjorie Traitor Greene claiming victory out of the jaws of defeat— her specialty. When the Westgate Resort in Kissimmee found out her book signing was going to be a J-6 celebration, they canceled the event. She was soon on Twitter claiming that The Communist Democrats tried to shut down my book signing. They lost! I’ll be in Orlando, FL tomorrow night at a new venue to sign copies of my brand new book MTG. See you there!!
“There” turned out to be a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in St. Cloud, Florida, where they put her in the day care section to sign a stack of unsold books.