As Trump walked past the sidelines targeting GOP opponents who had used his chaotic tactics and low-key rhetoric, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tried not to succeeded on Tuesday to bring the temperature down in a long-running feud between freshman Republicans. Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
Greene began the sniping by calling Mace “trash” on Twitter for condemning the Muslim comments made by her ally, Colorado GOP Representative Lauren Boebert. Mace was one of the few Republicans to speak out after a video emerged of Boebert speaking at a November 20 event in Colorado at which Coloradoan firefighters told a story about a supposed elevator ride. is with Democrat Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who is a Muslim. and wear a headscarf. The plot ends with Boebert calling Omar a terrorist.
The controversy spread to other members when Greene took issue with Mace’s condemnation of Boebert’s anti-Muslim remarks. The South Carolinian told CNN Sunday that Boebert’s claims were “disgusting”. Greene, eager for a public controversy to burn her credential among her sponsors, attacked Mace’s conservative credentials on Twitter and warned her to “back” Boebert. .
The back-and-forth between the two Republicans continued all day Tuesday with Greene taunting in a tweet that she “just had a great conversation with President Trump about @NancyMace.” The South Carolina Republican replied, “Neither do my freshman colleagues nor I think 9/11 was a hoax…” – an allusion to a past that has embraced conspiracy theories of Greene – “On the other hand… completely (county).” Mace added that Greene’s conversation with Trump was the equivalent of running to the principal’s office “because she couldn’t stand on her own two feet. .”
GOP’s Politics
On the whole, the shameful partisan separatism – and the lack of immediate consequences for Boebert’s provocative comments – have underscored that the gutter politics Trump opens to Washington only worsened after he withdrew from the White House.
Republican leaders like McCarthy, who had the opportunity to become a speaker in the House to maintain the support of Trump and his hardline rightists, have not shown that they have any any effective way to deal with the increasingly angry and toxic culture in the House. that has led to terrifying threats against the members, including Omar. Regardless of the outrageous or reckless remarks made by Trump supporters such as Boebert and Greene, they always seem to find protection when they are close to the former President, whose party rigors seem to never end. outside.
In the absence of consequences, this behavior is only likely to become more disgusting – and that could send Republicans to the ballot box next year as they try to win back average voters and suburbs shunned by Trump.
At a news conference Tuesday night, Omar urged Republican leaders to take action against Boebert saying “their silence speaks for itself.” She played out a voicemail she received hours after her call with Boebert on Monday in which a man told her there are plenty of “people who would love the opportunity to put you out there.” off the ground.”
“You are part of Islam —. You are a jihadist. We know what kind of person you are. You are a traitor, you will not live long, b – —,” the voicemail said.
Omar said the condemnable remarks that lead to that kind of rhetoric “shouldn’t be partisan” and added that “when an incumbent member of Congress calls a colleague, a member of the ‘Squad Jihad'” – as both Boebert and Greene did – “and fabricated a story to suggest that I was going to blow up the Capitol, which not only attacked me but also millions of Muslim Americans around the world. across this country.” She noted that the anti-Muslim rhetoric used by Trump during his 2016 campaign served as a criticism of more recent taunts from his supporters.
“So far, the Republican leadership has done nothing to hold its members accountable. It’s time for the Republican Party to really do something to confront anti-Muslim hatred. in his ranks,” Omar said.
McCarthy’s secret meeting ignored his advice
The South Carolinian did not issue an apology for her criticism of Greene, suggesting that the Georgia congresswoman was harboring a feud to raise money: “She took advantage of vulnerable Americans and those The conservative is vulnerable, and makes promises she can’t keep.”
Mace also thinks it’s important to challenge Greene’s lies.
“It’s the duty of members like me to step up,” she said, abandoning Greene’s threat to support a major challenge against her. “I’m not afraid of retribution, I’m not afraid of consequences.”
Charlie Dent, a former Pennsylvania Republican congressman who contributes to CNN, said Tuesday night that the defeat demonstrated how crude American politics can be and urged GOP leaders to rein in it.
Dent told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room,” incumbent leaders must try to establish a higher tenor and tone. “There was a time when members debated policies and ideas rather than insulting each other, or smearing each other, as was the case with Lauren Boebert for Representative Omar.”
“I think it’s important for Kevin McCarthy to stand up and address these issues internally,” Dent said. “Some members must be taught how to engage in a debate with their colleagues, and while they are at home, not to go out and make these kinds of comments that are reckless, offensive, and inflammatory.”
Trump continues his fight to kick the committee January 6
While Trump’s political woes over the Republican Party have largely remained unchallenged, his efforts to control the flow of information to the House committee investigating the January 6 attacks have hit two new major setbacks on Tuesday.
While his tactics may still resonate with the bitter political debate in Washington, the former President has proved ineffective in front of the courts as he tries to control what the country knows about what happens. what he knew in the lead up to the January 6 attack by his supporters on the Capitol.
For months, Trump tried to thwart the work of the House select committee investigating the January 6 uprising by trying to prevent the release of documents it had requested from his administration. through the courts – declaring that they must be protected by executive privilege – and by directing former employees to use the same lines of defense to avoid questioning as committee members.
But the House committee changed the narrative of power in this battle of wills with the former President when they made it clear that there would be serious legal consequences if they stoned them.
Like Bannon, Clark also refused to cooperate with the committee on the grounds that he could not testify until a court declared his communications with the former President were not shielded by legal privilege. attorney-client or executive privilege.
Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, who chairs the selection committee, told CNN the panel received “probably about 6,000 emails” from Meadows through his attorney.
The judges showed little interest in reviewing each document Trump proposed and questioned why the former President’s request for executive privileges carried more weight than the Biden administration’s position that they should be released, for the sake of transparency, in about a day. in which Trump supporters attempted a coup that nearly destroyed American democracy.
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