Let's talk about Matt Gaetz, because his opposition to Kevin McCarthy, we now know, was primarily that Kevin McCarthy didn't have the authority to and said as much to Matt Gaetz to get rid of the House ethics investigation into Matt Gaetz's sexual impropriety and [00:00:17] his activities with underage girls that's being currently investigated in the House. He demanded Kevin McCarthy repeal that investigation, rebuke it. He didn't have the authority to do that. And so Matt Gaetz has been antagonistic to him the whole time. [00:00:33] He's not, however, antagonistic towards Mike Johnson, which would lead me to be curious as to the types of promises Johnson has made to Matt Gaetz behind closed doors. But here he is ecstatic. >> Speaker 2: MAGA is ascendant. And if you don't think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to MAGA Mike Johnson shows [00:00:52] the ascendance of this movement, and where the power in the Republican Party truly lies, then you're not paying attention. >> Speaker 1: MAGA Mike, he called him Maga Mike like Magic Mike, but nobody wants to watch it and it's severely unsexy [LAUGH] Maga Mike. [00:01:11] Now, Trump also echoed the similar sentiment on his Truth Social media platform. He tweeted this out or posted this, excuse me, MAGA Mike Johnson. Apparently they have found their line of messaging. [00:01:27] And some Republicans are attempting to pull the wool over our eyes. Here's this from Politico, Representative Brian Fitzpatrick said, quote, we stand by the fact that Joe Biden was legitimately elected President of the United States. We disagree with Mike on that, Fitzpatrick continued. [00:01:43] And I'm not sure Mike would do the same thing today. Which is so ironic. And then clearly one side has got their messaging, the other side is attempting to again, pull the wool over your eyes because this side is championing him. They're saying, this is our guy. [00:02:00] This is MAGA Mike, Maga Mike Johnson. The other side is saying, well, he wouldn't have done the same thing today, which I think is a pretty difficult argument to make when the people who benefited from what he did then are celebrating him. Of Course, there are Republican representatives in purple districts who [00:02:18] are facing tough reelections, who are now gonna have to explain to their voter bases and these not Trump strongholds. These districts that Biden won, they're gonna have to explain to their voter bases why the leader now, essentially, of their party or their caucus in the House [00:02:35] is somebody who wanted to overturn democracy as we know it in our country. And I think it's gonna bode pretty unwell for those Republicans. We'll see how that plays out. But apparently Biden doesn't seem concerned about an election denier as [00:02:52] speaker. Again, let me correct what I said earlier. I said third in line, second in line to the presidency goes Kamala Harris, then speaker of the House, second in line to the presidency. This from Politico, Biden, for his part, dismissed concerns that Johnson would overturn 2024 election results as speaker. [00:03:10] Just like I was not worried that the last guy would be able to overturn the election, Biden said in a press conference on Wednesday. Here's what Leader Hakeem Jeffries, minority Leader of the House, had to say, Mike Johnson wants to criminalize abortion care and impose a nationwide ban. [00:03:28] Mike Johnson was one of the chief architects of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Mike Johnson also wants to end Social Security and Medicare as we know it. Those are extreme views and House Democrats will push back aggressively against that. [00:03:44] Anybody who knows me knows that I am no friend to Hakeem Jeffries, that I have no support for him whatsoever. But I'll say that's a good statement, much better than I believe the statement from Joe Biden. I think that whether or not this person, again, [00:04:00] who led the charge to overturn the Democratic results of the 2020 election is willing to do the same thing in 2024, he absolutely is. And I'm glad that the minority leader was willing to say those things and point out how abhorrent this man has been on policy. [00:04:16] Now, of everyone, though, I think Jamie Raskin said it best, so let's hear from him. >> Speaker 3: It's inconceivable that you could get to the right of him. I mean, there are people who are definitely more lunatic than he is, and he's got very good manners, and he's an able lawyer. [00:04:35] But when we say he opposed democracy, we know that from his giving a legal gloss and finish to all of Donald Trump's arguments about electoral fraud. But if he's not for democracy, what's he for? He's for theocracy. He wants a nationwide ban on abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest. [00:04:58] He's also voted against reaffirming women's contraceptive rights. He is a real enemy of Social Security from my perspective. He wanted to increase the age of Social Security retirement to 70. [00:05:15] >> Speaker 1: And Raskin laid it out perfectly. Obviously, in the limited time he had there, he couldn't fit in every specific criticism of this man, but I think he gave a good overview of all the reasons why he is a dangerous individual. [00:05:32] I think the reason, though, why he's the most dangerous, Sharon and I'll get your thoughts on this in a second, is because he and we talked so much about how Kevin McCarthy was spineless. This man is going to be a perfect resource for those in the Republican Party [00:05:50] who represent R Plus 6000 districts, who never have to fear about getting catching the ire of their more moderate electorate. And he will capitulate to them time, and time, and time again, and all the good things that we need our government to do to continue to fund [00:06:07] programs that actually benefit people is not gonna happen. And it's instead going to become or continue to be a circus being led by the most reactionary elements inside this already fairly fascistic party. [00:06:23] And he's gonna give them everything they ever wanted. And he's the perfect guy to do it because he has even less of a backbone [LAUGH] than Kevin McCarthy. And he's not even gonna pretend that he cares about the, I won't call him the more moderate members of the party, but [00:06:39] the members of the party that represent moderate districts. He's a dangerous, dangerous person. And I'll just end on this, cuz I wanna be able to point this out. This is a man who introduced legislation that would have classified a book, a children's book, where a character has gay parents on [00:06:59] the same level as hardcore pornography being shown to children. This man is your political enemy to everybody watching, a very dangerous individual. And it is horrifying that he's been able to ascend in a relatively [00:07:14] short amount of time to such a position of power. >> Speaker 4: Danny has no shame, none. Shame is a good thing. I think it was created to keep us in check sometimes. Are you ashamed? You're blushing, you're embarrassed by your behavior? [00:07:30] None, so when you say, he's a very dangerous man, hugh nailed it. Here's a guy and I just happen to be perusing an article entitled, tells you everything you need to know, by the way, What Black People Should Know About the New US Speaker. [00:07:47] Got it. You don't even have to go paragraph in, argued against reparations, okay. Did nothing to advance equity, but is again, without shame in pushing forward a 14 year old black child that he and [00:08:03] his wife took in to say, I know about discrimination too. You are discrimination. And can we please put out a Bolo? Can we please find the child? I don't know how old this child is, but I'm concerned. I really am concerned, because this is a man who will fearlessly, [00:08:22] I know you said he has no backbone, but he will fearlessly walk with his Cliff Notes version of I don't know where he's getting this Bible that tells him what to do. And it sounded like when you played that first clip of him towards the beginning, he was saying that he's royalty. [00:08:38] He's been anointed. That he's been anointed. That's why he's now the Speaker of the House instead of this huge debacle, okay? That Elise Stefanik of New York wants us to believe was a masterful thing and a beautiful thing. She said it, was a quote, not dysfunction, not chaos. [00:08:56] This gave them a chance to pause and take a beautiful risk paraphrasing on the right side of history. It's crazy. I'd rather them just make faces and yell at the reporters instead of someone quoting that. [00:09:12] >> Speaker 1: Talk about shameless. [LAUGH] >> Right. >> Speaker 1: Trying to portray this as anything but the absolute circus it has been for about a month now. And it is so self righteous for him to stand up there and essentially say that he's ruling over the House of Representatives by divine right. [00:09:32] [LAUGH] >> Wow. >> He achieved this through his, what I'd say, is a massive misinterpretation of his religion. And using that to justify all of the forms of bigotry that he's gonna champion over the next year or so. [00:09:50] However long Republicans retain their control over the House and however long he retains his control over the Republicans of the House. Again, we'll see because Kevin McCarthy didn't even last a year, but he wasn't necessarily playing ball to the extent that Matt Gaetz and [00:10:08] the other Republicans wanted him to. It seems like they found their guy. We'll keep everybody updated on these developments and what the Republicans do with this power, and more importantly, what they don't do with it. [MUSIC]