Stunningly bad 48 hour stretch for House Republicans
When Kevin McCarthy got caught lying on Thursday about what he’d said on tape about Donald Trump, it was obviously a major blow for him. It was initially widely presumed that Liz Cheney was the person who had secretly recorded and released the recording of McCarthy. The only way things could have gotten even worse for McCarthy was if someone else was behind it all, because that would mean McCarthy couldn’t trust anyone in his own House Republican caucus. And based on Cheney’s denial, sure enough, it was someone else.
But that debacle was merely chapter one in what’s since turned out to be a stunningly bad forty-eight hour stretch for House Republicans across the board. Marjorie Taylor Greene was forced to testify in a civil suit yesterday about her words and actions in relation to January 6th, and she scored the trifecta of incriminating herself, getting caught committing perjury, and making a political mess for herself.
Then on Friday night Politico published old photos of House Republican Madison Cawthorn partying while wearing lingerie in public. Isn’t this the guy who recently claimed that other House Republicans had invited him to orgies? What’s even going on here?
House Republicans are now trying to do damage control across the board. McCarthy is leaking that Trump has already forgiven him. But given that McCarthy just got done lying to the media about this very scandal, are we supposed to believe him? The other shoe will drop on this before too much longer. And while Greene’s testimony took place within the very limited confines of a civil suit deposition, it’ll cause her all kinds of other problems, regardless of whether she wins or loses the suit.
The bottom line is that House Republicans have been thrown into total chaos. McCarthy is just waiting for someone to finish him off, whether it comes from Trump or from whichever House Republican has been secretly recording him all this time. Greene is now an albatross hanging around the neck of every House Republican who’s trying to get reelected in a swing district. Cawthorn’s claims of House Republican orgies will now likely get dug into more deeply by the media. And whichever House Republican secretly sold out McCarthy, that person now has to worry about being outed for it. What a mess. Republicans in disarray!
