Man, when it rains, it pours. Rachel Maddow recounted a story in her A-Block that I had written about at the time, but that with the insanity of the Trump regime, everybody had long ago forgotten about it. But now it’s come roaring back to life.
The story involves an incident in 2016, when Trump was in the final phases of clearing the GOP field to the nomination. Both than Majority Leader McCarthy, as well as House Speaker had just concluded separate meetings with the Ukrainian Prime Minister. They walked into a senior House GOP leadership meeting, and briefed the members on what they had heard. After which McCarthy said, There are two Republicans I’m pretty sure are on Putin’s payroll. Dana Rohrbacher and Donald Trump. Several members laughed, to which McCarthy replied, No man, I’m serious. Which led Paul Ryan to advise the group, No leaks, OK guys? After all, we’re a family here.
So, of course it leaked. And of course, Kreepy Kevin immediately called bullshit, and denied ever saying any such thing. Unfortunately, the reporters had actually transcribed their article from a surreptitious recording of the conversation, which they gleefully released to the public. McCarthy’s handlers quickly paddle footed to say that McCarthy’s remarks were actually a joke that was terribly misunderstood.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Rachel had on tonight two New York Times reporters Alexander James and Jonathan Martin, have a book coming out on May 3rd titled This Will Not Pass. And once again, Kreepy Kevin McCarthy is hoist on his own petard. Fortunately it’s the Easter break, so he has four days in which to come up with a bullshit response.
In the book, they tell of a January 10th, 2021 conversation between McCarthy and then House heavyweight Liz Cheney, in which Cheney refers to their previous conversation regarding the 25th Amendment, and asking if there was any chance Trump would resign. McCarthy sidestepped the 25th Amendment question, admitted that he had not spoken to Trump, but told Cheney the Democrats impeachment charges would certainly clear the House, and that he found it quite possible that the Senate might just vote to convict. McCarthy indicated that he was going to have a conversation with Trump, in which he would lay out the grounds, and suggest that Trump resign. He closed the call by saying I’m sick of this son of a bitch.
McCarthy’s camp immediately branded the reporting pure bullshit. But once again, the reporters had a tape of the conversation, which they gleefully played for the world on Rachel’s show tonight. Worse yet, they related a conference cal McCarthy had with moderate GOP House members, after Traitor Tot was booted from his social media privileges. The members were bitching about other far right House Trump acolytes that were carrying his water for him on social media, to which McCarthy bemoaned, Why can’t they just cancel their accounts too? Forge ahead Kevin, deny it, they say that have that one on tape too.
Kreepy Kevin McCarthy just became the lead star in a canine porn flick. McCarthy has spent the last 5 1/2 years walking a desperate tightrope to the Speakership, cuddling up to Trump and his House caucus, but also making independent moo-moo noises to House moderate members, making it sound like he could keep the Trombies in check. But now Trump and his House minions know exactly what McCarthy was really thinking, and the GOP House moderates know that he was always full of shit. Sayonara, Speakership!
McCarthy is formally fucked. He tried to play both ends against the middle, and now finds himself in the middle. Now the Trombie base will want his head, and the GOP moderate base won’t believe a word he says. And don’t even get me started on how this is going to go over with his constituency.
Even Moscow Mitch McConnell makes a curtain call. McConnell is hoping that if the GOP can shitcan the Trump acolytes from the ballot in the primaries, and the GOP regains the Senate, he will once again be the Senate Majority Leader. But it turns out that he’s no smarter than McCarthy.
They report that in the days following the Capitol riot, while the Democrats were proceeding with their second impeachment over the insurrection, McConnel let his freak flag fly. He told aides and confidantes in a private lunch that It looks like the Democrats are going to take care of this son of a bitch for us. He went on to predict that he found it highly likely that there would be 17 GOP votes in the Senate to convict, and that he may well be one of them. His last argument was, Dear God, if this isn’t impeachable, what is? McConnell’s office declined to comment on the passage, but once again, the reporters say they have it on tape.
McConnell wants to end his career as Senate Majority Leader. But with the map this year, that is a dicey proposition. If the Senate changes, it won’t be by more than a vote or two, and McConnell can’t afford to lose any votes. But he has Trump acolytes like Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley with eyes on 2024, who are not going to be happy with McConnell, and if weakling toadies like Mike Lee and Marco Rubio survive 2022, they’re going to be desperate to prove their loyalty to the Grand Orangutan. I don’t see how he has a path forward.
This promises to be a fascinating book, since it derives from hundreds of hours of personal interviews, but more importantly, dozens of actual tapes that the authors plan to release to support their claims. I plan on getting this bad boy, and once I read it, I’ll report back as I go through it. Good times.
[Note from Ursula: Here is the tape from Maddow’s show, wherein McCarthy is caught lying through his teeth about saying he didn’t plan to advise Trump to resign when in fact he did. The first six and a half minutes are a recap of the story I posted this morning on McConnell’s remark about the Democrats “getting rid of the son of a bitch.” The McCarthy audio, the part you definitely want to hear, starts around 6:30. Enjoy.]
The usual caption I give this article’s stock photo: Liz Cheney whispering in McCarthy’s ear “I will kill you in your sleep.” Apparently that is already in the process of happening. Does anyone really think that these reporters just HAPPENED to get those recordings? No, they were fed to this pair by inside sources and it’s a cinch that at least one of them was Cheney.
The time for her takeover of the American conservative movement draws nigh. In a few months, every last one of the GQP fools who went out of their way to make an example of her are dearly going to regret it.
I think all too often reporters get this kind of stuff – and SIT on it. Bob Woodward’ example with his last book is far from the only time some of these assholes have sat on important information for way too long because they were more interested in big book sales than informing the public. In practice what might be a rapid-fire series of revelations that results in public outcry and forces changes instead becomes a drip, drip drip of info. combined with “teases” for weeks (before release of the book) that diffuses he impact. Most journalists are more interested in being rich and famous media darlings than they are of being reporters.
Correction, Denis: most of the journalists we hear about can be described in this manner. As with every profession, there are the extremes of stand-up (believes in the job enough to do it right) and selfish (the behavior you noted). Most fall in the middle, leaning towards one direction or another. It’s less about the people and more about the profession’s institutional shortcomings for the problems we’re seeing. But because the latter is far harder, few focus on such.
Besides commenting I hope people will call their offices & raise hell. I do it all the time which is why burr’s office sent the capital police my way. Timidity begats fascism. I know the staffers, if they even answer the phone, screen & probably delete all incoming flak, however, I want them to catch holy hell for doing so. No telling what goes around the employee water cooler. Proving these guys are traitors & venal liars is like proving the sky is blue on a clear day. I also believe Cheney & her allies are the nightmares that keep Mccarthy & Moscow mitch awake & sipping bourbon in the wee hours. No telling what she knows & has proof of. She has the steely eye of an assassin. Keep running traitors. The sound you hear are the hounds tracking you.
I genuinely wish he was boned, but the truth is that Republican do not care that their politicians lie.
HERE MURPH Oldie but goodie on #Rohrabacher ..
HERE is good article on DANA ROHRABACHER
from #UkraineWeek
https://tinyurl.com/ya5jt8eu
I found it while reading MUELLER’s #MotionToRevoke House Arrest of #PaulManaafort.
As the author of this piece in February did one on Paul Manafort and MANAFORTS #HapsburgGroup Contract
which were revealed to us in the US in the EXHIBITS A-N supporting the Motion to Revoke.
AS you can see in this article, Dana Rohrabacher and PUTIN go way back cuz he needed money to run, especially
after his wife was caught stealing 1/2 of his campaign contributions at some time.
His ENTIRE California political history is here with comments by @Billbrowder,
AND THIS FROM 2018 linking to #MariaButina of #NRA KOMPROMAT FAME
AND THIS ONE TY for #Rohrabacher piece… BUT YOU could have been better informed.
DID you see the piece from #UkraineWeek?
HERE from April, 2018 its well done.
https://tinyurl.com/ycdgv245
On Capitol Hill on Friday evening, I ran into Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who has earned the moniker “Putin’s favorite congressman.” In recent days, he has been linked in news reports to Maria Butina, the 29-year-old Russian woman who had spent years cozying up to the National Rifle Association and other conservative outfits and who has been accused by federal prosecutors of being a spy for Moscow. “Some week, eh?” I said to him. He shot me a quizzical look. “Why?” he asked.
I thought it was obvious, and noted that his connection to Butina had made the headlines. ABC News reported that Rohrabacher was at a dinner in 2017 in Washington that Butina attended and that two years earlier, Butina had set up a meeting in St. Petersburg for him with Alexander Torshin, a Kremlin-connected banker and senior member of Vladimir Putin’s political party.
If Cohen’s account is accurate, I asked, doesn’t this show Trump colluded with a Putin-ordered operation to attack a US election? How is that nothing? “There’s not a person in this town who would not take a meeting to get material like that,” Rohrabacher shot back. “I would.”
Oh, he scoffed, that’s all nothing. He insisted he had no contact with Butina at the dinner: “She was at the other end of a table of 30 people and now they say I ‘dined’ with her.” Rohrabacher asserted he had never met with Butina, but did acknowledge she was present when he met with Torshin. (Torshin has been accused of money laundering related to Russian organized crime; he has denied the charge.)
Rohrabacher went further and dismissed the entire Butina case. “This is fake news,” he said with a snort. “The charges are BS. She was just a gofer.” The US government, though, has alleged she was part of a Russian influence operation directed by Torshin. The two had sought connections with the Republican Party and conservative organizations, and during the 2016 election they had used these ties to try to set up a meeting between Donald Trump and Putin. But Rohrabacher said the indictment was all bunk.
Sensing that I was not going to get anything but derision from Rohrabacher on the Butina front, I shifted subjects and asked him about the latest Trump-Russia bombshell: the news that Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime fixer, was prepared to tell special counsel Robert Mueller that Trump had advance knowledge of and approved the notorious Trump Tower meeting of June 2016, during which Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort met with a Russian emissary to get dirt on Hillary Clinton as part of what they were told was a secret Russian plot to help Trump. This revelation seemed to be a possible game-changer—evidence that Trump did collude with a Kremlin operation and another indication that Trump’s denials of Russian intervention in the 2016 election were purposeful lies.
So what do you think of this Cohen story? I queried. “Zero,” Rohrabacher replied. I waited for more. “It’s a big zero,” he said. If Cohen’s account is accurate, I asked, doesn’t this show Trump colluded with a Putin-ordered operation to attack a US election? How is that nothing? “There’s not a person in this town who would not take a meeting to get material like that,” Rohrabacher shot back. He suggested he would.
Would you huddle with a mobster to get opposition research on an opponent? I inquired. They didn’t meet with a mobster, he responded. No, I noted, just a representative of a foreign adversary that was engaged in a clandestine operation to skew the election in Trump’s favor. “But did they know that?” Rohrabacher replied.
That was an interesting response. It has been widely reported, I reminded him, that the emails setting up the meeting—which were sent to Trump Jr., Kushner, and Manafort—stated that it was related to a covert Kremlin operation to assist Trump. Rohrabacher shrugged. He didn’t seem interested.
That wasn’t so odd; Rohrabacher was practically the only Republican on Capitol Hill who defended Trump’s recent press conference with Putin. (Coincidentally or not, as the New York Times reported last year, “the FBI warned [Rohrabacher] in 2012 that Russia regarded him as an intelligence source worthy of a Kremlin code name.”)
The congressman and an aide then tried to point me in the direction of another story. They said Butina had appeared at an anti-Putin rally in 2011, as if that signaled she could not be a Moscow agent. How did they know this? It had been reported on a Belgian website…they thought.
Time to go, I said to myself. But first, I asked Rohrabacher about his reelection campaign. He had survived a tough Republican primary battle and was now facing Democrat Harley Rouda, a local real estate executive, and Rohrabacher’s pro-Moscow stance had become a campaign issue. I knew Rohrabacher, like any candidate, would predict victory. So I asked how much he expected to win by. “Five to ten percent,” he said. Really? I countered. That seemed optimistic. (A longtime incumbent, he did win by more than 16 points two years ago, yet Clinton captured the district by nearly 2 points that year.) Rohrabacher added that such a victory would only be possible if the national Republican Party rallied to his cause. It is, he conceded, a “competitive” contest.