The nation’s top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Robert Garcia from California spent some time on Jen Psaki’s show on MSNBC last night and he spoke to the fact that MAGA appears to be at a breaking point like no other in their history. This makes perfect sense to some. After all, to MAGA, Donald Trump was fun; he was all about sticking it in the “elite’s” faces, he would drain the swamp and expose everyone. He so appeased the underlying conspiracy-theory bent that he helped literally kill off over a million of his supporters during COVID (A disease which became a disease of the “unvaccinated.”) Having Trump kill the Epstein list, something for which many MAGAs would vote over kitchen table issues, is no fun.
Now that Speaker Mike Johnson has sent Congress home in order to keep them from facing questions and doing something about Trump, the base is really enflamed, according to Garcia and his colleagues, and the base is ready to break over this. The video is below, and I pull quotes:
“Speaker Mike Johnson basically sent everybody home. There are some drawbacks for Republicans in that regard — not things you might like or vote for — but he sent everyone home because he didn’t want them to move forward, or didn’t want the House to move forward on voting to release the Epstein files. He’s hoping, I guess, that he will outlast everyone through August.
Psaki asked if he thinks that Trump actually can outlast everyone through August and how that would play out:
“The American public are seeing that Donald Trump has betrayed them. He’s broken their trust.”Â
Sure, well, Trump did campaign on releasing the Epstein files and, believe it or not, his MAGA base is so conspiracy-theory oriented that they voted to get their Medicaid cut and give tax breaks to billionaires, all to see Bill Clinton’s name on that damned list (If he is, fine), never once thinking it might be a false promise given all those pictures of Trump and Epstein.
“And if Donald Trump or Mike Johnson think Democrats are just going to roll over and allow that to happen, they are highly mistaken.”
When Psaki asked if Republicans in Congress might roll over on Trump, Garcia stated that he didn’t know if that would happen but pointed to what is happening already, both in Congress and, more importantly, back home:
“I don’t think that’s going to happen either. And I’m talking to not just Republicans on our Oversight Committee, but Republicans across Congress. There’s a lot that are just keeping their mouths shut right now. But they’re very concerned that their base and supporters back home are demanding them to stand up to Donald Trump in this moment.”
“I’m going to have more and more Republicans come out and demand the release. And what Tim Burchett has done, what Tom Massie is doing — which we’re going to support that discharge petition. We are going to get a full vote of that release when we come back.”
Garcia then stated that Trump’s MAGA “base is beginning to stand up to him” while noting that it’s critical for Democrats to recognize the moment and move forward despite what else is happening in government.
“Yes, we need to focus on health care. Yes, we need to focus on tax breaks for the rich, which we oppose. But this is about corruption. At the end of the day, this leans into Americans’ understanding that Donald Trump is corrupt. He’s not for you. He will lie to you. He will betray you. And he’s only in it to save himself. And that’s what this moment is about.
Bless you a million different ways because yes, go home and talk about the hospitals closing throughout your district, point to the medical bankruptcies, talk about the SNAP reductions, even talk about park rangers, ATC, and weather reporting, talk about it all in the context of corruption and a ruling set in Washington out to protect themselves over everyone else.
But more than anything, talk about the conspiracy theory they’re left to consider, that being that it’s actually Trump on the Epstein list and Trump moving to protect himself. Not because the MAGAs will suddenly revolt to demand that Trump the rapist be brought to justice, no – don’t give them that much credit, but only that this isn’t much fun anymore. As I’ve written a million times, Trump’s appeal was always that he hated the same people that they hated and showed it the way the average guy on the street would show it. This isn’t adding up and resulting in some cognitive dissonance. They know that the Obama thing is a distraction, that it will never happen, and they want Bill Clinton and other “elites” – which they figure will all be Democrats, I guess.
Good luck to them, but Garcia is right. This is actually an issue that could break MAGA. They were born of CT and will probably be willing to die mainlining CT-Extra pure, the kind that stops their breathing when they realize that the conspiracy has turned on them, making them look like fools. Johnson’s tactic may just work against them, leaving Trump in Washington or New Jersey, with few around to defend him, and Republicans out in the heartland facing angry constituents.
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bill’s a dog but he’s always had a proclivity for adult women.
Nothing like putting your future and the future of your family in the hands of a malignant narcissist…a thief…a rapist…a serial liar…and a TRAITOR! I’m sure everything will work out fine.
Yep, I think Garcia’s got it just about right. The only thing I would add is that what he’s saying applies to the hard-core MAGA. The fellow-travelers, former Obama voters, who played an especially important and deleterious role in the last election, have no deep attachments to Trump. They are gone — completely.