TEASER: Republicans Aren’t All Dumb. They’re Just Part of Cult.
The New Abnormal with Molly Jong-Fast & Rick Wilson- 771 views
- 1 Feb 2021
Lots of us have been asking ourselves (and Twitter) many questions over the last year. Questions like: How did about 74 million people vote for Trump, again? Why do people actually believe in QAnon? And, more recently, if Republicans can see Trump for who he really is-—and how he has become a hero among a sect of the party that, at their worst, believe celebrities are part of a global pedophile ring, and at their best, that masks are a form of censorship—than why do the majority of them still support him? Norm Ornstein, an American political scientist and The Atlantic contributor, joined co-host Molly Jong-Fast on this members-only episode of The New Abnormal to share his insight. “There are plenty of Republicans, and I put Rob Portman in that category, who know perfectly well that this stuff is just awful, or plenty of it is, but they'd gone along because they're a part of the cult,” he says. He also adds Mitch McConnell to that list: “He knows what Trump is. He knows that Trump is a doofus and a racist and has no ability to govern, to read anything, all of that, but he could get the tax cuts and get all these judges, knowing that basically the best way they can cling to power is to stack these courts that will let any voter suppression measures pass muster, and that will block Democratic presidents and [hit] the goals they can't accomplish in Congress alone.” If it continues like this, he adds, “you can't have a democracy for long that doesn't have two functioning problem-solving oriented parties.” Then there are the Majorie Greene Taylor types in Congress to think about. How did that happen? Trump certainly fueled it, but he didn’t start that fire, says Ornstein. “The Republican party had an insurgent outlier party that was dismissive of its opposition, that was contemptuous of facts and science that had blown up norms and could care less about the others in terms of governing long before Donald Trump emerged as a potential political figure or presidential candidate,” he says. “[Republicans] just dove in headfirst into the muck.” Then! The two discuss a topic Molly gets crap for and that’s why Diane Feinstein really needs to retire. And the two roast Kevin McCarthy, big time. “McCarthy had this moment to be free of Trump. And he just went back for more,” says Molly.If you haven't heard, every single week The New Abnormal does a special bonus episode for Beast Inside, the Daily Beast’s membership program. where Sometimes we interview Senators like Cory Booker or the folks who explain our world in media like Jim Acosta or Soledad O’Brien. Sometimes we just have fun and talk to our favorite comedians and actors like Busy Phillips or Billy Eichner and sometimes its just Rick & Molly discussing the fuckery. You can get all of our episodes in your favorite podcast app of choice by becoming a Beast Inside member where you’ll support The Beast’s fearless journalism. Plus! You’ll also get full access to podcasts and articles. To become a member head to newabnormal.thedailybeast.com
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So my first question for you is we were just when we started to talk a minute ago, you said there was something that happened today and this is not going to air till Sunday, but I think we'll still be talking about it on Sunday. They got you a little bit upset and it got me a little bit upset, too. Do you want to talk about it?
So one of the people who I have had disdain for for a very long time is Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House.
And we went from him basically making excuses for Marjorie Taylor Green, who, you know, it's unfortunate that got elected to Congress, but who should be expelled for behavior that is just beyond any pale that we might consider, but that we saw McCarthy go down tomorrow to go meet with Trump and issue a statement about how they had this wonderful conversation. And we're going to work hand in glove to elect a Republican majority to the House in twenty, twenty two.
Stepping back from it. Stepping back from it. We have a president who this is not an allegation. It's a reality. Openly incited a violent attack on the US Capitol, trying to overturn the results of a fair election that resulted in at least six people dying. One hundred and forty Capitol Police and other law enforcement people injured, some severely, one who might lose an eye, others with brain injuries battered and stabbed with polls and other devices, people who were intent on killing the vice president, lynching the vice president because his president urged them on and could have killed a number of members of Congress, a woman who stole the laptop of the speaker of the House to sell it to Russian intelligence.
That's what this president did. We've never seen anything like it. And the Republican leader of the House goes down to embrace him and talk about how he's going to be popular again. And they can work together to say disgusting, detestable. I can think of a lot of adjectives that start with these and others that start with other letters. It's just hard to describe how vile all of that is. And that did not make my day when it happened.
Yeah, it seems as if McCarthy is going to just add this moment to be free of Trump and he just went back for more.
It's McCarthy deciding that he is going to tie himself to this terrible president, try not to have any consequences or get any distance from the behavior of this president, the traitorous behavior of this president. But let's also consider that he has criticized only one member of his own conference.
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