Into chaos, in a standard bearer doing everything he can to get the case against him thrown out of the courts. There are big developments in both of those stories, and were gonna get all of them, this hour. But if there is one person who in ball embodies the dual crises, the dual problem in the gop right, now hit house chaos and alleged republican criminality, it is this guy. Congressman George Santos, a Serial Fabulist who remains in the House Of Representatives despite being charged with 13 counts of fraud fraud, money laundering, incest he is still there, and today, the former treasurer for santas campaign pleaded guilty to a federal Conspiracy Charge. That staffer admitted to having a made up Fake Campaign donations for santoss campaign. That Conspiracy Charge is part of the broader case against her boss, George Santos, who has been accused of crimes that range from defrauding donors to falsifying official paperwork to lying to the government in order to get pandemic aid. So, the fact that this Santos Campaign official is now admitting to some part of the alleged scheme, that is bad news for George Santos. Yet, congressman George Santos remains a member in Good Standing of the House Republican conference. He has not been publicly denounced by a majority of his republican colleagues the way that, for example, democratic senator bob menendez has. He continues to be, members of his party for his criminal indictment. I mean, if anything, George Santos is at the height of his power in this congress. For the second time in less than a year, republicans need George Santos, and they need his vote in particularly to stem the chaos in their caucus. Whoever the next republican speaker is, that person is going to court the likes of George Santos at the same moment that his former staffer is striking a plea deal of federal prosecutors. The gop is so fractured, that it governs itself on a knifes edge. As to who could actually corral this republican mess into something resembling a government nudge majority, that is anybodys guess at this point. Today, we learned donald trump is considering a visit to the u. S. Capitol early next week, right in the middle of the republican race for speaker. It will be the first time trump has visited the capitol since january 6th 2021. A lot has changed, and a lot has not. Trump claims hes making the visit because he wants to help unify the party, which, hes openly musing may require him to become speaker himself. Today, trump told fox news digital they have asked me if i would take it, meaning the speakership, for a short period of time for the party, until they come to a conclusion, im not doing it because i want to. I will do it if necessary, should they not be able to make their decision. As preposterous as this sounds, as much as trump at the capitol should be a glaring reminder of what happened the last time he was there, republican lawmakers have been cheering trump on. This is congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene pleading, if trump becomes speaker of the house, the House Chamber will be a trump rally every day. But, we have already seen what it looks like when a trump rally comes to the u. S. House chamber. We saw it when a trump rally marched to the capitol with trump signs and smashed the windows and barricades, and paraded through the building chanting, hang mike pence. That is what it looks like. Kevin mccarthys failure as speaker was in large part due to his courtship of the maga base, his deference to the hard right. In the wake of that spectacular failure, the Republican Party is courting the head of the maga movement. They are inviting the january 6th guy back into the building. For anybody looking for course correction, it looks like its going to be a long wait. Today, at the Republican Campaign stop in michigan nbc news asked republican primary voters what they thought of Kevin Mccarthys ouster and, boy, they made it clear he wasnt radical enough. He caved in sending more money over to ukraine. Basically, it seems like a typical political crook. We cant segue him with these liberal policies, we just cant, we have to stand up to that and other ways were gonna lose our country. If he was working a little bit too cozy with the democrats then im all for him being voted out. Cozy with the democrats . How and where that Kevin Mccarthy, the person who launched an Impeachment Inquiry into President Biden and blamed a Near Government shutdown on democrats, how did Kevin Mccarthy become somehow a tool of the left . Heres a clue. The morning after ousting mccarthy, Congressman Matt Gaetz walked a few blocks down from the capitol to the basement Recording Studio that belongs to steve bannon, to claim victory and to rally support from the maga movement. First, i want to say, the posse one, and the posse was attacked last night. What they are trying to say is theyre afraid of collective agency. They are worried that your ability to act as a force in american politics can become more important than the big Steak Dinners and fundraisers and the favors that are traded back and forth. Thats the Republican Party donald trump is returning to. While that is mired and dysfunction and anger and chaos and paranoia. It is clear that the threat is inside the building. They have breached the capitol in more ways than one. Joining me now is tim miller, former Communications Director for the 2016 jeb bush campaign, and writer at large and charlie sykes, podcast host or and author of how the wright lost its mind. Thank you gentlemen for johnny both tonight. Charlie, let me ask you what you make of trump positioning himself as a, quote, unifying figure that the Republican Party needs to have as speaker of the house. As strange as it is, obviously we havent reached a political crazy here. Donald trump as a unifier. It is a preposterous idea, but as you pointed out, what an alignment of the stars, the man who incited the attack on the capitol, returning to the capitol to see his handiwork, to see how absolutely ungovernable it has been. The republicans are faced with an unenviable problem, trying to figure out how to govern in this particular environment with the jackal caucus, with donald trump looming over all of this. Its really kind of a political rubiks cube for morons. There is no solution, there is no way he is going to come out of this more sane or more rational or getting back to some sort of normalcy. This is what they are bringing into 2024. Anyone who thinks were going to see a Return To Normal American Politics is not going to happen. Next week is going to be wild, even by the standards of the last year. Right, be there will be wild part two, tim, what do you think the president s of trump at the capitol does to the speakers race . On one hand, you think could be a very helpful reminder of what happens when you give power to trump and trumpism, and on the other hand, i kind of think it is going, its like, is it rasputin . He conjures this spell that the party seems to find under. I wonder if it informed today pick for speaker. Certainly is on donald trump. Its reasserting dominance. Theres a lot of areas in this life where hes lost control, multiple courtrooms across the country. Hes still very much in control of the Republican Party. I think showing up is an opportunity for him to demonstrate that in the most visible way possible. I think he is right about the fact that he be able to put his fell on the scale and not be speaker himself but supports whoever it is, jim jordan, or whatever from the maga jackal caucus, as charlie called in. It recalls for me, alex, i think i feel like a broken record, remember that old quote from after the election, what is the downside for humoring him, for this little bit of time. For some reason, these republicans that Kevin Mccarthy, The Old Guard establish republicans thought that they can make this deal with the devil and then when he lost in 2020 he would go away and it gets a move on with their lives. But, thats not how deals with the devil worked. Donald trump is once again just like he did on january six, just like he did endorsing all those lunatics in 2022, hell do it one more time when you go to the capitol next week. He saying, you still got a pair. He is going to be there to accept his payments. I wonder, charlie, whether this sort of poison runs deeper than just deal making. The New York Times is out with piece about how steve bannon in many ways helped orchestrate the ouster of Kevin Mccarthy by effectively poisoning the well, poisoning the posse, which is to say, the rightwing, not just in congress but voters and listeners to Steve Bannons podcast, poisoning them against mccarthy whom he deemed an Establishment Rhinos to the democratic party. In other seasons, one might say, who cares what steve bannon is doing. The timepiece point out, and ill read you a short expert. In past decades, rightwing rebels on capitol hill have encountered trouble getting real traction, shunned by lobbyists and big money Political Action committees, excluded from Leadership Suites in the capitol and disregarded by fox news. With the help of mr. Bannon, who streams lived for four hours every weekday, mr. Gaetz and others do not need to rely on any of that. They can find their money by spewing nonsense on the bannon airwaves, and they have an audience, and attention, and thats all they need. What do you think of that . That is exactly right. Tim burton has written a whole book about this. The water was poisoned a long time ago over the last five or six years. You have this vast ecosystem that thrives on stirring up outrage, convincing the base that they need to be angry, that they are being betrayed, that somebody is not being loyal enough. They keep ratcheting it up. So, What Bannon Represents is just one aspect of all of this. Ultimately, this is a Leadership Promblem but it is also a follower ship problem. As you said earlier, there are a lot of people out there in the primary electorate who have no problem with this kind of chaos and this kind of dysfunction. Donald trump feeds on this as well, and that is the problem that the majority of House Republicans have to deal with, is if they want to elect somebody who is not completely crazy, if they want to elect somebody whos not completely a lunatic, they have to deal with this, not just the eight members of the caucus but this entire Media Ecosystem which is devoted to passing out the meth of outrage on a regular basis. And donald trump pool insist on the sort of thing. Donald trump, in many ways, i agree with tim, this is an assertion of dominance but it really is in many ways the Worst Nightmare for House Republicans and the fondest wish of democrats in the Biden Campaign to basically trumpify the entire Republican Party and make it absolutely clear that donald trump owns all of this chaos and dysfunction. Thank you for pointing out the sort of role that the republican electorate has in this. Tim, id love to talk on you more with this. The Incentive Structure is all messed up. It feels like the republican electorate not only wants the chaos, but expects the chaos. So, when the chaos unfolds, its not a source of shame and indignation, its either, like more of that or, what else is new . So, jim jordan as speaker seems entirely possible to the group of people. For sure. This is the thing a lot of folks i think on the coast miss about whats happening with the Republican Party. There is that old trope that a lot of republicans are like, i like donald trump for the policies except, but not the tweets. I just wish he had control over his twitter. There is a big group of republican base, maybe not a majority, but really close to it, 35 45 of the party that is there for the chaos, there for the tweets, there for the cruelty. They like this stuff, and so, you might think that the fact that the Republican Party cannot govern themselves might make republican viewers of fox and Steve Bannons broadcast upset. For many of the viewers, theyre like, no, good. We want to tear this whole thing down, and so, that makes things very challenging for the republicans who want to do the right thing. I think there is a dwindling number of them. I think many of them feel really trapped by their own voters. What do you think the implications are for the actual speakers race, charlie . Is it a foregone conclusion that its going to be somebody in the radical rink of the parties base . Most likely. But, again, this is the dilemma that in order to get twitter 18 votes, you either have to get the votes of the matt gaetz jackalt caucus, or you have to get some democratic votes. In order to get the matt gaetz caucus, youre going to have to continue doing what Kevin Mccarthy do which is to get one concession after another of the taliban wing of the party. In order to get democratic votes, youre going to have to strike some grand bargain that would absolutely outrage the rightwing base and the bannons of the world and donald trump. So, the question is, how do you get to 218 votes . The conventional wisdom would suggest that its going to be somebody like a steve scalise, but who knows . My only prediction is, strap in, break out the popcorn, because its going to be long, its going to be ugly. That is not Popcorn Eating Footage for me. I just want to put all food aside watching the degradation of our two party system. The jackal caucus. Somebody put that on a mug, please, somewhere. Tim miller, charlie sykes, great to have you both on the program. Thanks for your time tonight. Thank you, alex. We have lots to talk about this evening, like a victory. Yes, a victory for representational democracy as a republican effort to keep democrats out of power in alabama fails, and just in time for next years election. Plus, donald trump may have retreated to his Florida Beach club, but his lawyers are keeping busy, working to keep trump out of multiple court cases while he is running for president. That is next. 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