Felony counts doing everything he can to get the case against him then out of courts. There are big developments in beth of those stories, and were going to get to all of them this hour. But if theres one person that embodies the dual crysies facing the gop right now, the dual crises of chaos and Lul Criminality it is this guy, congressman George Santos, a Serial Fabulist who remains in the house despite being charged with 13 counts of fraud, Money Lawderring and theft. That staffer admitted to having made up Fake Campaign donations for Santos Campaign and that Conspiracy Charge is part of the broader case against her boss, George Santos, whos been accused of crimes from defrauding voters to falsifying official paperwork to lying to the government in order to get pandemic aid. So the fact this san toegs Campaign Official is now admitting to that ledge scheme that is bad news for congressman santos. And yet he remains in Good Standing with the house. I mean if anything George Santos is at the height of his power in this congress because for the second time in less than a year republicans need George Santos, and they need his vote in particular to stem the chaos in their caucus. Whoever the next republican speaker is, that person is going to have to court the likes of George Santos at the same moment that his former staffer is striking a plea deal with federal prosecutors. The gop is so fractured that it governs itself on a knifes edge. As to who can actually corral this republican mess into something resembling a governing majority that is anyones 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 6, 2021. A lot has changed and a lot hasnt. Trump claims hes making the visit because he wants to help unify the party, which hes openly using they require him to become speaker himself. Trump told fox news digital they have asked me if i would take it it being 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 being 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 tweeting today if trump becomes speaker of the house itll be a trump rally every single day. We already saw what happened when it became a trump rally. Smashed through windows and barricades and chanted hang mike pence. Thats 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. And in the wake of that spectacular failure, the Republican Party is courting the head of the Maga Movement . Theyre inviting the january 6th guy back into the building . I mean anybody looking for Course Correction here, it looks like its going to be a long wait. Nbc news asked republican primary voters what they thought of Kevin Mccarthys ouster, and boy, did they make it clear Kevin Mccarthy wasnt radical enough. He caved in sending more money over to ukraine, so basically he seems like a typical political crook. You cant be siding with these liberal policies. You just cant. We have to stand up to that, otherwise were going to lose our country. He was, you know, working a bit too cozy with the democrats and im all for him being voted out. A bit too cozy with the democrats . How and where did 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. Well, first i want to say the posse won and the posse was attacked last night. What theyre trying to say is theyre afraid of your 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 the Lobbyist Fund Raisers and the favors that are traded back and forth. That is the Republican Party that donald trump is returning to, one that is mired in dysfunction and anger and chaos and paranoia. And it is clear now 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 for the bulwark, and charlie psyches, also cohost at the bulwark and author of how the right lost its mind. Thank you, gentlemen, for joining me tonight. What do you make of trump positioning himself as a, quote, unifying figure need in the house in. Obviously weve not reached peak political crazy here. 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 actually ungovernable it has been. The republicans are faced with an uninveeable problem, trying to figure out how to govern in this particular environment with the jackal caucus, with donald trump looming all over this is really a kind of political rubix cube for morons. Theres no solution, no way theyre going to come out of this more sane or rational or getting back to more normalcy, so this is what theyre bringing to 2024. Youre absolutely right. Anyone who thinks were going to see some sort of return to normal American Politics, that is just not going to happen, and next week is going to be its going to be wild even by the standards of the last few years. Youre right, be there will be wild part 2, tim. What do you think the presence of trump at the capitol does to the speakers race . On the one hand youd think itd be a very helpful reminder when you give power to trump and trumpism, and on the other hand, i think its going to its like is it rasputin . He conjures this spell that the party seems to fall under, and i wonder if it informs who they ultimately pick for speaker assuming its not donald trump . I think its reasserting dominance. Theres a lot of areas in his life hes lost control right now, multiple courtrooms across the country but he still very much has control over the Republican Party. And i think showing up is an opportunity for him to demonstrate that in the most visible way possible. And i think that hes right about the fact he would be able to put his thumb on the scale and probably not be speaker himself but support whoever it is jim jordan or whatever from the Maga Jackal Caucus as charlie called it. And it recalls for me, alex, i feel like a broken record, but you remember that old quote after the election whats the down side for humoring him for this little bit of time . For some reason these republicans, the Kevin Mccarthy, The Old GuardEstablishment Republicans thought they could make this deal with the devil and when he lost in 2020 hed go away and theyd get to mub on with their lives. But thats not how deals with the devil work. And donald trump is once again just like he did on january 6th, just like he did endorsing all those lunatics in 2022 and do it one more time when he goes to the capitol next week, hes saying youve got to pay up and hes going to threto accept his payment. I do wonder, charlie, whether the sort of poison goes deeper than just deal making. The New York Times is out with a 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 and the rightwing not just in congress but voters and listeners on Steve BannonsPodcast Poisoning them on mccarthy who he deemed as a sort of establishment rino, student to the democratic party. In other seasons one might say who cares what steve bannon is doing. Ill read you an excerpt. In past decades rightwing rebels on capitol hill have encountered trouble getting real traction. Shunned by lobbyists and Political Action committee, excluded by Leadership Seats in the capitol, and disregarded by fox news. But with the help of mr. Bannon who streams live four hours every weekday mr. Gaetz and others dont need to rely on any of that. They can find their money by spewing nonsense on the bannon air waves, and they have an audience and they have attention, and thats all they need. What do you think about that . Thats exactly right. Tims 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 thrived on stirring up outrage, convincing the base that they need to be angry, that theyre being betrayed, that somebody is not being loyal enough, and they keep ratcheting it up. What bannon represents is one aspect of all this. And ultimately this is a Leadership Problem and its also a followership problem. As you illustrated earlier there are a lot of people out there in the primary electorate who had no problem with this kind of chaos and this kind of dysfunction, and donald trump feeds on this as well, and thats the problem that the majority of House Republicans have to deal with is if they want to elect somebody whos not completely crazy. If they want to elect somebody who is not a complete lunatic, theyre going to have to deal with this not just the members of the s but this entire ecosystem devoted to passing out meth on outrage on a daily basis and donald trump wholl insist on this sort of thing. I agree with tim this is an assertion of dominance, but it really is in many ways the worst night mare for House Republicans, and it is the fondest wish of democrats and the Biden Campaign to basically trumpify the entire Republican Party and make it absolutely clear that donald trump owns all of this chaos and this dysfunction and corruption. And thank you for pointing out the sort of role that the republican electorate has in this. And tim, id love to talk with you more about that because the Incentive Structure is all messed up. I mean it feels like the republican electorate not only wants the chaos but expects the chaos. When the chaos unfolds its not a source of shame or indignation. Theyre either like more of that or what else is new. So jim jordan as speaker seems entirely plausible to that group of people. Oh, for sure. This is the thing a lot of folks i think on the coast miss with whats happening with the Republican Party. Theres been that old trope Republican Party is like i like trump but not his tweets. Theres a big group of the Republican Base maybe not a majority but close to it 45 of the party there for the chaos, there for the tweets, there for the cruelty. They like this stuff. You might think the Republican Party cant for many viewers theyre like, no, good, we want to tear this whole thing down. So that makes things very challenging for republicans who want to do the right thing. Theres a dwindling number of them, but i think many of people feel trapped by their own voters. What do you think the applications are for the speakers race . Do you think its a forgone conclusion its going to be someone in the radical wing of the partys base . This is the dilemma. In order to get 218 votes you either have to get the votes of the matt gaetz jackal caucus. In order to get the matt gaetz caucus youre going to have to continue to do what Kevin Mccarthy did which is make one surrender, one concession after another to the taliban wing of the party. And in order to get democratic votes youre going to have to strike some sort of 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 . And the conventional wisdom would suggest its going to be someone 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. Thats not Popcorn Eating Footage for me. I just want to put all food aside watching the degradation of our twoparty system. The jackal caucus, someone put that on a mug please somewhere. Tim miller and charlie sykes, great to have you on the program. 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 huz lawyers are keeping busy working to keep trump out of multiple court cases while he is running for president. That is next. E he is running fo president. That is next the virus that causes shingles is sleeping. In 99 of people over 50. Its lying dormant, waiting. And could reactivate. 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Exactly what part of the trial they want to put on pause is still anyones guess, but we should know by tomorrow. Another set of trumps lawyers filed a mission to dismiss the 3457b hatten d. A. s criminal hush money case against trump calling it politically motivated and marred by legal defects. In the case involving the storage of classified documents at maralago, today the they asked the judge citing many other charges and the possibility of them being in two places at once. And then in the other criminal case in the efforts to overthrow the 2020 election