It may not be popular to post this considering the wild political debate within the Republican Party at this time, but the vocal minority of 20 Congressman is in the right as they push to force Kevin McCarthy to stand down and allow someone else to take the helm in the House. Fox News host Sean Hannity is siding with McCarthy because that’s what he’s been instructed to do. He’s playing his role as RINO shepherd to lay guilt on anyone who doesn’t abide by the GOP Establishment’s wishes.
He turned his GOPe spokesperson talents against Congresswoman Lauren Boebert on his show tonight. He questioned why McCarthy should stand down when he has 203 (it’s actually 201 but who’s counting?) supporters on his side while his opposition only has 20. On the surface, it’s a fair question. But the reality is McCarthy has 201 Representatives who are WILLING to let him be Speaker of the House. He does NOT have 201 members who WANT him there.
The fallacy in Hannity’s argument is to assume that nobody could get 218 or more votes from among the 222 Republicans. This is unambiguously false. There are several members who would easily get 218 votes in the caucus and at least a few who would get all 222. McCarthy’s support is by default for many who are voting for him because he has positioned himself as the de facto Speaker. But if you ask his 201 “supporters” if they really want him there rather than simply having a willingness to accept him, you’d find the ranks of his “supporters” would drop dramatically.
I would guesstimate that fewer than a dozen Representatives PREFER McCarthy over all other viable candidates. The lukewarm supporters just haven’t been handed a consensus candidate; thus far none of the Representatives nominated by the band of 20 opposition voters have had universal appeal. This is by design.
The strategy is actually a good one by Matt Gaetz and those standing with him against McCarthy. They are wearing the caucus down with choices that are ideal to the Freedom Caucus like Andy Biggs, Jim Jordan, and Byron Donalds. That’s how negotiations start; you offer up your best-case-scenarios as the starting point and work your way down from there. If their end goal is to have a consensus Speaker, they will nominate someone less “right wing” soon, someone like Steve Scalise or even former Congressman Lee Zeldin. They would have someone very well spoken offer the nomination with a heartfelt plea on the floor after garnering support from some of the members currently supporting McCarthy. As McCarthy sheds votes and shows no signs of recovery, he will be obliged to stand down.
Hannity knows this. That’s why he’s trying so hard to subvert them now knowing in the long run they will prevail.
Conservatives have been compromising for decades at the behest of Swamp mouthpieces like Hannity. It has only worked to keep the Establishment firmly in control. I would argue with a near certainty that Hannity’s forked tongue is, at least in part, what got Donald Trump to back people like Dr. Mehmet Oz and now Kevin McCarthy in the first place.
Here’s the first part of the interview. Admittedly, I couldn’t make it all the way through listening to him constantly interrupt Boebert while simultaneously claiming she was talking over him. Anyone who can stand to watch the whole thing can do so here.
How long has @seanhannity been owned by the Uniparty Swamp? Has it been his whole career or did this just happen in the last few years?
Either some entity has leverage over him, someone's paying him to be this way, or he's always been a serpent who hates this nation.
— JD Rucker (@JDRucker) January 5, 2023
The strategy Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and their fellow conservatives are engaged in is working properly. Soon, they will nominate a consensus candidate and McCarthy will stand down. It’s not ideal, but we need someone better than McCarthy to hold the gavel.
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