Two of President Donald Trump's biggest supporters in Congress were described as being the "Crazy Caucus" by a former Republican congressman.
Former Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) made the characterization of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) while describing the different GOP factions on Capitol Hill during a Thursday evening interview on MSNBC's "The Last Word" with Lawrence O'Donnell.
"What’s going to be different next week when the cameras are on, when your former Republican colleagues take their seats in this hearing?" O'Donnell asked.
"Yeah, they’re going to be playing to the cameras," Jolly replied. "And if there is a political strategy in this for Republicans, they’re playing not to lose the base. They’re not going to win anybody over with their political hijinx. What they have to do is keep the base riled up with their conspiracy theories, cecause they can’t go into 2020 with an eroding base."
Jolly then explained the various GOP factions and how they are attempting to defend Trump.
"There’s the Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz kind of Crazy Caucus argument that this was all another Trump conspiracy theory," he explained. "Mark Meadows (R-NC) seems to make the case it all stopped at [Rudy] Giuliani and [Mick] Mulvaney, never reached the president."
"Ted Cruz (R-TX) said the president never had criminal intent. Senator [Ron] Johnson (R-WI) and [John] Kennedy (R-LA) said this is routine, happens all the time, these quid pro quos," he explained. "Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says the president was simply too stupid to engage in some type of corrupt practice."
In the end, Jolly expected Republicans to settle on a defense that admits Trump did it, but argues it is not an impeachable offense.
Watch:
