Republicans are going down a path to crazy that voters have never seen before, argued former GOP strategist Tim Miller on MSNBC Friday evening, as shown by their behavior at President Joe Biden's latest State of the Union Address the previous day, and how House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wasn't willing or able to keep members in line.
And perhaps the lawmaker who best exemplifies this, he said, is Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX), who after redistricting found himself in a brutally gerrymandered congressional seat much redder than the one he was originally elected to — and adjusted his behavior accordingly.
"It's clearly the case that there's not a lot of control that leadership has," said anchor Chris Hayes. "If they did, if leadership had control, Mike Johnson wouldn't be sitting there. It would have been the guy they elected, Kevin McCarthy, on the 12th ballot. It's still very striking to me that they can't overcome — there was all this reporting that like they're gonna tell him not to heckle and clearly like they understand, it doesn't really look that good, and just the fact that they can't say something sort of profound to me about the state of the party."
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"Yeah, I mean, not only can they not control them, even the members themselves are incentivized to act worse," said Miller. "You know ... Troy Nehls in 2021 in the first State of the Union, is there wearing a mask in a suit asking Joe Biden to work with him on criminal justice reform. Yesterday, he's in like a Chippendales bowtie and a 'Never Surrender' Donald Trump mugshot shirt."
"And so, you know, this is for the members, their incentives are going the way towards being crazy," Miller continued. "And, you know ... there's no leverage. What leverage does Mike Johnson have over these people? All of their incentives are to get fundraising, to get on Fox, to get on Newsmax, to be popular with the base voters is, is to do the crazy stuff, right? The stuff that turns off swing voters, this is, this is like the fundamental bind that Republicans have found themselves in, in, in swing states."
"And so, you know, Mike Johnson has, is the weakest speaker in history," added Miller. "I mean, certainly in modern history, right? Like now he can't get literally anything passed without Democrats, right? Like, there's, there's not a — they could not come up with a bill, I guess, a bill, you know, naming a post office after Donald Trump, he could probably do. But besides that, you know, he doesn't, he's unable to pass anything within the conference, so he has no power to control it."
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Tim Miller on Troy Nehlswww.youtube.com
