Lauren Boebert

Appearing on MSNBC on Tuesday afternoon, former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele criticized the newly-elected House Republican leadership over their plans to gut the ethics committee, which will have the practical effect of protecting members of their own caucus.

Speaking with host Lindsey Reiser, Steele also called out the House Republicans for their proposed investigation that they feel will prove the Department of Justice has been "weaponized."

In a column for the Bulwark, conservative Mona Charen criticized an attempt by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to clean up her image and lay blame for her conspiracy-laden rantings on being fooled by what she read on "the internet."

In the piece where the longtime columnist not too subtly suggested the controversial lawmaker has a "roiling stew of garbage between her ears," Charen said mainstream Republicans shouldn't buy her sudden conversion on the road to power at the side of newly-elected Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

Well, Ol' Ironbutt finally did it: After 14 humiliating votes, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. sucked all the humor out of the Capitol and squeaked into the Speakership on the 15th try, in the dead of night, the proper hour for all shameful moments. Just to make this denouement even more depressing, Republican members of Congress made the disappointing choice to stop Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., in what was the only useful urge he's had in his life, from issuing a beatdown to Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.

While the clown show has been highly entertaining to anyone not named Kevin McCarthy, in all the ways that truly matter, it's been irrelevant. As Heather "Digby" Parton noted Friday at Salon, the members of the insurrectionist caucus "already run everything." That was true long before Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida decided to head up the "Humiliate Kevin" fund-raising scheme. It was true last year, when McCarthy cozied up to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, cementing the QAnon-loving congresswoman as one of the most powerful people on Capitol Hill. It was true when McCarthy tried to get Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on the January 6 committee because he thought Jordan possessed the necessary lying skills to cover for Trump's guilt. It was true even on January 6, 2021, when McCarthy joined 146 other House Republicans to vote to de-certify the 2020 election, even after Donald Trump sent a murderous mob to the Capitol. The media covered the Speaker fight as one between McCarthy and "election deniers," but in truth, McCarthy should be considered an election denier himself.

A federal judge ordered portions of a deposition unsealed in a defamation lawsuit brought against Donald Trump by his rape accuser.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan issued an order Monday in the lawsuit filed by advice columnist E. Jean Carroll against the former president, and she had filed excerpts from depositions given by each of them to support her request to speed up evidence-gathering in the case, reported Bloomberg.

Stemming from the internal fight amongst Republicans over who would be the next Speaker of the House, the growing rift between Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) is showing no signs of slowing down.

As LGBTQ Nation points out, the rift between the two was exposed when Boebert joined her colleagues Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Bob Good (R-VA), and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) in voting against Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for speaker of the House, while Greene was in favor of McCarthy. Speaking to the Associated Press this weekend, Boebert mentioned some of Greene's past conspiratorial rhetoric.

According to a report from William Saletan at the conservative Bulwark, new Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) secured support for his bid to be handed the gavel as Republicans become the majority party in the House by making a bargain assuring a super PAC with strong ties to him will stay out of key GOP primaries in 2024.

It has been widely reported that McCarthy offered a multitude of concessions to far-right members in terms of rules and committee appointments with members of his caucus in return for their votes, but that was not the extent of his backroom dealing as the voting spread out over four days.

Whether he's being put out to pasture, taken to a farm up-state, packed away in the attic, the last week has shown that the Republican Party is ignoring whatever power or control Donald Trump had over the past several years.

Writing for the New York Times, Charles Blow describes the former president as a kind of family patriarch past his prime.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) explained her previous support for the conspiracy theory group QAnon by saying she "easily got sucked into" the ideas.

During a Sunday interview on Fox News, host Howard Kurtz noted that Greene had been stripped of all of her committee assignments because she was found to have promoted conspiracy theories like the idea of "Jewish space lasers."

During an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," Rep Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) walked back accusations that some of his Republican colleagues are "terrorists" but later complained about how they used the opportunity to "degrade" now-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for days while forcing multiple votes.

Speaking with host Jake Tapper, the Texas Republican said the election of McCarthy didn't have to play out the way it did due to hard-right members demands.

According to Punchbowl News founder John Bresnahan, the literal floor fight in the House late Friday night that saw Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) hauled away after he tried to attack Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), was precipitated by a goof in voting by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) on the 14th ballot.

C-SPAN viewers and House members were stunned late Friday when Gaetz voted "present" and denied Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) the House speakership.

The parlor games have begun as to how long House Speaker Kevin McCarthy can survive in his post now that he’s had to give up the power of the gavel to get it.

But one group of Republicans has more to worry about than McCarthy: The 18 GOP members who were elected in 2022 in districts that were won in 2020 by President Joe Biden. If the extremist wing of the House Republican conference gains a fraction of what it seeks, these Congressmen face a two-year nightmare of horrible votes.

Less than 12 hours after Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy overcame 15 votes worth of opposition from far-right members of his caucus to become House speaker, former Republican National Committee head Michael Steele claimed opposition leader Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) did irreparable damage to the GOP.

Late Friday night, Gaetz stunned his fellow House Republicans when he voted "present" on the 14th vote, thus denying McCarthy the victory he thought he had wrapped up. That led to a 15th round where McCarthy finally prevailed.

With Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) assuming the House speakership after 15 grueling roll-call vote counts due to a faction in his own caucus who bitterly opposed him, one GOP adviser claimed that anti-McCarthy GOPers are likely going to pay for putting up a protracted fight.

Speaking with CNN host Alex Marquardt, conservative campaign consultant Alice Stewart explained the bitterness of the speaker vote will linger and that some of their Republican colleagues in the House are furious about their demands for more power.