Republicans have erected an entire industry based on their inability to 'take the L': op-ed
May 10, 2021, 12:33 PM ET
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Fearing a 2024 ballot headed by now-indicted Donald Trump will cripple the Republican Party's hopes to retain the House and win back the Senate, GOP campaign consultants and moderate Republicans are growing increasingly frustrated that they have been unable to come up with one candidate who can bump the former president off of his perch.
According to a report from Politico, conservatives fear a repeat of 2016 when Trump steamrolled his opposition by breaking all the rules of politics and, now with the dark cloud of criminal investigations hanging over him, he appears to be doing it again.
The Politico report notes that what appears to be a massive influx of 2026 GOP presidential nomination contenders, most with little to no chance of being successful, will make it easier for the former president to land his third nomination.
According to Republican Jason Osborne, the New Hampshire House majority leader, "If those people are all still in the race when January comes around, it’s going to be 2016 all over again, and Trump will win,” before lamenting, "That’s just how it is.”
ALSO IN THE NEWS: 'Start the Kevin McCarthy death-clock' after compromise with Biden: Rick Wilson
Politico reports, "For Trump, the swelling field is just the latest dose of good luck for a politician who has for years played by rules afforded to no other candidate. He has seemingly become inoculated from blowback to scandals both major and minor that would threaten to fatally wound almost anyone else. The GOP graded his own pair of rambling and lackluster announcement speeches — both in 2016 and again in 2022 — on a curve that did not apply to [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis’ shambolic Twitter launch last week."
Conservative strategist Sarah Longwell explained, "For those of us who view Donald Trump as an existential threat, we’re kind of tearing our hair out over this idea of a crowded field and a repeat of the same dynamics in 2016."
Republican strategist Gregg Keller contributed, "Every person that gets into the race helps Donald Trump be the focal point of the race. You would think it would muddy the water — in fact, it does the exact opposite. It focuses more and more attention on him, to the extent he’s beating these people, attacking these people, stealing the limelight in the way he wants to from these people.”
Former Rep. Joe Walsh claimed DeSantis is already faltering which means the party is likely stuck with Trump.
“He’s been an unlikable son of a bitch. He’s not wearing well,” he explained. “So whereas the field would have been Trump and DeSantis, really, four or five months ago, now you’ve got all these other people who are getting in or are going to get in purely because they’ve seen the same thing … They’re all going to make the bet, well, ‘F--k this. I’ll be the Trump alternative.”
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Appearing late Saturday night on MSNBC after it was announced that Preside t Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had reached an agreement "in principle' on a budget deal, former GOP strategist Rick Wilson claimed this could be the beginning of the end for McCathy's speakership.
Sitting in on a panel with guest host Michael Steele, Wilson suggested that McCarthy's decision to compromise with the president to avoid a default that would spin the economy into chaos will not go over well with far-right members of his House caucus who could make a motion to "vacate the chair" to express their displeasure.
Asked by host Steel about what comes next, Wilson stated it was a win for the White House which will not make conservatives happy.
RELATED: 'Crazy cuckoo MAGA people' could sink debt ceiling deal: Dem strategist
"Great night for Joe Biden, great night for the White House even though I think their messaging has been kind of tentative the past few weeks" the Lincoln Project founder began. "I think though we are now going to start the Kevin McCarthy death-clock. He has certainly got a very angry part of his caucus tonight who probably burning up his phone no matter how good it is for the country not to default."
"It's not going to please the chaos caucus in the GOP," he added.
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MSNBC 05 28 2023 07 08 20 youtu.be
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After news broke on Saturday that President Joe Biden and United States House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) struck an agreement to avert an unprecedented default, Democratic strategist Kurt Bardella explained how Biden outmaneuvered McCarthy.
Biden said in a statement late Saturday night that "the agreement represents a compromise, which means not everyone gets what they want. That's the responsibility of governing. And, this agreement is good news for the American people, because it prevents what could have been a catastrophic default and would have led to an economic recession, retirement accounts devastated, and millions of jobs lost."
Likewise, CNN noted that "the agreement – which would raise the debt ceiling for two years, freeze spending on domestic programs, increase spending on defense and veterans issues, impose some new work requirements on federal food assistance programs and change some rules around energy permitting – was meant to include provisions that could sway members of both parties to vote for it. Yet even ahead of the deal's announcement, House members on both the left and right were already balking at some of the details said to be included in the package. Republicans who had demanded larger spending cuts threatened to withhold their support, while Democrats voiced concern that new rules on social safety net programs would send more Americans into poverty."
Appearing on MSNBC, Bardella pointed out that whether the US defaults now entirely depends upon McCarthy's ability to wrangle the "extremists" within his caucus.
"You know, I think actually because of this deal coming right now, the expectation game has been well managed now because the ball's really in Kevin McCarthy's court now. The pressure is on Kevin McCarthy to deliver the votes. If this thing falls apart now, it's going to be because of House Republicans — because of MAGA extremists — successfully holding McCarthy hostage once again, and that they are the ones who will get the blame. We will be done with this both sides narrative that each side has something to lose, that this could blow back on the president. No, no, no, no," Bardella said.
"The president made a deal. The president did what he was elected to do — deliver deals for the American people that protects the most vulnerable among us," Barella continued. "If this falls apart, if we default, if the economy craters, Kevin McCarthy is now the face of this deal. There's a reason why he was the one that was on camera tonight and not the president. So if this goes down because Matt Gaetz or Marjorie Taylor Greene or Lauren Boebert or any of those crazy cuckoo MAGA people decide to tank the US economy, it is one hundred percent going to be at the feet of the Republican Party and not the president."
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\u201cBecause Biden got this deal done, the pressure is now 100% on Kevin McCarthy & Republicans in Congress. If this goes south and Republicans torpedo the deal, they will get all of the blame for the crisis that will ensue. Biden has won the expectations game.\n\n#KurtTakes @AymanMSNBC\u201d— Kurt Bardella (@Kurt Bardella) 1685246942
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