Sundance is citing a report in The Hill:
McCarthy to meet with Trump in Florida
Former President Trump is expected to meet this week with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in Florida, a source familiar with the meeting confirmed to The Hill.
The rendezvous, which was first reported by Punchbowl News, comes as McCarthy attempts to manage simmering tensions within the House GOP caucus amid the fallout from the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol and Trump's ensuing impeachment for his role in the mayhem.
McCarthy's office did not respond to a request for comment.
There's a bit more at the link, but not too much of substance--except, of course, that Trump has bruited the idea of supporting primary challenges of his GOP opponents.
It's anyone's idea how the GOPe thought helping to install Zhou Baiden would somehow magically eliminate Trump from the national--or, indeed, the world--stage. I have to agree with sundance that there's been a rude awakening for GOPe leaders like McConnell, and would be fence straddlers like McCarthy. After a short lived period of euphoria and boldness, they find themselves, as sundance says, essentially without leverage. Trump holds all the cards for now, and for the foreseeable future:
The MAGA movement President Trump inspired is itching to break down the republican party in the next set of primary races. McCarthy has no leverage; the establishment GOP have no leverage; the republican national committee have no leverage. President Trump can destroy the republican party with a few targeted and direct words.
No leverage is the lesson from the House fake impeachment vote and the Senate vote instigated by Senator Rand Paul. Those with increased leverage are those who have maintained their bridges to Trump.
Worth noting: Of the five senators who voted against Trump, two will be up for election in 2022: Murkowski and Toomey. Both could face real anger in their respective states from Republican voters.
On a slightly different note. Zhou Baiden is saying that climate change will be the most important aspect of "his" foreign policy. Of course we know that Zhou Baiden has essentially no say in foreign policy--that will be dictated by CIA, DoS, and the Joint Chiefs. To the extent that the US immerses itself in climate change policy, to that extent we will be seeing a weak America.
I'm sure no one is missing this. Every EO and every public mumbling by Zhou Baiden reinforces that his regime's priorities will be everything that America voted against when it elected Donald Trump--twice. As the pious lady might have said to Darwin, It's hoaxes all the way down. Including the Dem flailing as they attempt to somehow extricate themselves from the Covid Hoax. I predict an increasingly rocky road ahead leading up to 2022.
UPDATE: This is "no leverage": Poll: Majority of GOP Voters Think Donald Trump Should Start a New Party. The GOPe knows that Trump still holds the nuclear codes. And the only reason he could have for not using them would be cooperation from the party.
Unlike the common thought, it’s not a cult of personality, but the same basic ideas that Trump has publicly expressed since at least 1980.
ReplyDeleteI have never voted for someone just because of them, but because of the ideas they express. Most times, these people I have voted for either fell short or flat out ran away from those ideas.
Trump, on the other hand, has been the outlier either accomplishing, worked on, or attempted to enact his 40 years of views that became MAGA.
Would I vote for Trump if he started a new party? You betcha! 100%!
Would I vote for Trump again if he stayed in the Republican party? You betcha! 100%!
But, I would not vote straight Republican ticket, that’s a fact.
The GOP better be scared.
What’s ironic is what is appearing to be happening to the GOP is exactly what happened to Trump. The party is getting assaulted from without and within.
Fitting.
Trump has had the same views for a long time, and the secret of his success is his views coincide with the views that a majority of people with common sense hold! This is the same secret of Rush Limbaugh's success, I believe. Rather than being opinion 'shapers,' they focus and give a voice to what millions of people think about issues.
DeleteThey're not snake oil salesmen or empty suits trying to convince you of some bogus claim. That's the real power of Trump, and that's something none of the phony RINO's can do! They're empty people who are always trying to figure out what they need to fake to succeed, cause they have no core beliefs or backbone to be a leader.
A leader gives voice to the followers beliefs and charges ahead with reckless indifference to win the battles. Cruz, Rubio, Mitch the Snake, Pence, all the rest- want to play it safe and would rather lose than risk anything. They like it comfy. Trump is going through a lot of trials and tribulations, but as more and more people figure out what's going on, he'll have another day, most probably.
Not members of a cult, but Americans who have held similar views about our country, what it should and should not be. Shared patriotism, shared political philosophies. As it turned out, we found someone who had shared those beliefs for some time. It was a natural attraction. We found Trump.
DeleteWhy did Trump not use this leverage previously? It's obvious the GOPe are aware of it, or they would have convicted him in impeachment 1.0.
ReplyDeleteHe could've used it to get proper CIA and FBI directors, AG etc. Could've used it to get 'em all not to certify on Jan. 6.
I honestly reckon Trump is tired and happy to retire, and to burn it all down now. And good on him.
His big chance to burn it all down now was, if he pardoned Assange.
DeleteHis leverage now is so much less, than before 20 Jan.
It seems evident the inside the Beltway GOPe believed the initial MSM propaganda based on how they reacted to the capital invasion and blamed Trump for the chaos. Now that the dust has settled and Trump is emerging from the ashes as the unstoppable political force that he is, they are backtracking and stumbling over themselves to get back in line (only for their political survival for some); all except for the TDS infected senators Romney and Murkowski, and Collins who won her final six year reprieve as the senate weather vane, Toomey who is a dead man walking if he runs again, and the vile Sass whom no one knows anyway... Trump is the king maker and McCarthy is now coming to the realization that his position rests with Trump. Those that voted for impeachment will be cleansed from the party in 2022 if not sooner.
ReplyDeleteWith the negative impact Plug's dictates will have on the economy and employment, the mid-terms could not look better for a massive response to the fraud sitting in the White House - especially with Trump on the sidelines giving the play-by-play on how America is suffering under these America Last fraudsters.
DJL
No, 2022 (House etc. races) voting will be easy for Dems to fix, since they'll not need to concentrate on a race for the WH.
DeleteIndeed, they will get much better at it now that the holes have been pointed out. Practice makes perfect.
DeleteTom S.
The 2020 election was thrown by five counties. The counties turned the states and they stole the election. House votes don't work that way. The counties that stole the election are already blue. They can't affect other counties.
DeleteThe reason the Dems were so brazen and open about stealing the election is to undermine confidence in the system and get people to not vote. If you don't vote, if you don't vote anti-democrat, you're being their useful idiots.
You don't have to 'love' the Republicans to use them as your bitch. If you vent your hate on the Republicans in Congress, you'll throw out the Republican base in the states. That turns the red states blue and you'll REALLY hate that.
The Republicans are the only viable option for opposing the Democrats because of their strength at the state level. Fix the federal republicans in PRIMARY ELECTIONS!
PS: I went to the local Republican township meeting this week. It was better than I had hoped. The group is small (I'm in a Dem district) and they need help. Go join your local township committees and push your own agenda. Take your friends and you set the agenda.
>Why did Trump not use this leverage previously?
ReplyDeleteFirst two years Trump did not realize how dysfunctional / backstabbers, etc. the GOPe was in congress. Ryan failed, is the nicest way to put it.
Plus Trump had impeachment hanging over his head, so he to play a little nice with the GOP Senate. After Trump took out a couple of sitting Senators in the mid terms, McConnell started to give Trump the time of day.
Trump figured out the game more in the last two years, but since the Dems had the house (Thanks Paul Ryan!), he did not have a huge amount of leverage. And I don't think he realized the depth of corruption of the deep state till after the last election. I am still in awe, that it seems McConnell prefers the Dems to be in charge of the Senate. Just amazing.
So the GOPe with the Democrats managed to get Biden into office, by hook and by crook. And ALL OF TRUMPS SUPPORTERS noticed that.
Especially how McCarthy was pushing instead of Impeachment, having Trump censured.
And the GOPe, including McCarthy, has been in a rude awakening that Trump is not going away...
When a new CEO joins a corporation, it is well nigh impossible to start firing key people right and left unless he has a stable of trusted people standing by to plug into those positions. Firing sounds cool and decisive, but much goes into that decision process at the highest levels… He may have underestimated the loyalty some had to the previous regime, or just the Dem Party, but the alternative would have been to bury his desire to move forward in paranoia and looking over his shoulder. Corporate business - especially the one he was in - is very tough. The federal government - all three branches - is much tougher.
DeleteOne of my favorite quotes comes from a favorite book by Robert Grudin:
"Chess, which exists predominantly in two dimensions, is one of the world's most difficult games. Three-dimensional chess is an invitation to insanity. But human relationships, even of the simplest order, are like a kind of four-dimensional chess, a game whose pieces and positions change subtly and inexorably between moves, whose players stare dumbly while their powerful positions deteriorate into hopeless predicaments and while improbable combinations suddenly become inevitable. To make matters worse, some games are open to any number of players, and all sides are expected to win.”
(Time and the Art of Living)
I think what has been a real wakeup call is the reaction to the House vote for impeachment, despite the "insurrection" narrative.
DeleteLiz Cheney has become a lightning rod for anti-RINO ire, and it has scared the hell out of GOP.corp.
Tom S.
Yet, at one time, we did fire all.
DeleteHeck, firing en masse is a time honored Democrat tradition that JoeBama has limitedly employed.
Texas, yes - and Joebama had a whole raft of Obama-Biden retreads ready to fill all those spots.
DeleteI can’t wait for Trump to hit the campaign trail for the midterms.
ReplyDelete@Mark et al
ReplyDeleteBacktracking to my questions about Attorney General Barr...
I agree with the sentiment regularly expressed here, that Barr was, for lack of a better term, a disappointment.
What happened? Barr joined the Administration promising to get to the bottom of the concerns over predication of the various investigations into the Trump Campaign. Many of us believed him, especially when he shut down the Mueller investigation. But he fell far short of delivering prosecutions let alone convictions let alone answers.
And then he seemed to turn on Trump, taking various actions (all well documented here) which quite simply undermined the Executive Barr professed such fealty to.
And then what of Trump? He gave Barr a blank check to release all of the classified documentation relating to Obamagate. Barr never did this and Trump never forced him to.
And then time ran out. Or perhaps Barr ran out the clock?
So many questions.
I wonder if Trump's next book will answer those questions.
Deleteand as far as I know, Trump hasn't said any unkind words about Barr, compared to his scathing remarks about most everyone else who he had to let go.
DeleteKind of odd, doesn't fit the pattern.
Frank
The "stonk" thing "habbening" now is fun to watch.
ReplyDeleteGood for Cassandra for keeping this question alive. Barr was certainly a hero for shutting down the Mueller witch-hunt, but where was he when the FBI obtained the Hunter Biden laptop at roughly the same time that the impeachment farce began? Had the contents of that laptop become public, it would have been clear that the Ds were attempting to impeach Trump for what the Biden’s were actually doing. Yet Barr was nowhere to be seen. Add this to the list of “disappointments” Cassander mentions and it is clear that there is so much more to this story. How can you protect the office of the presidency while at the same time undermining the actual occupant by not revealing the actual corruption?
ReplyDeleteAletheia
I am going to take something of a contrarian position concerning his "shutting down" the Mueller circus. I think that Mueller, and his masters, recognized that, "there was no there there," to quote one of the principal hoaxers. They had no evidence and could manufacture none that wasn't glaringly obvious. But, they had used two years and millions of dollars for a nothing burger. What they needed was a new face, someone with the credentials, and the nerve, to let them back away without appearing to be utterly corrupt or completely incompetent. Barr fit that to a tee. He is recommended, Mitch gives his nod, and with much gravitas, and an occasional whimsically wry smile, he tames the beast and forces a "Report", which Mueller delivers with many a harrumphs and frowns and complaints that it is too rushed. The Report is a nothing-burger regarding criminal collusion with Russia, but has a vague insinuation of "obstruction", to be left to Pelosi/Schiff to act upon, or not. In any case Mueller and Co. were free to hit the talk shows and tout the slander that Trump really was corrupt, but Barr protected him. All a shadow play. Barr came back to protect "The Executive", an apparent labor of love. He did that deftly and successfully. What must be kept in mind is that to members of the DS, or the Interagency, "The Executive" does not include the occupant of the Oval Office, who is temporary, interchangeable, and whose only job is to not get in their way.
DeleteTom S.
@Tom S
DeleteI'm not sure how contrarian your point of view really is.
For me (and probably many of us), its closer to what I might call the increasingly consensus revisionist perspective on Bill Barr.
I would agree with you that for the Deep State and the Lawfare crowd, who are now the keepers of our 'norms', the Executive is not an actual person who was elected by the people to execute (through his agents) the policies he ran on, but, as you say, an abstraction. The actual person can be ignored if his policies are 'wrong'.
Increasingly, the evidence suggests that Barr did just this. The theory, increasingly pushed by the Left but found nowhere in the Constitution, that the Attorney General is somehow independent of the President supports this point of view.
It will be very interesting to see how the Deep State reacts to the current Incarnation of the Abstraction who is breaking records for authoritarian executive order-giving. The Deep State obstructed Trump's execution of his policies every step of the way but because the Deep State is in fact authoring Biden's policies presumably the Deep State will allow the Executive to execute. Even where the Executive clearly exceeds its powers (such as where it authorizes illegal immigration. There are many other examples).
Trump couldn't investigate Ukraine because it violated the policy of the Interagency (as you say), but Biden can suspend compliance with federal immigration law, the law of the land.
Normally I would expect a flood of lawsuits to follow Biden's overreaches, but today lawyers who take and bring such cases can expect to be intimidated, doxxed and cancelled.
Not a good situation.
During Barr's confirmation, the Senators must have been secretly laughing their heads off at their clever charade.
DeleteFrank
He ran out the clock. There was no stomach for where it was going to lead. FBI, DOJ, CIA. Sitting senators. Of both parties actively plotting to overthrow a duly elected president. Someone who had the stones to upset that apple cart would not get confirmed. If even a low level staffer gets jail time that will be amazing. In a better world tar, feather, lampposts etc. that is not our world
ReplyDeleteI think too few people understand the DC culture for what it is. Guys like Barr and any other whom have spent any time within the wheelhouses are always going to side with the insututions. It's a protection mechanism that absolutely MUST be maintained.
ReplyDeleteThe second that dam gets a crack the flood will be unstoppable.
Watch the Clinesmith case tomorrow, 0-10 days, in follow up he will land a swank job with a NGO making 250k a year.
Failing upwards, that's our motto!