We're back with another edition of The Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Emily Dashinsky,
culture editor here at the Federalist. As always, you can email the show
at radio at the Federalist dot com, follow us on exit fdr LST,
make sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcasts, and of course to the
premium version of our website, The Federalist dot Com as well. I'm joined
today by Christopher Bedford, who's got some cool stuff in the works. Maybe
we can talk about it next week, but for now, we have a
big show because actually, sort of Chris, we end up talking a lot
about Capitol Hill drama. And I think it's because by the end of the
week there's so much Capitol Hill drama to review, and especially the drama between
sort of leadership, whether it's leadership on the Senate side or leadership on the
House side. Everyone knows what happened with Kevin McCarthy over the last year.
It hearkens back to what happened to both John Bayner and Paul Ryan, and
really all of this is coming to a head as we sit here on Capitol
Hill right now, even more so than I would argue it did with Kevin
McCarthy. Now that Mike Johnson is doing all kinds of tactical parliamentary maneuvers,
these sorts of things, we have a lot to talk about, basically,
So thanks Chris for being here. And I'm all, we're about to roast
me. Well, I know you told me you were about to roast me,
so yeah, before we get down to business, we have some business
to attend. Yes, tell me about that electric bicycle parked at the bottom
of the stairs. I think it looks like it comes from our EI.
It's Maria. That's right. Well, I think a lot of listeners would
be surprised to hear that both Chris and I are somewhat into Cycling's I'm newer
to it than you are. You've been doing for years. But I live
really close to a great bike trail, so why not take advantage of it?
And yeah, I got it. I got recently a great deal forty
percent off on an e bike from RII, and what I like about it
is that it has five levels of the e bike part, so you can
go, this is your electric scooter. I've had a lot of electric scooters.
I've had many many medicare right off on this. Yeah, This is
my HSA exactly a shopping cart attachment for when you're at the store. It
does not the DC government. Funny enough, actually I forgot about this actually
has a credit if you buy e bikes you can get like six hundred bucks.
Why not if you buy a normal bike for like green energy? I
don't know. You're right, it should also be for that too, don't.
Don't people understand where electric power comes from? It doesn't. It's not
like harness lightning. No. One of my favorite fossil fields, one of
my favorite posts from one of my favorite congressmen. Actually, Thomas Massey is
him. He drives back and forth, or some people might not know this,
but he drives back and forth from DC and Kentucky in a Tesla and
he's basically a genius and he built his own electric engineer. Yeah crazy,
He's like one of the only people that's ever been able to I think he
like reverse engineered the Tesla whatever. I'm not going to get into something,
sound like an idiot if I do. But he drives back and forth,
and he took a picture of himself charging his tesla like halfway along the route,
and he was like feeling up on some Kentucky coal because that's where they
don't think about it. They don't understand where the electric comes from. And
it's like, look, it's renewable. What are you talking about. It's
beautiful. I don't know. It was like this is probably gonna offend some
people, but it went viral last week. The the Orthodox Jewish lamp that
doesn't break Sabbath rules. I didn't see this. You're not allowed to turn
on a switch because in that's doing work. Oh right, okay, but
this light's always on. You just turn you just turn a shade to make
it so it's visible, or turn it off. And it's like being sold
now. And I saw this electrician explaining. He's like, listen, electricity
lights are always on. The electricity is always flowing. The switch is just
whether or not. There's always going through your house. Like you turn off
every light in your house, Electricity is always moving through. That's why.
That's why if you want to be like the real hardcore dad who wants to
crack down and the electric us, you have to unplug all the plugs,
even if the thing that's plugged into is off because it's going. And he's
like, listen, this this lamp that says the light's always on. The
light kind of already is always on. It's just you turn this, so
you switch this. It's it's the same thing. It's still flowing. Yeah,
yeah, thanks for that lesson. I guess stupid things about electricity every
day. Well, yes, there's no question the entire green energy movement is
predicated on the this intense push for lithium ion batteries and like electric like is
the same thing with U one of it? I don't. It's again gonna
make me send dumb. But one of the funny things I realized recently is
that Joe Biden is on the one hand shifting towards an industrial policy for chips
manufacturing, and then on the other he has this like major green energy push
and the semiconductors like fuel massive uses of energy, and its just like is
the stupidest, stupidest possible contradiction. Like they're taking money, they're taking money,
they're they're getting they're they're incentivizing layoffs in Detroit, they're also doing this.
It's just idiotic. All things is a scam. And I always kinda
I kind of envy it because when you see Republican corruption it's always like really
dumb things. It's like menento style stuff like gold bars, good stuff,
but uh, old school corruption, whereas like the smart leftists are making billions
on these green energy scams. Yeah, and it does take us. So
what do you an electric? Why not just be a regular? I think
it's like, you know, listen, there's all these degrees of jerk when
it comes to bicyclinge yep, Like if you don't have a fixed gear with
no kickstand, you're not a real bicycle. I know, I know,
but uh why electric? So that's what grinds my gears. You don't live
in the city anymore, but I still do, but I did for twenty
years, right, But I just think it's also a nice option to have
when you're going somewhere where, So like, for example, on Capitol Hill,
parking is a disaster, especially if you have last week, for example,
I had a meeting in one of the Senate buildings and you could not
park anywhere near a Senate building and it was you know, I had to
get there quickly. So it just I live on Capitol Hills. Time is
usually a struggle. Well. But also as a woman, you don't want
to like I know, you know, but your if you sweat a lot,
like your hair and makeup gets messed up. And it's not like a
really do much with her. It's a different thing. So anyway, I
don't know why you felt the need to roast me for this, but we
also wanted to give a shout out to Bill McMorris previous Federalist radio guests for
what his fifth baby, six sixth baby coming right now, I mean not
here quite yet, coming right now. And uh we just hope that his
wife Teresa supports him in this difficult time. It's been hard for Bill.
Yeah, well, God blessed Bill McMorris family. When you're a guy in
the hospital, there's not like bed, it's like a plastic chair. You
don't get any of the drugs. It's hard. Drugs are all to the
women. Like if you try to order a fruit service, they're like,
that's not for you. My brother actually did that. Like they rolled in
with because COVID he wasn't allowed to leave the hotel room. They're rolled in
with like two piezas and three buffalo wings. It's like she can't eat.
He's like, just leave it here. But uh yeah, I mean when
a guy is in the hospital, was why deliver and he's got to go
down like two or three floors and like a crossing of the building to find
a venue machine. It's tough. You can't bring your PS five. Yeah,
you cannot do that now. Terry said he was going to bring it
to the hospital for Bailey, bring one, Terry Shilling, Yeah, Lisbeth's
product guest. Yes, Well, you know, we were just we were
just talking about Thomas Massey, and I actually think Thomas Massey has taken a
stand this week that's been I really hesitate to use the word courageous about members
of Congress, and maybe courageous isn't the right word, Probably principled, because
it's not courageous to do exactly what your voters want you to do. And
that's what Thomas Massey is doing. That's what Mike Johnson is not doing.
Chris. So, by the time this airs in a couple of hours,
we usually try to get these Thursday podcasts up right after we tape them because
we're talking about, for the most part, developments that are ongoing on Capitol
Hill. But by the time this airs, things could have changed. As
of right now, Mike Johnson is orchestrating one of the I'm just gonna say
weird. I mean, one of the weirdest attempts at placating the Republican base
that I've seen from Republican leadership in a long time. What about you you
mean with this vote? Yes, the rules package. So let's break this
down a little bit. He's he wants to do four bills because everyone wants
to pass kind of five five bills. Well, there's four with the MERV
m hmm, right, okay, multi re entry vehicle or something. Yeah,
there's there's a whole package. I thought four were going through the rules
at once, and then there was one going through on a separate rule.
Yeah, okay, perfect. So what we mean by that is is actually
kind of newsworthy in and of itself. Do you have the thread from the
Georgetown professor pulled up? And now? Yeah, basically I'll pull up I
can kind of explain that he has. So since he came into office at
the end of October, he has been promising that there's not going to be
any movement on all these foreign aid packages that the Uniparty, the war Parties,
the Democrats, Republicans, the White House want until they secure America's border,
which is something they don't want to do. And he's stuck fast on
that for months and months, and we have it out of his own month
mouth, and eventually apparently it's got worn down. I feel like Republicans kind
of treat negotiations like they're holding their breath will Democrats just stare at them,
and after like a couple of months, Republicans just pass out blue in the
face with the Democrats, just like Tibit to Martini, that was a hard
negotiation. So he took the only leverage the Republicans have had over the last
couple of months to get anything done on the border has been to say,
you don't get to send money to your friends abroad and your wars abroad,
even if they really are friends. You don't get to send any money to
security brought into you solve security problems in this country. And that's just insane
to these you know, Pentagon hawks, who like Americans will die. It's
like, no, shoot, they will here right now, murders, fentanyl,
drug cartels. It's insane in Maryland, in DC, in Virginia like
right now. But uh so, he held that leverage for a few months
and he entirely surrendered it yesterday. Officially. We knew it was coming for
a little bit where he said, all right, well, we're going to
send ninety five billion dollars across four bills to Ukraine, to Taiwan. But
the president can take that for Ukraine if he wants to Israel. That's right,
that is part of the bill. Yeah, to Gaza, because the
Democrats aren't going to vote for iron Dome defensive missiles unless they can give money
to Hamas. I guess. Debt it keeps you tossing and turning at night.
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com. Zapmidebt dot com. It doesn't have. Republicans are dissatisfied with any
sort of dans getting some money on the cause of aid. Republicans think there
aren't enough sort of safeguards and how the bill is written to prevent there's no
safeguard in DC. That could be moss where you send money to come most
controlled territory and say, by don't you that not a new problem problem.
He lived all these things together. Plus he threw in the TikTok legislation,
which I'm kind of excited about. He threw in some legislation about seizing assets
from the Russian bank Central Bank, which I think is kind of stupid and
dangerous when the dollar is faltering this much, so they could pay for the
war in Ukraine. I think JD Vance was Jdvances like basic kind of come
out against that, and we're kind of threatening the dollar here every time we
use our might as the dollar to seize other countries who don't like assets that,
why would they want to trade with us anymore? We use our currency
J jd Vance. Yes, he's bought and sold, bought and paid for
by Lemon Putin. Of course. You know what's funny is because they're bringing
that back out with MASSI. I don't know if you've seen this. It
is disgusting. That's so gross. I mean, Jadie Vince actually has a
very big Ukrainian constituency in state. He's not he's far from behind and paid
for by the Russians. But he's putting all those things together and then he
says, oh yeah, by the way, it's like a little head pat
we're going to do a separate immigration bill which won't go anywhere. It's a
complete and total betrayal. It's like he couldn't hold his breath as long as
someone who wasn't even trying to hold their breath. I don't understand it.
The America security is obviously dead last all these other things. I mean,
I'm not going to argue with some of these guys, even though I do
disagree on some of it, that there are security issues abroad that need America's
care, but the number one issue is right here at home, and they
refuse to do it because of part of some politics and Republican weakness. I
find Johnson's decision making pattern utterly bizarre over the last couple of sks, cowardly
a weakness. You know, it made sense for a while because he has
a very slim margin. It's getting slimmer amid because it's only time talk about
George. It's so, But neither of us would disagree that he's in a
precarious position that is going to at some point if you want to pass bills,
demand necessarily some negotiation with Democrats. Now that isn't to say he needs
to capitulate entirely to Democrats. The fact that we're having this conversation right now,
it's happened because he's sort of been doing these like minibuses and then like
FISA, for example, got last week he flip flopped on FISA after going
into the skiff the sea, the skiff that that that that that place for
you go to talk to your intelligence handlers, where they tell you information that
you can't repeat to anyone and you're not allowed to really or incapable of verifying.
He just always goes it always goes one way. It's never like Americans
will die if we don't secure this border. It's always like Americans will die
if we don't send tanks to Ukraine. Yeah, always that Well, he
invoked nine to eleven. He said he went into the skiff and came out
with a different perspective on Fiza because he doesn't want another nine eleven to He's
scared, which is sat I mean you could write that as satire. It's
we are I changed my mind on the Fourth Amendment because I went into the
intelligence briefing and came out worried about I mean, it's just the idea that
we can't prevent nine to eleven without seven O two is outrageous. There's so
many intelligence failures leading up to nine to eleven that had nothing to do with
violating our Fourth Amendment rights. Tucker had a great line last week about it,
where you said, every person who spent any time in DC, notice
the classified intel briefing in the skiff is merely a leash to call around your
neck, attached to a chain, and the other end is your handler tonan
of you telling you that if you don't go along with the program, Americans
will die. Yeah, well so. And Johnson's decision making pattern I honestly
understood up until this last couple of weeks because I you know, I didn't
agree with it, but I saw it he was trying to do, which
was to walk a balance beam. Essentially. The last time he came out
hard was February twenty eighth, was the last time he said no, right
right on Ukraine? You're talking about ye on Ukraine? Yes, because it
was always about the border, of the border, of the border. The
House Republicans have passed a good bill, HR two, which had serious reforms
to the asylum process, not the dumb Langford you know, superficial non reforms
that are dressed up as reforms that aren't actually reforms that in fact make the
situation worse. This HR two is a decent bill. So saying, you
know, Democrats have to come to the table on HR two or we're not
passing more aid to Ukraine. Mike Johnson insisted on that, and suddenly he
just completely dropped that. Not suddenly, I guess it's been over the last
couple of months, but he suddenly flipped on FISA. And what I really
don't get, Chris, is how he's tonally been handling this. He's asked
by a reporter on the Hill this week, you know, if he's going
to resign. That's what Thomas Massey suggested. He said, resign like Bayner
so that we have the ability to sort of find a consensus for a new
leader. That's Massey said. He was joining Marjorie Taylor Green's motion to vacate
this week. They still have to privilege that to demand a vote on it.
That's a parliamentary way that it works. But he joined it, and
he suggested that Johnson resigns. So Johnson gets asked about it, he says,
I'm not resigning and basically rails against conservatives and says that's not productive.
Blah blah blah. He stopped talking like he was one of them for a
while. He was talking like he was one of them. And this is
one of the things, by the way, that Kevin McCarthy understood for all
of the policy and substance flaws of Kevin McCarthy Stylistically, he understood that he
needed to talk in solidarity with the rest of his conference and say the border
is out of control. We understand the border is out of control. Democrats
aren't coming to the table on HR two. They won't do it. You
have to even play hardball rhetorically, and he's not even doing that. Is
Molly Hemingway of the Federalist Join me my husband, Mark of Real Clear Investigations,
twelve time All American Swimmer, Riley Gaines, Aaron Wren of The American
Conservative, and others for the twenty twenty four Making the Case Conference Friday July
twelfth and Saturday July thirteenth at Concordia University, Chicago. Learn more at Issues
Etc. Dot org. Making the Case July twelfth and thirteenth in Chicago,
Issues Etc. Dot org. You know, according to Congressman Bishop, he's
right now planning to work with Democrats to kill the motion of AKA Earl.
Yeah, yeah, I mean that's the I mean that is that's not stebbing
on. You're not stabbying them in the back. You're stebbing them right between
the eyeballs. That's what that is. I mean. So the motion of
ak was one of the things everyone sort of the Freedom Caucus demanded it of
Kevin McCarthy rules package that after vote nineteen whatever allowed him to come into office.
And it's always how things were until Nancy Pelosi saw what happened to John
Bayner by Mark Mendelson, Jim Jordan, and Nancy Pelosi got rid of it
because Nancy Pelosi it was all about consolidating power and control, and Republicans said,
we're standing against this. And now Mike Johnson said he was going to
be a better speaker than Kevin McCarthy is coming in and being like, you
guys don't like me. So we're getting rid of the motion to vacate.
That was leaked. So I saw it leaked to Axios. I don't know
how true that is, but if it is true, it's crazy. And
let's get to this. Georgetown professor Josh Hooter's fred on Johnson's decision to use
the Rules Committee to advance these foreign aid bills, which Huter says, is
quote curious. It is not surprising he doesn't have the votes in Rules.
He hasn't for weeks. It also makes him uniquely accountable for betraying his right
flank in a way a discharge petition doesn't the parliamentary translation of this which I
always have to like refresh myself on the parliamentary procedure when we get into these
debates. But Chris, it actually matters because you see, I think kind
of disguised behind the parliamentary language what people's motives are and how they're choosing to
handle different situations. And this is this threat is really helpful for understanding that
the Rules Committee decides how things get voted, on how they go to the
floor, et cetera, rather than simply allowing members heuter continues to sign the
petition or vote against a PQ or other maneuver. Johnson has raised the specter
of forming a procedular procedural coalition with Democrats procedular that's the new one with Democrats
to overrun GOP opposition, potentially the most grievous betrayal of partisan politics in the
modern era. This is a step further than the sins of John Bayner and
Paul Ryan, who were run out of office for using DS to pass spending
bills. Johnson would work with Dems to snuff out opposition from his GOP colleagues.
He's not just ignoring their opposition, he's stamping it out. It runs
counter to decades of procedural tack at tactics and strategies, and hasn't really been
seen since speakers have had to say over the Rules Committee's operations. It also
raises some questions, there's more than one way to move these bills. Johnson
chose the most politically treacherous path, setting aside for a moment that it could
have been a miscalculation. What does he gain from the turmoil? He can
frame rules conservatives as obstructionists and attempt to replace them. And he goes on
and on and says again, there are many ways to pass a bill,
So why Johnson chose the most difficult and politically dangerous path is perplexing to say
the least could not agree with that more. Yeah, it's hard to see.
I mean, he laid out a pretty detailed plan of what he planned
to do, his speaker, he laid out the lines he would not cross.
He's crossed all of them. He's acting. It's kind of governing like
a prime minister with a center left coalition. Yes, yeah, where he's
just got this sun wheeled. There'sit the Freedom Caucus, which is like this
completely its own party with a couple of other members. Then there's a Republican
Party. And originally he had a Freedom Caucus Republican coalition, and now he's
got a Democrat and Republican coalition of government against the Freedom Caucus. And I
felt like, well, I was reading that thread that I was reading a
thread from Mike Lee or a Freedom Caucus person, but those from a Georgetown
professor. Everyone can plainly see that what Mike Johnson is doing is both weird
and a betrayal of the people who agreed to make him speak. He's getting
so much covered from the press you read about any opposition, and I was
reading a lot of different sources yesterday to write that piece I put out at
the Blaze, which is they took out from behind a paywall. Okay,
so anybody wants to read it, because the people were demanding Chris Bedford crying
out, if that we're not going to pay for it, that's exactly your
fans, we want him. But not that not that much, No,
not just completely lost my trianon. Oh yeah, every publication I was reading
I was referring to any opposition of this as hard right, extreme right.
It's like Nicole Mallia Tacas. Really it's just like I tweeted, she had
a great post yesterday being like what are we doing? And I was like,
it's very hard for Johnson to disagree with this argument, for his defenders
to disagree with this armament, And Dave Marcus replied, He's like, and
that's from Nicole Malia Tacas. It's like, yes, she's not Matt Gates.
Everyone can plainly see this from Nicole Mallie's audis except he alone hard right?
Or is he just he's just he's a wild card. It's always sending
in Philadelphia wild card. It doesn't hang out of like the nerds conservative lunch
table. I don't know. I don't know what he does, to be
honest, and I'd rather not. But all that is to say, big
picture, we could have a whole episode on on why because I know we
disagree actually with some of our friends on this. Uh getting rid of Kevin
McCarthy. Do we have any tears for him? No? But tactically did
it turn out to be the smartest move? No? I think it's pretty
clearly, not because he had more waste of time. He had more And
actually, I remember when Mike Johnson ended up being speaker. We were sitting
literally right here and thinking, wow, I think we said it on the
show. We were like, this could be the most conservative speaker. This
is on paper the most conservative and forever forever, and uh, you know,
it was always possible. Embarrassed about I hedged, and I was like,
wow, this guy is a social con but you hedged in the front
of the pack. And that's because leadership has a tendency to corrupt you.
And you know, even if even and it's partially why I didn't Louisiana.
It's partially the great State of Louisiana has attempt to breach a certain type of
politician. But there's also partially I was like nervous about the prospect of Jim
Jordan becoming speaker. Keep them away from that. It's it corrupts people,
even if they're great. And you know, Mike Johnson again, what would
we do if we didn't have Jim Jordan holding panels and giving committee speeches and
then going on Fox News to talk about them? Oh, shut up?
What would we do with Chris still mad about the anti trust stuff taking his
jacket. I just need more wins and less speeches. Well, I mean
they have barely a majority. I don't think Jim Jordan is the problem.
The problem is Mike Johnson. The problem before that was Johnson the problem with
your electric bicycle. Yeah, don't you have like much more questionable bicycle gear
than I do? By the way, So let's just table that for the
moment. But it's not the fault of Jim Jordan. It's the fault.
It's honestly the fault of Republican leadership. It's the faults of on the Senate
side when we talk about this, it's the fault of Mitch McConnell. It's
not the fault of Republican voters. Because Republican voters want the Republican Congress right
now to play hardball. They might not want a total shutdown, but they
want them to play hardball on the border because the border is so bad that
I would hold off any money for anything, millions anything, millions and millions
we know about and millions we don't know about. We are talking people from
adversary countries, from China. We are talking just the people that Josh Holly
was grilling Mayorcis on what was this yesterday or earlier this week that killed the
girl in Georgia. This is this is an emergency, There's no question about
it. It is an emergency on a level that goes beyond Ukraine. All
they want to do is keep you poor and stupid. The Watchdout on Wall
Street podcast with Chris Markowski. Every day Chris helps unpack the connection between politics
and the economy and how it affects your wallet. Some of the media are
trying to tell you it's bad if your prices go down, causing a deflation
spiral. If prices go down, are people really going to hold off on
buying things? Doesn't everyone need groceries. Whether it's happening in DC or down
on Wall Street, it's affecting you financially. Be informed. Check out the
watchdot on Wall Street podcast with Chris Markowski on Apple, Spotify or wherever you
get your podcasts. And it's not just I mean those stories made we were
famous because they were killing American citizens, but the violence that's visited upon the
vast community of legal immigrants in this country who are terrified to go to the
police yes, Yeah, they'll get to port and and will be for years
to come because they're not going to be living in the shadows. Yeah,
and that's that's what the criminals really pray on. I mean, you'll get
you'll get some really tragic murders from time to time of American citizens, but
you'll you'll find some really gruesome stuff in Maryland and Virginia from the actual gangs.
That's that's just not It's not like an American citizen running track at our
college, you know. So it's it's like kind of like what the what
the Joker says in Batman, Like you blow up a truckload of sould and
no one cares, but you blow up one tiny hospital and people freak out
because it's abnormal. Biden has ushered in a shadow society. He's ushered in
a shadow society on a scale that we've never seen before. And he is
now going to tell voters either legalize everyone or you're a bigot. Legalize everyone,
or keep a shadow society living in the shadows perpetually, and then someday
with the hopes that they might legally because nobody is going to going to suggest
that he will deport I know, I'm sure where you don't have to live
in the shadows. It's back the way you came. Yes, But he's
also wildly destabilized those countries because everyone gets here via human trafficking, and so
those countries are now human trafficking that profits that profits one thing and one thing
only illegal cartels. So those countries just in the last couple of years have
come so fully under the control of cartels, or so so powerfully under the
control of those cartels, that they're completely destabilized unless they have boucele And I
don't even the quote from the nineteenth century Mexican president is poor Mexico, so
far from God and so close to the United States. And all we can
hear is Mike Johnson capitulating on you know, saying, well, we can't
do anything about the border, so you're gonna have to fund Ukraine to fund
Israel. That's it. That's the bottom line. The best I can do
is suitan Christopher Bedford. Oh, we'll be back here next week, I'm
sure with more. Thank you for running back. Maybe you will. You
did last week. All right, you've been listening to another edition of The
Federalist or a radio hour Emily Trshinski, culture editor here at The Federalist.
We'll be back soon with more. Until then, he delivers a freedom and
anxious for the fray