This morning’s big headline (and it’s just a touch bigger here in CA) just dropped: California Representative and former Speaker Of The House Kevin McCarthy is quitting the Congress by the end of the year. Or the end of the month – whichever comes first. Poor us – we won’t have Kevin to kick around any more. Well, actually, we will get to keep kicking Kevin because we’re not nearly done with him. Sure, sure, Kevin, you can quit politics for some other corrupt money-making scheme. But, you’ll never get to quit what you did and what you’re still doing: committing treason.
Look up the word “spineless” and you’ll find Kevin’s photo. Without a shred of legislative talent – or even intellectual curiosity – Kevin, to his credit, succeeded on his own limited terms: he did become, if briefly, Speaker Of The House. But, to get there, he traded away everything of value. He agreed to wholesale rule changes. Those made the Speaker job impossible not just for himself, but for everyone who’ll follow him. That is, until the Democrats take back the House next year, change the rules themselves and allow the House to govern again.
What, our media keeps asking, is Trump’s hold over guys like Kevin? Why does Kevin humiliate himself so readily to keep Trump’s favor? Ironically, the news media itself answered that question years ago!
And, if they’d only just read their own output – and make it part of the larger narrative – they’d understand exactly why Trump can always say “jump” and the GOP will always respond “how high?” It all comes down to treason. The GOP has known all along that Donald Trump was a traitor.
They knew it even before they nominated Trump that Trump – as POTUS – would pose the gravest national security threat imaginable. And yet, not only did the GOP – and Kevin – know this for a fact, they deliberately kept it a secret, too. From the rest of America.
On June 25, 2016, former Speaker Of The House Kevin McCarthy exited a meeting where our intelligence community briefed members of Congress about Russian president Vladimir Putin’s active attempts to undermine Ukraine’s fragile, new democracy. Kevin exited that meeting and immediately entered another, this one of GOP leaders.
The first thing Kevin said as he entered meeting number two: “There’s two people I think Putin pays – Rohrbacher and Trump – swear to God!”
Now, first of all, that’s a weird thing to say about the person your party is about to nominate to be POTUS – that the leader of a hostile foreign government pays him! That should never be the case. EVER. Here’s the thing though: Kevin mentioned first that Putin paid California Representative Dana Rohrbacher.
Nobody present disputed that, indeed, Rohrbacher had a very cozy relationship with Putin. It was understood: Rohrbacher was Putin’s favorite Congressman. And nobody there argued that point with Kevin.
But then, nobody argued the point that “Putin pays Trump” either. None of the other GOP leaders expressed shock or alarm or outrage. Instead, some of them laughed nervously. That’s why Kevin added “Swear to God!” That wasn’t Kevin shrugging off his own comment, that was Kevin doubling down and insisting that, stone cold fact, Putin pays Trump.
Then Speaker Of The House Paul Ryan stepped forward – he was the leader-iest GOP leader present (second in line to the presidency!) – and shut down the conversation. They were not going to discuss it further. Not because it wasn’t true, but because discussing it wasn’t convenient for the GOP’s plans if America knew it.
Ryan insisted they keep this terrible secret a secret from America. “That’s how we know we’re family”, is how Ryan put it.
What kind of family was Paul Ryan thinking here?
A treasonous family, that’s what. And Kevin McCarthy – though he didn’t know it for sure when he entered the room – knew it for sure when he left it.
Yeah, go ahead and quit Congress, Kevin. Good-effin-riddance! But, don’t go too far. We The People still have a little business with you.
And your GOP co-conspirators.
To commit treason.