Judging Freedom - Republicans in Disarray - a Good Thing_

Episode Date: January 3, 2023

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Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Tuesday, January 3rd, 2023. It's about 10 minutes before noon here on the east coast of the United States. In Washington, D.C., about a half an hour from now, the Senate of the United States will be sworn in, the new senators, and the House of Representatives will be sworn in, and then the House proceeds to elect a speaker. The speaker requires 218 votes. The leading Republican candidate and presumptive speaker is Kevin McCarthy, a moderate Republican from California, a Republican who's been a part of every

growth of government legislation since he first entered the Congress in 2016, a Republican who is now well into the Republican establishment. He is opposed by about a dozen mavericks, conservative and libertarian Republicans who believe that enough is enough and that Republicans need to stand for something, that they're not just Democrat-lite. What does that mean? Well, that means that if five of the 218 don't vote, there are 222 Republicans.

If five of them don't vote for Kevin McCarthy, then he's not as identified with the establishment of the Republican leadership of the Republican Party, which really stands for nothing. Same thing happened 20 years ago when Bill Clinton was president and Newt Gingrich took over the Republicans in the House. In those days, he was the leader of the conservatives and the libertarians. He ousted the moderate establishment Republican leadership, and then he became the establishment. How do I know that? Here's what he said to my former colleagues and still buddies on Fox and Friends just a few hours ago this morning. They're not voting against Kevin McCarthy. They're voting against over 215 members of their own conference. Their conference voted overwhelmingly, 85%, for McCarthy to be speaker. So this is a fight between a handful of people and the entire rest of the conference. And they're saying they have the right to screw up everything. Well, the precedent that

sets is so do the moderates, so do the members from Florida. I mean, any five people can get up and say, I'm now going to screw up the conference too. The choice is Kevin McCarthy or chaos. Well, the choice is Republican in name only, Republican just a fancy, crazy, funky way of spelling Democrat, or serious Republicans who really believe in limited government and maximum individual liberty, to the debt limit of the federal government, which basically is a tax on the future, every day, all the time, and run the government that way. Is Kevin McCarthy the person to stand up to Joe Biden and the Senate Democrats? Probably not. We'll see how courageous the Republicans come. Newt, I love you. We've been buddies for years, but you're not the same Newt that kicked the establishment Republicans out

in the Clinton years. You're now an establishment Republican yourself. Judge Napolitano, judging freedom.