Tangle - The Republican censures.

Episode Date: February 7, 2022

On Friday, the Republican party censured Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL). Cheney and Kinzinger are the only Republicans on the congressional committee tasked with investigating the events of, and leading up to, that day. The RNC has accused them of being engaged in the "persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse," which RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said had "nothing to do" with the violence at the Capitol.While the censure doesn’t formally expel Cheney and Kinzinger from the party, it does resolve to cut off support for them as politicians. The censure says the party will  “immediately cease any and all support of them as members of the Republican Party for their behavior which has been destructive to the institution of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic, and is inconsistent with the position of the Conference.”You can see our previous coverage of the Cheney-Trump dynamic here.You can read today's podcast here.You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here.Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and produced by Trevor Eichhorn. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.Our newsletter is edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo.--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tanglenews/message Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight.

Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle Podcast, the place where you get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking without all that hysterical nonsense you find everywhere else. I am your host, Isaac Saul, and on today's episode, we are going to be discussing the censure of Representative Liz Cheney and Representative Adam Kinzinger. Before we do jump into that, I want to give a quick plug for our story on Friday, our subscriber's

only story, which is about how Joe Biden can get his approval rating back up to 50%. I posed this question on Twitter. What would you do if you were hired by Joe Biden to advise him on improving his approval rating, looked at all the responses, and then I sort of wrote about what I would do as a political hack if I were in those shoes. It got a ton of responses and generated a lot of conversation. I think it was a pretty interesting piece, but you have to subscribe to read it. So if you want to check it out, go to readtangle.com. You'll see it on our homepage. You can just click the article and you'll run into a paywall at some point and then subscribe to support us. All right, with that out of the way, we'll jump into our quick hits today.

All right, with that out of the way, we'll jump into our quick hits today. First up, Senators Joe Manchin, the Democrat from West Virginia, and Senator Lisa Murkowski, the Republican from Alaska, took the unusual step of endorsing each other during a joint interview on CNN. Number two, the massive trucker protest against COVID-19 mandates in Canada is entering its second week, with demonstrations shutting down Ottawa, leading the mayor to declare a state of emergency. Number three, Michael Avenetti, the lawyer who once represented adult film star Stormy Daniels in a lawsuit against Donald Trump, was convicted of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in an attempt to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from

Daniel. Number four, dozens of episodes of Joe Rogan's podcast were removed from Spotify after users dug up clips of him repeatedly using a racial slur on his show. Rogan apologized for the episodes in a video to fans over the weekend. Number five, after weeks out of public view, Chinese tennis player Peng Shui announced her retirement and again recanted her claims of sexual assault against the top Chinese official. Welcome back. Turning to some raw politics. Just moments ago, the Republican National Committee censured two of its own, Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger and Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney. You can be shocked as to what their sin must be, participating in the January 6th Select Committee and not kowtowing

to former President Trump. Two items of interest on the calendar for tomorrow. Mike Pence is speaking at a Federalist Society event in Florida and will likely draw the ire of his former boss again. The Washington Post reports the former vice president will address and defend his decision to certify the election. At the same time, the RNC will be voting on a resolution to censure Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for their involvement in the investigation into January 6th. On Friday, the Republican Party censured Representatives Liz Cheney and Representative Adam Kinzinger amid a banner day for showcasing the party's deepest fractures. First, the Republican National Committee voted to censure Cheney and Kinzinger for their roles

in the January 6th investigation. Cheney and Kinzinger are the only Republicans on the Congressional Committee tasked with investigating the events of and leading up to that day. The RNC has accused them of being engaged in, quote, the persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse, which RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said had nothing to do with the violence at the Capitol. Cheney responded to the censure by saying, I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump. History will be their judge. The censure drew criticism not just from Democrats, but also from some Republicans.

Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney both condemned the censures, and Senator Bill Cassidy tweeted, The RNC is censuring Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger because they're trying to find out what happened on January 6th? Huh? Question mark? Representative Don Young also criticized the censure, as did Governor Asa Hutchinson. On the same day as the censure, former Vice President Mike Pence rebuked former President Donald Trump, who has continued to claim Pence had the power to overturn the 2020 election and keep Trump in office. President Trump is wrong,

Pence said at a gathering of the Conservative Federalist Society in Florida. I had no right to overturn the election. Trump responded with a statement of his own. Just saw Mike Pence's statement on the fact that he had no right to do anything with respect to the electoral vote count other than being an automatic conveyor belt for the old crow Mitch McConnell to get Biden elected president as quickly as possible. The censure and the back and forth between Trump and Pence set off commentary on the state of the Republican Party. With such a unified front against Democrats and so much focus on the divisions inside the Democratic Party since Biden took office, the day was a reminder about some intra-party battles happening on the other side as well. Below, we'll take a look at some reactions-party battles happening on the other side as well.

Below, we'll take a look at some reactions from the left and the right and then my take. A reminder, we have covered some of the Cheney-Trump dynamic before and you can see a link to that previous coverage in today's newsletter. First up, we'll start with what the left is saying. The left says this censure is proof of Trump's total ownership of the party. Many warn about what it means for the future of democracy. Some say Republicans are officially mired in Trump's lies about the election. Greg Sargent said the punishment of Cheney was vile and shows Trump's impact on the party. In recent days, we've learned that Donald Trump fully intended to get the 2020 election, quote, overturned,

that he suggested law enforcement agencies could seize voting machines, and that if elected in 2024, he might pardon those who violently attacked our seat of government, resulting in five dead and scores wounded, Sargent said. So, how is the GOP's Central Committee responding to these developments? With new efforts to punish the two Republicans who most prominently think this conduct should be disqualifying to lead their party and should call forth a serious national reckoning and institutional response in defense of U.S. democracy. The censure resolution is explicit on why Cheney and Kinzinger are seen as such heretics. It declares that they want to destroy Trump rather than help Republicans win the majority,

and that their committee is engaged in the persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse. This is an extraordinary and revealing set of claims, Sargent said. The Republican Party's official, openly declared position is that its long-term prospects are inextricably bound up with securing total impunity for an effort to overthrow our political order at its very foundations. In the New Republic, Michael Tomosky said the Republican Party can't be saved. We don't always grasp the historical importance of events in real time, but rest assured that future historians, assuming the United States remains enough of a democracy to have honest ones, will point to Friday, February 4th as a pivotal day in the party's war on democracy.

Why? What makes the statement passed by Republican National Committee at its winter meeting in Salt Lake City so special? There are many factors. It was passed by voice vote without debate or discussion. The decision was made in about one minute's time. As near as I can tell, it looks like two RNC members have gone on the record saying they shouted no. Bill Palatucci of New Jersey and Henry Barber of Mississippi. Remember those names. I wonder what fate awaits them. In addition, the resolution was accompanied by the passage of a change to Rule 11, which stipulates that the party can't take sides in a competitive GOP primary, Tomasky wrote. That rule was changed specifically so that the party could officially endorse

and provide money and other support to Harriet Hageman, one of several challengers Cheney will face in the Wyoming primary, and the one who has Donald Trump's backing. will face in the Wyoming primary, and the one who has Donald Trump's backing. So, a long-standing party rule has been changed specifically to destroy the career of one person. That, too, has a very Eastern Bloc ring to it. The Washington Post editorial board said the Republican Party is taking an official stand against truth and democracy. Over the past year, Republican leaders have chosen a different course, putting in their lot with the insurrectionists. Since January 6, 2021, senior party officials have gone from acknowledging Mr. Trump's guilt to punishing those, such as Ms. Cheney,

who continue to speak up about a tragedy that no American should forget, the board wrote. It remains to be seen what punishment former Vice President Mike Pence will endure following a Friday speech in which he rebuked Mr. Trump's claims that he could have overturned the election on January 6th. Republicans assailing Ms. Cheney and siding with Mr. Trump and his lies about the 2020 election are the ones who imperil the republic, the board added. By asserting, as their censure resolution did Friday, that truth is fiction and patriots are turncoats, they have exposed the dark, festering core of what their party is becoming, an unruly revolt against fact and reason that betrays the principles that leaders such as former President Ronald Reagan champion.

All right, that is it for what the left is saying. That brings us to the right state. So the right is clearly divided. Many voters and pro-Trump pundits support the censure, hoping to oust Cheney and Kinzinger from the party. Some more traditional Republican voices view it as self-destructive and frightening. In The Federalist, Jonathan Tobin said Cheney marks the last stand of the ancient Republican regime. Cheney has essentially burned her bridges to the party she grew up in by falsely claiming to be the ranking member of the January 6th committee and enthusiastically participating in its fishing expedition that seeks to drag in for questioning a wide array of former Trump administration officials, conservative media figures, and even Republican House colleagues who had nothing to do with the riot. The race is being spun by the liberal mainstream media as a

case of a brave, principled conservative standing up to an army of GOP zombies who have sold their souls to Trump. But, as in the rest of the country, Wyoming conservatives understand that Trump's populist defense of the working and middle class is a better fit for the party than the one that seemed more in line with the interests of Wall Street. Republicans understand that Cheney's acceptance of Democrats' branding of not just the Capitol rioters or even Trump, but all Republican voters as insurrectionist traitors, targets them and their beliefs, he added. Even if they aren't still questioning the 2020 presidential election results, most Republicans seem to comprehend that the real threat to democracy

are the McCarthyite tactics of the January 6th committee that Cheney is helping to lead and her Democratic allies' attempts to silence dissent on the internet. On the Cheney censure, the Wall Street Journal editorial board said not to underestimate Republicans' ability to blow the November midterms. This kind of ritual purification is bad politics, the board wrote. Republicans should be talking about President Biden's $5 trillion spending plan, 7% inflation, and the Americans who are still trying to flee Afghanistan. Now the media is crowing because the RNC says Ms. Cheney and Mr. Kinzinger's role in investigating January 6th amounts to persecution of ordinary citizens

engaged in legitimate political discourse. Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+. On Pence, the board said, Mr. Trump claims that Congress's current talks to rewrite the Electoral Count Act of 1887 show Mr. Pence had the power to overturn electoral votes. But Congress isn't debating this law because it agrees with Mr. Trump's mistaken interpretation

of what we and many others believe is an unconstitutional statute. The members want to make sure that no one can pull Mr. Trump's stunt again and misread the Electoral Count Act to use Congress and the vice president to overturn an election despite losing in November. In The Spectator, Jeffrey Lord said Kinzinger and Cheney are standing up for stolen elections. over 100-plus American citizens, scooping up the records of tens of thousands of moms, children, clergy, reporters, and Republican and conservative influencers who are in touch with everyone from White House aides to prominent activists, all of this done with the consent of Kinzinger and Cheney, it is perfectly crystal clear who is on the side of voter integrity and the Constitution and who is not, Lord said. Additionally, Cheney has even released the private correspondence of members of the media,

Sean Hannity and Laura Ingram, in a flagrant violation of the First Amendment. What amazes here is the chutzpah of both Kinzer and Cheney, he added, turning facts upside down and inside out, ignoring the most flagrant of examples of voter fraud right here in my own state of Pennsylvania, and, in essence, saying that if you at a minimum have serious problems in an election, then the answer is to do nothing, deny the problem, and accuse the opponents of voter fraud who insist on respect for the Constitution of being opponents of the left and the right are saying. That brings us to my take.

So one day, I'm certain this entire episode will be used as a case study in how political affiliations stick and how polarization functions via ostracization and information bubbles. It's hard to retell this story in short form, but if I tried, it would look something like this. Republican voters send Trump to the White House to give political establishment the middle finger for decades of malfeasance. Trump obliges, embracing a new grievance every day and making enemies of anyone who tries to stand up to him.

For millions, he represents a president finally willing to say the ugly truth out loud, who is capable of withstanding the pressures that usually constrain conservative populism. Every victory was proof that he was underestimated and that you didn't need a career politician to get things done. Every failure was a result of interference by Democrats, establishment Republicans, shadowy government, and the corporate and institutional powers who loathed him and his supporters, the quote-unquote deep state.

When Trump lost in 2020, it was easy for his devotees to see the hand of those powerful corporate and institutional powers at play once again. The events of January 6th and Trump's loss cleaved some of his more tenuous supporters, including, apparently, his own vice president. But it also hardened support in other places. Now, we are seeing one side go all in on Trump. The election was stolen, the quote-unquote insurrectionists were well-intentioned. The Republican Party better move toward Trump or lose his base. The other side, the smaller, barely living remnants of Ronald Reagan's GOP, views January 6th as the

obvious conclusion to a Trump-like leader and sees the threat of a repeat in 2024 if the party continues to embrace him. I have not been shy about January 6th or my feelings on Trump or the risk of his running again in 2024. If he runs, and especially if he runs on his current platform, which is that he can only lose if the race is stolen, it will be a frightening and combustible time for the country. Either outcome, a win or loss, seems destined for political violence and instability. For those reasons alone, I dread watching how this unfolds in the Republican Party. Cheney is not someone I'm inclined to defend. Kinzinger's pre-Trump record is a lot more

admirable, but both get plaudits from me for sticking to their guns despite unbelievable pressure from their own party. Like Senator Joe Manchin, they seem to have a fairly clear political ideology they're trying to represent, whether you agree with it or not. Unlike Manchin, their tack here is almost certainly going to end their political careers for good. I think censoring them is an absurd response and a self-destructive move for a party that could be winning on legitimate issues, but is instead spending their political capital on this. winning on legitimate issues, but is instead spending their political capital on this. That seemed apparent to some GOP leaders almost immediately. GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel spent most of Friday defending the censure, saying she has repeatedly condemned political violence and

that legitimate political discourse had nothing to do with the violence at the Capitol. But the January 6th committee isn't investigating legitimate political discourse. It is investigating the events that led up to the Capitol being breached and the violence that took place. For the party that still talks about Benghazi to attempt to wave away the need for an inquiry here stinks of pure hackery. For McDaniel to take the position that Cheney and Kinzinger are prosecuting legitimate political discourse and to then claim the January 6th riots aren't what she is referring to is a textbook case of talking out of both sides of your mouth. What's frightening here is that the litmus test for entry into the Trump-led GOP seems to be getting more extreme by the day. Heading into 2016, that litmus test was viewing the Clintons as a criminal family, supporting a border wall, and loathing the Bush-era establishment Republicans.

In 2020, it was a belief that the Trump-Russia investigation was a border wall, and loathing the Bush-era establishment Republicans. In 2020, it was a belief that the Trump-Russia investigation was a witch hunt, that the impeachment was a farce, and that the Biden family was hiding its own foreign criminal enterprise. Now, it appears that unless you are willing to claim Biden was unlawfully elected, that the election was stolen, and that January 6th is being overblown by liberal media and Republicans like Cheney and Kinzinger, you can no longer count on the support of the Republican kingmakers. This isn't just another escalation, but it does beg the question of what comes next. If this is the litmus test now, heading into the 2022 midterms when Trump isn't even on the ballot, what happens in 2024 when he is? And what happens after that?

All right, that is it for my take, and that brings us to our reader question for the day. This one is from Alyssa in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She wrote in saying, is Senator Ben Ray Lujan's absence a big deal? Why aren't more people talking about it? So, yes, Alyssa, frankly, I am shocked this isn't the talk of the town. In case you don't know, Senator Lujan is a Democrat from New Mexico who just had a stroke and underwent surgery. The 49-year-old is still in the hospital, and while he is expected to make a full recovery,

it could be weeks until he is back in the Senate, which, not to be insensitive about Lujan's situation, is a huge issue for Democrats. They only have a 50-50 majority in the Senate with Harris as the tie-breaking vote. Now they are effectively a minority party. First and foremost, it means their effort to appoint a successor to Stephen Breyer will be on hold until Lujan returns. It also means Democrats have to adjust their schedule. They can't push through a smaller build back better via reconciliation with 49 votes even if they had them. They can't push forward new judicial nominations on the federal circuit. It will, in many ways, force whatever priorities exist over the next few months to be those that

can garner bipartisan support. And that's just assuming Lujan is well enough to return in a few weeks, which is no sure thing. I would definitely keep an eye on this. All right, that is it for our read a question for the day. That brings us to our story that matters. This one is a biggie. In a move toward normalcy, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, the Democrat, is planning to end student and school employee mask mandates. Murphy is set

to announce the end of the mandates on Monday afternoon, and the new policy will take effect the second week of March. The announcement comes after a similar move from Pennsylvania's Democratic Governor Tom Wolf. The overwhelming sentiment on both sides of the aisle, Murphy said on Wednesday, is we want to get to a place where we can live with this thing in as normal a fashion as possible. New Jersey is among 11 of the country's most populous states that have made mask wearing mandatory for all students. Some 65% of the country's largest 500 school districts have full or partial mask requirements. The New York Times has the story on this in today's newsletter. All right, next up is our numbers section. $2 million is the amount

of money that Liz Cheney raised over the final three months of 2021. $443,000 is the amount of money Harriet Hageman, Cheney's Trump-backed challenger, raised over the final three months of 2021. 1.3% is the percentage of Cheney's money, coming out to $25,830, that came from individual in-state donors. 43% is the percentage of Hageman's money, which comes out to $188,850 that came from individual in-state donors. 70.4% is the percentage of the vote in Wyoming that was won by former President Trump in the 2020 election. All right, last but not least, we have our have a nice day story. Always important to end on this. Arizona resident

Robert Taylor was playing the slot machines at Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas when he won the jackpot, but he never even knew it. Thanks to a communications error in the machine, Taylor wasn't made aware that he had hit the jackpot, and the machine did not dispense his winnings. So when the Nevada Gaming Control Board realized what happened, it began an investigation to track Taylor down and award him his prize. The investigation to find Taylor involved reviewing multiple hours of surveillance video, interviewing witnesses, reviewing electronic records, and analyzing rideshare information, Yahoo News reported. Taylor was finally found and, 20 days after leaving the casino, was alerted that he had won $229,000.

All right, everybody, that is it for today's podcast. As always, if you want to show us some love, go to the episode description, click around. There are links there to support our work. You can also just give us a five-star rating and spread the word. We need to grow. We need your help. We need you to tell people about Tangle. Appreciate everybody tuning in.

And as always, we'll be right back here same time tomorrow. Peace. Our newsletter is written by Isaac Saul, edited by Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, Ari Weitzman, and produced in conjunction with Tangle's social media manager, Magdalena Bokova, who also helped create our logo. The podcast is edited by Trevor Eichhorn, and music for the podcast was produced by Diet75. For more from Tangle, subscribe to our newsletter or check out our content archives at www.readtangle.com. Thanks for watching! crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried history, and what it feels

like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+.