The Dan Bongino Show - The Bongino Brief - Jan 02, 2021

Episode Date: January 2, 2021

Is Nancy Pelosi in trouble in her bid for House Speaker? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dan Bongino. Welcome to the Bongino Brief. I'm Dan Bongino. I've been hanging on this for a few days now. Is Nancy Pelosi in trouble in her bid for speakership? Again, you know, congressional terms obviously are just every two years, even for Nancy Pelosi. She has to run for speaker every time. Ladies and gentlemen, she's in real trouble.

Pelosi is in a world of trouble. And why she's in trouble, one reason's obvious. She's lost a lot of seats. The Democrats lost between 12 and 15 seats, depending on how these two seats in question turn out. They've lost some seats. She needs votes to be the Speaker of the House. So what's going on? Check out this PJ Media piece. You can read the whole thing in detail on our newsletter. Again, Bongino.com slash newsletter. Check it out. Here's how a Republican can end up Speaker of the House instead of Nancy Pelosi. It's a long shot by Matt Margolis. Really good piece. But it's not that long of a shot.

This is crazy pills. Let's go to the screen cap number one from the piece. Explain to you what exactly is going on. Is this really possible? This is from BJ Media, quote, well, let's see. Here's the deal. White House members can vote by proxy, congressional members, that's a typo. Members of Congress can vote by proxy due to emergency rules adopted in May to protect members, House of Representative members, from getting and spreading COVID. But as The Hill reports, the proxy voting rules, this is important,

expire with the new Congress, requiring lawmakers to be in the Capitol in person if they want to participate in the January 3rd floor vote for the Speaker. It's a voice vote. New rules governing the 117th Congress happen after the vote for Speaker. There's another screen cap from this, but let me just explain where we are. January 3rd, the 116th Congress, where Nancy Pelosi was the Speaker, they had rules saying you can vote from your home, whatever it may be. You don't have to show up in the Capitol due to COVID.

Those rules expire January 3rd. The new members come in where Nancy Pelosi's majority is shrunk dramatically. She may have nothing more than a four or five majority vote. She can't lose anyone. Well, I don't want to be ridiculous. Precision matters. She can only stand to lose maybe four or five people, and

she'll lose her speakership. But folks, a lot of these older members who could be in COVID danger don't want to go back to Capitol Hill. Oh, they can vote by proxy. No, they can't because the rules expire January

3rd. You now have to show up if you got reelected because the new votes for new rules, so say they wanted to reinstate that again, Joe, you don't have to show up here. You can vote from home in the 117th Congress for all the new members. That vote happens after the vote for speaker and the old rules has expired.

It's an old rule, new rule sandwich. You get it? And stuck in the middle is you're going to have to show up and say, I vote for Pelosi on the House floor in the Capitol. Got it? Let's go on to ScreenCap 2 and see why Pelosi is in real

trouble right now. Quote, this means that candidates for Speaker of the House must receive a majority of the votes cast in person to be elected Speaker. Democrats already have a thin majority of 222 seats following the 2020 election, and three moderate Democrats already said they're not going to vote for Pelosi when the vote takes place on January 3rd. In addition, several Democrats have health conditions that have

kept them from the Capitol in 2020. It would only take a small number of Democrats being exposed to COVID prior to the vote, and we don't want that, of course, for Pelosi, we're not Democrats, wishing you on anyone, to vote for Pelosi to potentially be in trouble. Here's a quote from a Democrat, Hank Johnson, the guy who thought Guam was going to sink. COVID is a wild card, said Representative Johnson from Georgia. If we have sick members who can't come back and we only have a four-vote majority, it throws our entire advent of the 117th Congress in peril. A smooth advent. Folks, listen, we don't wish ill on anyone. We're not sick liberals wishing death on people.

But we do live, we're living in the middle of pandemic. You have older members who are saying, hey, I'm not going there. Pelosi may not have that majority. And there's no voting from home. They can reinstitute the new rule, but only after the vote for speaker. You better show up. She could be in real trouble. Can you imagine if a Republican gets the majority of the votes in a Democrat house? Oh my gosh. Now it's a long shot granted, but wouldn't that be crazy pills? A Republican speaker of the house with a Democrat majority. That would be hilarious. I got to tell you, that would be really amazing. The chaos that would be,

I just would be, I've never seen anything like it. My gosh. The Dan Bongino Show. If you'd like to hear more, subscribe to the Dan Bongino Show. If you'd like to hear more, subscribe to The Dan Bongino Show wherever you get your podcasts.