Back in January, I wrote a very speculative diary where I wondered aloud if all of the sturm und drang surrounding Kevin McCarthy’s nomination for House Speaker was a charade. It was possible that McCarthy had already secured a deal with the Freedom Caucus, Marjorie Taylor Greene and others in exchange for visible power-sharing. However, for this to work, it would need to appear that McCarthy had been walloped into submission by the Caucus, which in our case meant that he would go through many, many multiple vote attempts to secure his Speakership position.
It got to the point where even right-wing commentators were stating openly that the extended vote was costing them face and standing among the electorate. It was within that time window that the Freedom Caucus got its act together, got their token challenge to McCarthy to withdraw his name from consideration, and to make ultra-public deals and negotiations to just break over the finish line (before the Sunday morning shows that weekend).
It just seemed so… scripted. Kayfabe, someone suggested.
Here’s the thing that stood out to me then and remains relevant now. Kevin McCarthy was the one who, in former Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s words, resurrected Trump from the political dead. The man was on his way down the drain, and McCarthy used his own self-respect as Trump’s flotation device. He went down to Mar-a-Lago and gave a pictorial endorsement: he stood by Trump’s side with a proud smile.
This was just three weeks after Trump’s second impeachment, only two weeks after Trump had vacated the White House.
He brought the jumper cables and, as Kinzinger put it, paddled Trump back to life.
In the interim, just in the last half of 2022, Trump was rather put on trial by the January 6 Committee (not in a legal sense but fully in the court of public opinion); a search of his private residence turned up over a hundred highly sensitive, highly secret government documents that he apparently smuggled out of the White House; and Trump hosted his notorious anti-Semitic dinner over Thanksgiving. That’s above and beyond the albatross-like effect he had on the 2022 midterms.
By that time, McCarthy, seeing that he still had a chance to throw his name in the hat to be Speaker, had every opportunity to distance himself from Trump and his allies.
Instead, it looks like he brokered a deal with Marjorie Taylor Greene and associates, for their support that would, in the end, appear like they were putting the thumbscrews to him.
It still looks like that to me. I may be completely mistaken. But we have an indication now that seems impossible to play away.
RFK, Jr. is a chaos agent, a kook with a famous name who threw his name into the Democratic field, it would seem, so as to generate outrage on the Democratic side of the aisle while benefiting from not going head-to-head against Trump. You look at RFK, Jr.’s stances on various issues and it’s fairly easy to see that he’s pretty right-wing.
As Sam Seder noted in his broadcast, RFK, Jr., appears to have secured quite a bit of funding from right-wing donors, which fuels speculation in some corners as to whether the run for the presidency is a right-wing dirty trick.
So there’s no reason to enter into the Democratic side of the contest except for the fact that there’s more room to create spectacle on this side. President Biden is not out trying to stir up controversy; he doesn’t need to, and it’s not his style. RFK, Jr., on the other hand, has been courting controversy, precisely so his name rises more readily to top of mind.
RFK, Jr. said reprehensible, false things about SARS-CoV-2 so as to spread the idea 1) that the virus was created by human hands and 2) that it was designed specifically to affect two racial categories in particular, at the genetic level, while also being much less of a risk for two other racial and ethnic groups. Caucasians and Blacks “targeted,” Chinese and Jewish people spared.
As I commented earlier in a Hunter diary from earlier today, that’s scientific racism, pure and simple.
What RFK, Jr.’s intent was in spreading such nonsense I cannot say, but it’s clear that the controversy generated by it will attract even more media attention to him, which benefits him at this stage of the game.
He’s gotten rebukes and condemnation from many corners by this point, including his own family. The White House, in particular, pointed out that the remarks have the potential to generate many, many conspiracy theories which will put the lives of citizens and others here at risk. I think it’s obvious that the comments will drive paranoia, suspicion, distrust, contempt, fear, hatred, resentment—and thus violence. People will be encouraged to commit violence upon their neighbors, especially the ones who “didn’t suffer as much” as the first two categories RFK, Jr. had named.
The score must be even, you see.
Now, the anti-Semitic and racist nature of RFK, Jr.’s remarks should be enough to disqualify him from giving live interviews or being invited basically anywhere. He’s kind of lost those privileges for a while, because what he said was beyond the pale, reprehensible, and rather psychotic. It’s a loony idea to just blurt out there. He’s untrustworthy as a witness to reality.
If ever there was a time for McCarthy to be normal in this regard, in shunning anti-Semitism and refusing to entertain a racist actively spewing waste, he instead has defended inviting RFK, Jr. to come testify.
At the very least, McCarthy could have required that the diminutive candidate submit any “testimony” to any House committees in writing, so as to keep such a loose cannon out of public view. Instead, McCarthy is defending the move to put this man in front of an absolute bank of cameras.
There’s no good reason for this—no reason within the bounds of civility. But there is one thing that RFK, Jr. and McCarthy share in common: the same electoral audience. Viewer-voters, as I call them.
They have QAnon in common. They both want those votes, or at least those eyeballs. They mean to cause a spectacle. They want MAGA manic, because MAGA wants to see their version of reality validated. Such an extreme view being platformed on live television as official testimony would give them tremendous satisfaction.
They share these voters in common with Trump as well. As Trump officially embraced QAnon during his turbulence last fall and has fallen in with constant retweeting and re-platforming various QAnon memes, he’s welcomed them into the base. And, as mentioned before, Trump has already softened his voter base as to his own open anti-Semitism. So this type of open testimony only furthers his brand.
Does that mean they’re working together? No. It does mean that they have common interests, common goals. They all stand to benefit from pushing the same narrative.
They at least have nothing to lose: Trump’s already demonstrated that the party is beholden to him, despite his despicable views; McCarthy’s already garnered this image of being a pushover to the Freedom Caucus; and RFK, Jr. has already established his bona fides among the vaccine-averse. As far as reputations go, there’s not much more of a floor to reach—we’re pretty much already there.
But, beyond that, McCarthy understands that anti-Semitism is a serious charge, especially among the political class. Hell, he just accused some of his Democratic colleagues of this same charge. (He referred to Reps. Pramila Jayapal, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Betty McCollum, specifically.)
So he knows that the perception of anti-Semitism can be damaging, because the public cares about this issue. They don’t want anti-Semitism being spread in the community. We know this to be true (or at least can make the assumption) because otherwise McCarthy wouldn’t have made the charge.
So why would he defend RFK, Jr.? Why would he support live testimony?
McCarthy: About RFK, I disagree with about everything he said. The hearing that we have this week is about censorship. I don’t think censoring somebody is actually the answer here.
There’s no good reason to extend the benefit of the doubt to RFK, Jr. with regards to whatever he might say in front of any House committee; and there’s no good reason to extend the benefit of the doubt to McCarthy in this area, either. He can’t have it both ways.
I hereby renew my speculation.