Fox News Dangles Dopey Spin that Hakeem Jeffries Lost the Speaker’s Vote ’17 Times in a Row’

After nearly two weeks, the nation is still without a Speaker of the House and a functioning House of Representatives. That’s because the Republican Party is too wrapped up in power struggles and inflamed egos as they try to navigate the treacherous waters of Trump cultism.

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Fox News, Fake News

The efforts by the GOP to offer some semblance of leadership have been pitifully lacking from the day they assumed their razor-thin majority in the House. It took them fifteen rounds of voting to elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker. He only lasted eight months and has now been ousted by his own members, who can’t seem to find anyone to replace him. It’s the sort of colossal clusterf**k that the GOP is known for. You would think that they might have figured that out by now.

SEE THIS: Squeaker McCarthy Laments Learning that the GOP’s Mission is to ‘Burn the Whole Place Down’

Since McCarthy’s banishment from the post, his lieutenant, Steve Scalise, briefly flirted with idea of succeeding him. Then Jim Jordan, the “legislative terrorist” (as former GOP Speaker John Boehner called him), lost two votes for the speakership. So the post remains unfilled and the Congress is effectively defunct. Which may be an improvement over being operative with a GOP majority.

In the meantime, the Republican Ministry of Propaganda (aka Fox News) is stretching credulity with their excuses for the GOP’s ineptitude. On Fox it isn’t the Republican’s fault that they have failed utterly to exhibit any aptitude for governing. Nope. They are pointing their bony fingers at Democrats who are in the minority. For example, see this exchange between Fox News shills, John Roberts and Jason Chaffetz…

Roberts: If the script were flipped and it was Democrats who were in control of Congress – if [Democratic Leader] Hakeem Jeffries were to be put up for a vote for Speaker, how long do you think it would take to get to 218 votes?
Chaffetz: Well, Hakeem Jeffries has now lost 17 races in a row. So 17 times in a row he’s been put up for Speaker and he’s lost. So he’s kind of already over that threshold. I just don’t think one party is gonna come in and support another party.

Seriously? Does Chaffetz really believe that the party in the minority is somehow deficient if they fail to get a majority of votes? And didn’t he notice that in 13 one of those 17 votes Jeffries got more votes than the Republican? In fact, Jeffries got 100% of his party’s votes on every ballot.

Chaffetz appears to have ignored the premise of Roberts’ question, which assumed a Democratic majority. Roberts had to remind him that his question was intended to point out that Democrats would have quickly elected a Speaker if they were in the position that the Republicans are in now.

For his part, Jordan sought to step aside, at least temporarily, in order to execute the GOP’s “Plan B,” wherein interim Speaker Patrick McHenry would be given enhanced powers and be permitted to rule for a couple of months. Setting aside the question as to whether that is even constitutional, it would be a de facto admission of the Republican Party’s desperation and incompetence as political stewards. Nevertheless, the GOP conference refused to go along and Jordan jumped back into the race saying that…

“We made the pitch to members on the resolution as the way to lower the temperature and get back to work. We decided that wasn’t where we were going to go. I’m still running for Speaker. I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race. But I want to go talk with a few of my colleagues. Particularly I want to talk with the twenty individuals who voted against me so that we can move forward and begin to work for the American people.”

In other words, Jordan wants more time to make more threats that will ultimately lead to more humiliation. Democrats will surely allow Jordan and the Republicans the space to make fools of themselves. Although they would prefer that the GOP agree to a power-sharing solution that would advance the interests of the nation. Unfortunately, the GOP is neither responsible nor smart enough to make that deal.

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LOLOL: Fox News is Already Hyping Trump for Speaker of the House, and He is Open To It

The chaos emanating from the Republican Party as they endeavor to demolish the foundations of their own congressional caucus is nothing new. To the contrary, it is a familiar pattern of incompetence and a tunnel-blind fixation on hoarding power at the expense of advancing the interests of the American people.

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Nothing better exemplifies that than the way they banished their Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, for the sin of making concessions to Democrats in order to prevent a devastating government shutdown that most Republicans seemed to have been hoping for. And now that McCarthy is gone, there are factions in the party that are anxious to oust Rep. Matt Gaetz, the guy who led the McCarthy coup.

SEE THIS: GOP-ers Ponder Expelling Matt Gaetz for Ethics Violations After His Failed Shutdown Scheme

No rational person thinks that this is the way that government should operate. But to the GOP, it’s the only way they know. So it should come as no surprise that some of them are plotting to make a bad situation monstrously worse.

Since there is no apparent heir to McCarthy’s throne, desperate members of the disgruntled GOP caucus are floating a name from outside the House: Donald J. Trump, the twice impeached former White House occupant who is currently awaiting trial on four criminal indictments consisting of 91 felony charges.

Trump’s name will likely be put into nomination by someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene or Troy Niels, who have both already expressed their support. However, advocates for a Trump speakership are also coming from his Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News. On Tuesday night during an interview of Jim Jordan on Fox News, Sean Hannity revealed that…

“Sources telling me at this hour that some House Republicans have been in contact with – have started an effort to draft former president Donald Trump to be the next speaker and I have been told that president Trump might be open to helping the Republican party at least in the short term if necessary.”

That’s right! It didn’t take Hannity – Fox’s Senior Trump-fluffer – but a few hours to promote his favorite soon-to-be felon to assume control of the People’s House. As if Trump would have the slightest idea what the job entails. And Jim Jordan was open to it too. Except for the minor problem that he announced Wednesday morning that he is running for the post himself.

Hannity said that he thinks that the “stable genius” Trump could be both president and speaker. That would be quite a feat. He would have to squeeze it in between his court hearings and potential periods of incarceration. But what Hannity and the GOP Trumpists appear to be ignorant of are their own rules that prohibit criminals like Trump from serving as speaker.

Rule 26(a) of the Republican House Conference Rules: “A member of the Republican Leadership shall step aside if indicted for a felony for which a sentence of two or more years imprisonment may be imposed.” [So you’re cool if you’re a Republican who has been indicted for a felony with only a one year sentence]

Trump himself is ignorant of this rule as well. On Wednesday morning he was asked by reporters if he would take the job of House Speaker. He replied that…

“A lot of people have been calling me about speaker … If I could help them during the process, then I’d do it.”

It’s hard to imagine Trump being helpful during this or any other process. He would be a worst case scenario for Republicans in the House or, for that matter, America. Trump knows even less about the administration of Congress than he does about the White House. And even after four years in office he has proven that he knows nothing about that. But then again, do Republicans have any better candidates? Do Jordan, or Gaetz, or Steve Scalise, or Elise Stefanik, or anyone else, stir their passions? Not so far.

If we’re lucky, Democratic Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will be elected Speaker. He would only need four or five Republicans to stay home in order to prevail. There are at least eighteen Republicans who are either fed up with their party or nervous about being reelected in Democratic districts. And Jeffries could offer them perks to encourage them to sit out the vote. Then he could maintain his position by proposing some form of power sharing. It’s a long shot, to be sure. But it’s way more likely than Trump – aka Cadet Bone Spurs – riding to the rescue.

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Squeaker McCarthy Desperately Lies About the Debt Ceiling Deal to Save His Shaky Speakership

The morning after it was announced that President Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached a deal to avoid a catastrophic debt default, McCarthy began almost immediately misrepresenting the terms of the deal.

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Kevin McCarthy, Deep State

McCarthy’s speakership – which took a historic 15 votes to achieve – is on thin ice, and any perception by his caucus that he compromised with Biden and the Democrats – a mortal sin in GOP World – could result in his being voted out as Speaker by his own colleagues.

RELATED: Squeaker McCarthy’s Debt Default Deceit is Wrecked By WH Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre

Consequently, McCarthy is spinning like a top as he makes the morning rounds on the Sunday talk shows. However, true to form, he is lying about what the debt ceiling deal entails in order to deceive his fellow Republicans and stave off a revolt that would cost him his job. An interview of Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries by Margaret Brennan on CBS’s Face the Nation revealed just how desperate McCarthy is.

Brennan: Speaker McCarthy predicted this morning he can get a majority of Republicans he says some Democrats he thinks will vote for it. But he also quoted something he says You told him. Listen.
McCarthy (video): I think there’s gonna be a lot of Democrats who vote for it too. Right now, the Democrats are very upset. But one thing Hakeem told me, there’s nothing in the bill for them. There’s not one thing in the bill for Democrats.
Brennan: Did you say that? And how do you convince Democrats?
Jeffries: I have no idea what he’s talking about, particularly because I have not been able to review the actual legislative text, all that we’ve reached is an agreement in principle.

So according to Jeffries, the conversation that McCarthy says took place never happened. Which is easily the more believable version of events considering how flagrantly McCarthy twisted his assertions about the reception by Democrats to the proposed deal. In fact, McCarthy actually contradicted himself in consecutive sentences, saying first that Democrats will vote for the deal, followed immediately by saying that “Democrats are very upset.”

McCarthy goes on to assert that Democrats are going to vote for the deal despite allegedly believing there is “nothing in the bill for them.” None of what McCarthy is saying makes any sense. And he doesn’t offer a single example of an “upset” Democrat.

On the other more reality-based hand, the evidence of upset members appears to be much more prominent among McCarthy’s Republicans. The grossly misnamed GOP “Freedom” Caucus is already promising to scuttle the deal. Republicans Lauren Boebert, Ken Buck, Bob Good, Ralph Norman, and Chip Roy, are among those who quickly came out publicly to announce their opposition, accusing McCarthy of caving in to the radical, socialist Democrats.

For the record, the deal has pluses and minuses for both sides, which is the nature of compromise in a democracy. But the most significant features include putting off any future debt ceiling debates for two years, well past the 2024 elections. So Republicans won’t be able to hold the nation hostage again in order to hurt Biden’s reelection and boost their own electoral prospects. The deal also protects most of the funding for social safety net programs (i.e. Medicaid, Medicare, food assistance, etc.), climate change mitigation, student loan deferrals, and IRS enforcement against wealthy tax cheats.

That isn’t exactly an agreement that can honestly be portrayed as having “not one thing in the bill for Democrats.” McCarthy’s spin is nearly delusional in its distortion of reality. But then, that’s typical for Republicans who feel compelled to always cast themselves as either glorious winners or pathetic victims.

And speaking of victims… Donald Trump! He has lobbied fiercely for Republicans to embrace the disaster of default, but hasn’t said a single word about this deal. Although he did take time to trash Disney and congratulate his “friend” and fellow aspiring dictator Erdogan of Turkey on his reelection. But fear not. Trump is probably just dusting off his caps lock and preparing to go ballistic over how the weak RINOS failed to kneecap the Democrats by pushing the nation into a severe recession or worse.

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GOOD LUCK: Democratic Leaders Call On Rupert Murdoch to Stop Fox News From Spreading Lies

This week America learned that Fox News executives and hosts knowingly deceived their viewers about election fraud in support of Donald Trump and his “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged and stolen” from him. The revelations came with the release of depositions from the defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News.

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Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch

The testimony in those depositions affirmed that Fox News CEO Rupert Murdoch, as well as hosts Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, etc., knew very well that there was no truth to their “reporting” of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. While they were lying to their viewers, they were discussing privately among themselves about the “crazy” and “idiotic” assertions that Trump had actually won.

RELATED: Hannity Admits in Fox News Lawsuit that ‘I Did Not Believe [Trump’s Big Lie] for One Second’

Most rational media observers already knew that Fox News has never been a news network. They were created as a right-wing propaganda organ by Murdoch and Roger Ailes. However, this may be the first time that we have principles at Fox admitting that they are lying propagandists, and we have it in their own words. Not surprisingly, Trump is very upset by these developments…

UH-OH: Trump Blasts Rupert Murdoch for ‘Throwing His Anchors Under the Table’ in Election Fraud Lawsuit

In the wake of these scandalous disclosures, Democratic leaders in Congress are going on record with their objections to the confirmation of Fox’s purposeful dishonesty. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries made their positions clear in a letter to Murdoch, demanding that the network “stop spreading false election narratives and admit on the air that they were wrong to engage in such negligent behavior.” The letter pressed Murdoch saying that

“As noted in your deposition released yesterday Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and other Fox News personalities knowingly, repeatedly, and dangerously endorsed and promoted the Big Lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election [and that] network hosts continue to promote, spew, and perpetuate election conspiracy theories to this day.”

The letter noted that Fox’s hosts continue “to peddle election denialism to the American people.” This is the sort of pernicious pulp fiction employed by Trump that incited the January 6th insurrection in Washington, D.C., as well as numerous other subsequent acts domestic terrorism by the radical right. Schumer and Jeffries recognized the impending threat saying that…

“This sets a dangerous precedent that ignores basic journalistic fact-checking principles and public accountability. This is even more alarming after Speaker McCarthy is reportedly allowing Tucker Carlson to review highly sensitive security camera footage of the events surrounding the violent January 6 insurrection.

“We demand that you direct Tucker Carlson and other hosts on your network to stop spreading false election narratives and admit on the air that they were wrong to engage in such negligent behavior.”

The letter goes on to warn that the dishonesty of Fox News “weakens faith in our democracy and hurts our country in countless other ways.” And it closes by insisting that Murdoch take action to repair the damage he and his network have caused…

“Fox News executives and all other hosts on your network have a clear choice. You can continue a pattern of lying to your viewers and risking democracy or move beyond this damaging chapter in your company’s history by siding with the truth and reporting the facts. We ask that you make sure Fox News ceases disseminating the Big Lie and other election conspiracy theories on your network.”

Schumer and Jeffries are saying all the right things. Unfortunately, it would be naïve to expect Murdoch, or anyone else at Fox News, to cooperate or to concede wrongdoing. They have established that they are more interested in disseminating conservative propaganda and profiting off of deceiving their audience, than in telling the truth or acting in the best interests of the country. That would require some sense of ethics. Plus, they are terrified of Donald Trump and his glassy-eyed cult followers.

In fact, they are so frightened that that they have forbidden the matter of the Dominion lawsuit to even be mentioned on the air. Which is just another way that they can keep their viewers ignorant and riled up by phony trivialities.

SEE THIS: BANNED ON FOX NEWS: The Network Prohibits Any Reporting on the $1.6 Billion Dominion Lawsuit

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Fox News Smears Hakeem Jeffries as an ‘Election Denier’ to Deflect From McCarthy Speaker Fiasco

It is now day three of the Kevin McCarthy House Speaker Spectacular as Republicans have failed repeatedly to secure enough votes to elect a leader. Despite frenzied lobbying, negotiating, and humiliating concessions by McCarthy to the most extreme crackpots in the GOP caucus, they remain stalemated.

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Despite his having caved in to the wackos who seek to weaken and control his Speakership, McCarthy hasn’t budged the opposition in his party at all. Even Donald Trump, who ignored the race until after the first three failed votes, had zero impact on the results when he finally sunk to begging for votes with a lukewarm post on his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, saying that Republicans should vote for McCarthy so they can “WATCH CRAZY NANCY PELOSI FLY BACK HOME.” Which aside from being something that isn’t going to happen, it is hardly a stirring endorsement of McCarthy.

RELATED: Fellow Losers: Trump’s Belated Support Proves Impotent as McCarthy Still Loses Votes for Speaker

In the midst of this Republican ridiculousness, Fox News has struggled to find a narrative that would frame this in a positive light for the GOP. Consequently, they have shifted their focus to slandering Democrats. Specifically, they are going after the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, who has enjoyed the unified support of his party and received more votes than McCarthy on every ballot. But rather than reporting that factual account of events, Fox News went with the following…

“Democrats continue handing votes to Jeffries, who has long history of denying elections.”

That’s a creative spin, to say the least. Anyone with even the barest grasp of current political affairs knows that the Republican Party, and it’s Dear Leader Donald Trump, have been the fiercely delusional disseminators of the “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged and stolen” from Trump. It’s practically the only thing that Trump talks about. But this isn’t an isolated attempt by Fox News to project the “election denier” label on Jeffries. They have previously run stories asserting…

  • RNC blasts ‘election denier’ Hakeem Jeffries moments after he wins Democrat leadership
  • New Dem House leader Hakeem Jeffries labeled ‘election denier’ by Republicans, who call for media scrutiny
  • Election denier Hakeem Jeffries could replace Pelosi as House Dem leader
  • Hakeem Jeffries called Trump’s 2016 election victory a ‘hoax,’ referred to him as ‘so-called’ president

For the record, neither Jeffries, nor any Democrat, have engaged in actual election denying activities. Democrats haven’t refused to concede elections that they lost. They haven’t filed an endless stream of bogus lawsuits to alter the outcomes of any race. And they certainly have never assaulted the Congress or staged a violent coup to overturn an election. No Democrat has been convicted of seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government by insurrection, as members of Trump’s Oath Keepers have.

The remarks that Fox News is claiming constitute election denial by Jeffries are common political commentaries by political partisans. For instance, after the 2016 election, Jeffries said that…

“Russia interfered with our election, attacked our democracy, for the sole purpose of artificially placing someone at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They were successful.”

That is an unambiguously true statement. It was affirmed by U.S. intelligence agencies, and even the Senate Intelligence Committee – led at the time by Republicans – that found that Russia had an extensive program aimed at disseminating disinformation intended to benefit Trump and to harm Hillary Clinton. What’s more, Vladimir Putin confirmed it with Trump standing right next to him.

SEE THIS: Donald Trump’s Own Words at the Treason Summit with Putin Are Dripping with His Guilt

So, as usual, Fox News is manufacturing disparaging and dishonest depictions of Democrats. It’s the only thing they can do when their own GOP colleagues are being swallowed up in catastrophes of their own making. And despite how often Fox News does this, they really aren’t getting any better at it.

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Jen Psaki and (Future Speaker?) Hakeem Jeffries, Rebuke the RNC as the Republican National ‘CULT’

The Republican Party appears to be gaily goose-stepping its way toward the dustbin of history. Their seeming disregard for the enduring values that made America great – liberty, equality, and justice – is reflected in the daily demented ravings of their Dear Leader, Donald Trump, whose authoritarian aspirations are as pronounced as ever, despite his rapidly evolving irrelevancy.

Donald Trump, Fox News, QAnon

Trump has been reduced to petulantly whining about being investigated for his many crimes, and impotently issuing orders that are being resoundingly ignored. And yet the Republican Party continues to embrace him as their political messiah.

To that end, the Republican National Committee (RNC) lashed out at a couple of their own members that were deemed to be insufficiently worshipful of Master Trump. Longtime rock-ribbed conservatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger were unceremoniously drummed out of the Party’s good graces for their roles on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection. They were formally censured by the RNC, whose chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, condemned them because they had the audacity to “engage in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

“Legitimate political discourse?” That’s what the GOP is calling the deadly riots on January 6th by “ordinary citizens” (aka StormTrumpers) attempting to prevent Congress from carrying out its constitutional duties. The abhorrent absurdity of that characterization did not go unnoticed by the decent denizens of Washington. Foremost among them was Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. Following the RNC’s announcement of the censure, he spoke to reporters pointedly noting that…

“The ‘C’ in RNC doesn’t stand for committee, it stands for cult. It’s not the Republican National Committee. It’s the the Republican National Cult. That is the only way you can explain how the Grand Old Party would come to the conclusion that people who engaged in rampant mob violence, urinated, defecated, desecrated the Capitol, brutally beat up police officers, seriously injured more than 140. Police officers lost their lives as a result of the events on January 6th and the cult says that it’s ‘legitimate political discourse?’ They come to that conclusion because they continue to bend the knee to the twice impeached so-called president, Donald Trump.”

Jeffries is not the first to recognize the cult behavior of the GOP. But he is one of the highest ranking government officials to articulate it publicly and with such flair. His comments were picked up later the same day in the White House press room when a reporter asked Press Secretary Jen Psaki for the President’s reaction. That led to the following exchange…

Reporter: What are your reactions to the RNC declaring what happened on January 6th as “legitimate political discourse,” and Democrats on the Hill being very vocal about this. Hakeem Jeffries said that “The ‘C’ in RNC stands for cult.” Does the White House agree with that?
Psaki: I think it’s clear to Americans that what happened on January 6th was not “legitimate political discourse.” Storming the Capitol in an attempt to halt the peaceful transition of power is not “legitimate political discourse.” Neither is attacking and injuring over 140 police officers, smashing windows and defiling offices. It’s telling to us that some leading Republicans have rejected that characterization.”

Among the “leading Republicans” that Psaki referred to are Trump’s vice-president, Mike Pence, and the GOP Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell. Both have recently been targets of Trump’s wrath that is throwing the Party into disarray. Last week Pence told the ultra-rightist Federalist Society that “Trump is wrong” about Pence being able to overturn the election, and that “there is no idea more un-American.” And Trump blasted McConnell as an “old crow” for not backing his attempted coup.

In response to reporters’ questions about the RNC’s twisted definition of “legitimate political discourse,” and the censure of Cheney and Kinzinger, McConnell said that…

“We saw what happened. It was a violent insurrection with the purpose of trying to prevent a peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election from one administration to the next. That’s what it was. […] This issue is whether or not the RNC should be sort of singling out members of our party who may have different views from the majority. That’s not the job of the RNC.”

Without saying so explicitly, McConnell effectively affirmed Jeffries’ rendering of the Republican Party as a cult. There is simply no other explanation for an organization that adheres to a such bizarre belief system, rooted in violence and tyranny, and in defiance of all reason and rationality.

Also observing the cultish descent of the GOP was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who told reporters at her weekly news conference that…

“The Republicans seem to be having a limbo contest with themselves to see how low they can go. They seem to have reached rock bottom with their statement that what happened on January 6th was legitimate political discourse. […] I say this to Republicans all the time: Take back your party from this cult.”

In a cult there is only one authority. You must believe the cult leader no matter what your own eyes and ears may tell you. And everyone else is lying to you. That’s the Trump doctrine. And the Republican Party is fully on board. The question is, how long can such a political party endure with a platform that removed from reality?

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