0:00

Today, we're going to talk about how the Republican speaker

0:03

situation backfired on them in spectacular

0:05

fashion, and I interview Congressman Jared Moskowitz

0:07

about what the vote for Mike Johnson will mean for those 18 Republicans

0:10

currently sitting in Biden won districts, whether

0:12

there's any acknowledgement from the GOP behind the

0:14

scenes that they screwed up,

0:15

and the impact that Johnson's election will have

0:18

on the House certifying the election results in 2024. I'm

0:20

Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie.

0:25

So the Republicans are now saddled

0:27

with their most extreme speaker in history

0:29

in what's probably become the blunder of the year

0:31

for a party that traffics almost exclusively

0:34

in blunders. From a political perspective,

0:36

I 100% think this will backfire

0:39

on the GOP at the ballot box in 2024.

0:41

Here's why.

0:42

Now, there was a faction of Republicans who

0:44

were so desperate to avoid Jim Jordan becoming

0:46

speaker that they did the impossible

0:48

and actually managed to sprout some small semblance

0:51

of a collective spine by voting against Jordan on three

0:53

separate ballots. And of course, the

0:55

explanation they gave was that Jim Jordan

0:57

was far too extreme, certainly too extreme

1:00

to represent some of those members sitting in

1:02

purple districts or Biden won districts. And

1:04

when it became clear that Jordan wasn't a viable candidate,

1:07

he eventually dropped out. But

1:09

then the perfect storm of two

1:11

different things happened at once. The first was that

1:13

the embarrassment of not being able to do the

1:15

bare minimum by electing a speaker started to

1:17

settle in. And you had Republicans all

1:19

over the news conceding that their own party wasn't

1:22

fit to govern, that they shouldn't

1:24

be in the majority and on and on. So at that

1:26

point, it was becoming clear that just

1:28

by virtue of sheer exhaustion, Republicans

1:30

were going to coalesce around someone if

1:33

for nothing else than to put an end to their misery.

1:35

But the second thing is that they figured Mike

1:37

Johnson being a relative unknown was

1:40

a safe bet, at least safer than Jim Jordan. Right.

1:43

And they learned almost immediately that there

1:45

is some benefit to having their candidates for major

1:47

positions of power being vetted.

1:49

Mike Johnson was not. And what followed

1:51

was a barrage. I'm talking an

1:54

avalanche of past comments

1:56

and interviews and footage and audio and tweets

1:58

and ads of this guy.

1:59

espousing the most far-right

2:02

bile you could cook up. This guy

2:04

was the architect of Trump's efforts to overturn the

2:06

election in the House. He was the lead author

2:08

of an amicus brief for the Texas lawsuit, seeking

2:11

to overturn the election results in four other states.

2:13

He authored at least three bills to ban abortion

2:16

nationwide. He is an outspoken opponent

2:18

to same-sex marriage and LGBT rights. Here he

2:20

is suggesting that we don't live in a democracy,

2:23

but rather some type of biblical republic.

2:26

You know, we don't live

2:26

in a democracy. Because a democracy is

2:29

too old and old to decide what's for dinner. This

2:31

guy is not just a jury. He's a

2:33

constitutional republic. The founders set

2:35

that up because they followed the biblical

2:37

definition on what a civil society

2:39

is supposed to look like.

2:40

On issue after issue, Mike

2:42

Johnson is as far-right and extreme as it

2:44

gets. And so as a result, those

2:47

same Republicans who were so desperate to protect themselves

2:49

by voting against Jim Jordan are now saddled

2:52

with Mike Johnson, who is the face, the

2:54

face of Christophascist extremism in the

2:56

United States. And so while Mike Johnson

2:59

is relatively unknown right now,

3:01

he won't be for long. He will lead the House

3:03

the same way that he's governed as a lawmaker, which

3:06

is as a dangerous theocrat hellbent on

3:08

imposing his religious doctrine onto a country that is

3:10

not interested. In effect, what

3:12

Republicans have done by voting for him unanimously

3:15

is saddled themselves with the burden of owning whatever

3:18

he does in the next year. His fascism is

3:20

their fascism now. And if you don't think that Democrats

3:22

are going to get mileage out of that, take a look at how Republicans

3:25

made Nancy Pelosi the boogeyman in

3:27

every district across the US for decades.

3:30

And Nancy Pelosi doesn't cosplay as a commander

3:32

in the Handmaid's Tale. So I get that Republicans

3:34

were exhausted by failed vote after vote.

3:37

I get that the optics were bad and getting worse

3:39

by the day. But all of that is leagues

3:41

more preferable than what they've ushered in now, which

3:43

is the biggest albatross around their necks that they

3:45

could possibly find. And look, maybe that's what

3:48

they wanted. Maybe they all want the

3:50

fascism and the abortion restrictions and the hurdles

3:52

for LGBT and same-sex rights and just

3:54

didn't want Jim Jordan. Either way, they're

3:56

about to find out why you probably don't

3:58

want the second in line to the president. to be the

4:00

worst possible reminder to voters why not

4:03

to elect Republicans, especially as we head

4:05

into an election year. Next

4:08

up is my interview with Congressman Jared Moskowitz. Now

4:12

I've got the Congressman from Florida's 23rd Congressional

4:14

District, Jared Moskowitz. Thanks for coming back on. Thanks

4:17

for having me. So I guess right off the

4:19

bat, are there any concerns among the Democratic

4:22

Caucus about what Mike Johnson, the

4:24

new Republican speaker, about what his speakership

4:26

could mean for the election certification

4:28

in 2024? Well, so

4:31

I mean, listen, the answer

4:33

to that is first, I'm willing to give everybody

4:35

an opportunity, right? I mean, he just became

4:37

speaker. I have a very similar

4:39

story that he told, which is he

4:42

got his dad passed away from cancer a couple

4:45

of days before he got elected. The

4:47

same thing happened with me. So I'm willing to give the guy the benefit

4:49

of the doubt. But obviously, if we look

4:51

at his record, right, anti-gay

4:54

marriage, anti-women's rights, you

4:56

know, doesn't believe in in elections,

5:00

it's not looking good. And the first

5:02

couple of days, we have

5:04

a mass shooting. And his first

5:07

statement is, I think what we really just need is more prayer. So

5:09

listen, since the shooting, I have been praying

5:12

for mentally ill people to not be able

5:14

to buy AR-15s. And

5:17

to no avail, the prayer has not changed

5:19

anything, but we'll keep at it, Brian.

5:23

And by the way, he got rid of thoughts.

5:26

It used to be thoughts in prayer. We don't even want thoughts

5:28

anymore, Joe. You know what? In this economy,

5:30

in Joe Biden's economy, what can you expect? Just

5:32

prayer. He also said

5:35

that, hey, look, if you want to know where his policies

5:37

are, just pick up a Bible. The

5:40

problem is, for my people,

5:41

the Bible is the Old Testament. And so

5:43

I don't know that we want to be looking at the Old Testament

5:46

to figure out what Mike Johnson's policies

5:48

are going to be. Well, why do you think that the same moderates,

5:51

the so-called moderate Republicans, who claim that

5:53

Jim Jordan was far too extreme,

5:55

then turned around and voted unanimously for

5:57

someone like Mike Johnson, who is even more extreme.

6:00

A couple of reasons. First is,

6:02

penguin is like high school. Okay, don't

6:05

think everything is about politics. It's personal

6:07

first. Okay, I mean,

6:10

so the Jim Jordan thing, there was a lot of personalities

6:12

there. There were a lot of folks that were trying to

6:15

whip votes against that. And so there's

6:17

a reason why Jim Jordan didn't

6:20

happen. He's also the poster child for

6:22

all of that.

6:23

Quite frankly, Mike Johnson was just the last man standing.

6:25

And the most important thing that was clear,

6:28

even from some of our moderate friends, the most important

6:30

thing was that this did not end

6:33

in a deal with Democrats. They did

6:35

not want to have any deal where

6:37

the pro tem got powers to give them

6:39

more time because they didn't want to deal with Democrats.

6:41

So bipartisanship, the threat, the

6:44

threat

6:44

of working together, the evil

6:46

that that is of working together.

6:48

That is what forced them into the

6:50

last man standing. And the last man standing was Mike Johnson,

6:53

somebody that most of them don't have relationships

6:55

with don't know a lot of the moderates that are especially

6:58

freshmen. And Mike,

7:00

Mike's a nice guy, right? He's personable. And

7:03

it's a different packaging, but I actually just think they

7:05

were exhausted. They realized

7:07

that they were losing the polling show

7:10

that they were losing in the chaos that they created

7:12

and they eventually settled on the last option.

7:14

Yeah. Do you think the goal here was

7:17

to actually get that extremism without the bad

7:19

optics that would come from, you know, electing

7:22

a flamethrower like Jim Jordan? Well, there's no

7:24

doubt that I think Matt Gaetz and the others,

7:27

the goal was to replace Kevin

7:29

McCarthy with someone from the

7:31

Freedom Caucus, someone who was Maga, right?

7:34

And so it was about getting rid of Kevin

7:36

from for personnel again, personal reasons that they

7:38

had, but also some policy reasons. But

7:40

they wanted one of their own and now they got enough.

7:42

They got a straight up a lonesome denier,

7:46

someone who still will not say that Joe Biden

7:48

won the election. And

7:50

someone who worked really hard last

7:52

time to keep Donald Trump in office,

7:54

even though he won the election. So again,

7:57

listen, I'm willing to give.

8:00

Speaker Johnson, a

8:03

honeymoon period. Let's see what he does

8:06

as speaker in the next couple of days. Because look, sometimes

8:08

leadership does give you an opportunity

8:10

to moderate yourself. When you're an outsider,

8:13

when you're throwing bombs from

8:15

the minority party, you

8:17

know, and you're given a leadership position, sometimes

8:20

logic sets in. But the last couple

8:22

of days, so far, I guess

8:25

if I didn't read it in my Bible, then

8:29

it won't happen or it's not going to

8:31

happen. What is your message to those 18

8:34

Republicans who are currently sitting in Biden 1 districts

8:37

after this unanimous vote for Mike Johnson? Well,

8:40

look, they know they're in trouble, right? I

8:42

mean, I talked to these guys. They

8:44

know that they're in trouble. For –

8:48

let's get to a core reason why the

8:50

Republicans got rid of their number one fundraiser. Kevin

8:53

McCarthy was their number one top

8:56

dog fundraiser, not just their fundraiser. He was

8:58

the number one fundraiser of all time. He raised

9:00

a half a billion dollars for them last

9:03

time. So they get rid of him and

9:05

they go with someone else who, you know,

9:07

has $83,000 in his leadership account. You

9:11

know, Kevin McCarthy has tens of millions of dollars

9:13

there. Yeah. And so that's a big

9:15

problem for those

9:17

Biden folks. The other big problem is now it's

9:20

not just Marjorie Taylor Greene that's going to be the poster child.

9:23

It's going to literally be Speaker Johnson who

9:25

was out of touch with the mainstream

9:28

of these Biden districts. And

9:31

so, look, if you're them, yeah, this

9:33

is a big problem. But I

9:35

think, quite frankly, it was a bigger problem for

9:37

them not to have a speaker, the

9:40

chaos continuing to go on and go

9:42

on and not have a speaker. That was actually worse than

9:45

settling on this guy. Yeah, although, I mean,

9:48

the argument can be made for the exact opposite now,

9:50

which is that instead of just being enmeshed

9:52

in the same dysfunction that everybody kind of expects

9:54

at this point from Republicans, now they're

9:56

saddled with a guy who is anti-LGBT

9:59

rights. anti-abortion, anti-free

10:02

and fair elections. And so, you know, the

10:04

argument can be made. But remember, the Republicans were doing

10:06

this for nine months. Like the last nine months,

10:08

these moderates were taking terrible votes

10:10

anyway. I mean, these guys voted for a CR

10:13

to cut government funding by 30%. Now,

10:15

look, I'm a Democrat who believes government should

10:18

spend less, right? As the American family

10:20

is spending less, government should spend less. I do think

10:22

we should look at pre-COVID spending,

10:25

right? What, where can we lower spending? I also

10:27

think we should be raising revenue at

10:29

the same time. So when we talk about

10:31

the budget deficit, Republicans

10:34

only just want to cut. They don't talk about raising. We

10:36

need tax parity. I'm not interested in increasing

10:38

taxes. I am interested in having tax

10:41

parity where, you know, are the richest

10:43

billionaires in America paying a lower

10:45

percentage than obviously,

10:47

you know, folks that, you know, work minimum

10:49

wage. And so, you know, tax parity

10:53

and watching where our spending, I think that's important. But

10:55

these guys voted for a 30% cut

10:58

across the board. They

11:00

didn't come with a scalpel. They came with

11:02

a hatchet and all the moderates voted for

11:04

that. So there are so many votes, Brian, that they've already

11:07

taken, quite frankly, that they're going to have

11:09

to defend, let alone, you know, Michael Johnson's,

11:12

the 10 commandments is the first

11:14

couple of bills we're going to pass. Yeah. You

11:17

know, given what has come out about Johnson

11:19

in the day since he's been elected, has there,

11:21

and you alluded to this before, but has there been any

11:24

acknowledgement from any of your colleagues on the right that

11:26

they might have shit the bed on this one? Oh,

11:28

no, they know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They know they shit

11:30

the bed on this one. And

11:33

you heard it. You heard it

11:35

in all of their comments

11:37

leading up to this. Right. They were, they started

11:40

embracing democratic talking points. We

11:42

were saying it's chaos. We were saying, you

11:44

know, they can't govern. We were saying that

11:47

this is going to lead to the Democrats taking over the

11:49

House. And then you started seeing Republicans saying that.

11:51

You even started seeing that on Fox News. Why?

11:53

Because it was true. It

11:55

was tough to deny your eyes

11:58

of what you were watching. But

12:00

by the way, not all is kumbaya.

12:04

I mean, you already have Matt Gaetz

12:06

and the chairman of Ways and Means fighting

12:08

publicly. All that

12:10

personalities that we've seen over the last couple

12:12

of weeks play out. This

12:14

is going to continue. This is there still. It's

12:17

bubbling under the surface. Sure, they're going to have a honeymoon

12:19

period with Mike Johnson for a little bit.

12:21

He'll have a little runway. But they're

12:23

going to have problems passing rules. They're going to have

12:25

problems keeping the government open. They're going to still need

12:28

Democrats to do that. They're going to have problems

12:30

on Ukraine funding. They're going to have problems on

12:32

all sorts of areas. And so this is not

12:35

over. We are in a – we're

12:37

in a pause. We're in a little halftime,

12:39

if you will, with the Republican chaos

12:42

and the infighting that they have, because

12:45

unlike Nancy Pelosi, who showed

12:47

America how you govern with

12:49

a small minority, there is not

12:51

a single Republican that can do that.

12:54

Right, Frank.

12:56

Just building on one of the points you made, the Ukraine

12:58

funding point, is there anything that Democrats

13:01

will be able to do to ensure funding

13:03

to Ukraine, given that they're in the

13:05

minority? Or is it just – and this is a little bit

13:07

like procedural here, but is it completely up

13:09

to Mike Johnson to determine what comes to the

13:11

floor? So we can do a discharge petition,

13:15

which is if you get a majority of members

13:18

to sign on to the discharge, then it

13:20

has to come to the floor. The speaker can't

13:22

stop it coming from the floor. Also, the speaker said

13:24

in his speech he plans on empowering

13:26

his chairman. Well, if his chairman want

13:29

to bring this to the floor, then it should also come to the floor.

13:32

So there is going to be a vote on Ukraine. And

13:34

I think he actually – Mike Johnson said

13:36

that. He said a majority of the members support Ukraine.

13:39

He then said, obviously, he wants to look at the numbers. He

13:41

wants to have – that in control. He wants transparency.

13:44

So they're going to put some stuff in there

13:46

that, quite frankly, some of it might not

13:48

be objectionable. I don't think Americans have

13:50

a problem with transparency and

13:53

auditing of dollars we're spending. I

13:55

think that makes sense to me. So long as we

13:57

support Ukraine and so long as we understand

13:59

that we're – We can't have Putin win, and by the way, even Mike

14:01

Johnson said we can't have Putin win because that would

14:04

also be helpful to China. So I

14:06

think he's there that

14:08

it has to happen. I just don't think he's figured

14:11

out the path yet. Yeah. Well, to

14:13

the flip side of that question, right

14:15

now we do have Democrats who control the

14:17

Senate and the White House, but what can a far-right

14:20

Republican majority still accomplish in the House

14:22

unto themselves?

14:23

Nothing.

14:24

I mean, they can't accomplish anything. I mean,

14:27

let me look at the first nine months when they were more unified

14:30

than they're going to be in the next 12, 13 months. Are

14:33

you suggesting that the gas stoves

14:35

bill didn't have a massive impact on American

14:38

society? There are people who are medicated

14:40

now because they did this gas stove thing. I mean,

14:42

it was a joke, okay?

14:45

I mean, anyone who's listening, has anyone come

14:47

to your house and taken away your gas

14:49

stove? By the way, not just your gas stove.

14:51

They did a thing on ceiling fans. Has anyone

14:54

come and taken your ceiling fan? Right?

14:56

I mean, this is all the messaging

14:59

nonsense that they tried to do. These bills are

15:01

going nowhere. There's no legacy

15:03

of this Congress other than

15:06

the chaos that they created. That's what

15:08

people are going to remember. They're going

15:10

to remember they removed their speaker, installed a MAGA

15:12

guy, a Trump guy, and the Senate's

15:15

not going to take any of this nonsense. It didn't take

15:17

any of the nonsense the first nine months,

15:19

so they can say, oh, we passed the most conservative

15:21

this. We passed the most conservative that. None

15:24

of it is law. None of it. And

15:26

so, you know, nothing's going to change. We'll

15:29

have more messaging stuff. It'll be more anti-Biden,

15:32

Hunter Biden. It'll

15:34

be more of the same. They're going to go back to

15:36

their greatest hits. Well,

15:39

given who Republicans just elevated to the highest job in

15:41

their party, what message are they sending to voters

15:43

ahead of 2024 given some of Mike

15:45

Johnson's positions? Trump controls

15:47

the party. I mean, the message

15:50

that I think everyone should recognize is

15:52

that Trump is in full control

15:55

of the Republican Party, full control. And

15:57

if Donald Trump were to become president, then that would be

15:59

a good thing. again and have Republican majorities,

16:02

Donald Trump will be able to do whatever the heck

16:04

he wants. There will be no guardrails. There will

16:06

be nobody asking questions. It will be whatever

16:09

Trump wants. Congress will become irrelevant. The

16:11

legislature will become irrelevant. They will

16:13

just rubber stamp whatever Donald

16:15

Trump wants to do. And so that is something voters

16:17

should really consider because I do think

16:19

it's healthy when

16:21

maybe the president and the legislature doesn't always agree,

16:24

even if it's Democrats. It's okay if

16:26

the legislature, the Democrats and the President

16:28

and Joe Biden don't agree all the time. That's okay. You

16:31

get to a better product that way, right?

16:33

What's going to happen here is the first thing that comes out of Donald

16:35

Trump's mouth will become law is

16:38

what will happen if Republicans have full control, and that's

16:40

where it's dangerous. – To a similar

16:42

point here, James Comer, the Republican

16:45

chair of – – Yeah, the Deep Thinker. – He

16:49

recently came out with a brand new smoking gun. – The head

16:51

of the intelligentsia caucus. – He recently

16:53

came out with a brand new smoking gun against Biden

16:55

in the form of a loan repayment that

16:57

Biden received from his brother in 2018

17:00

when he was neither in office nor a candidate

17:02

for office. So I'm hoping that

17:04

you can take a few minutes here and point

17:06

me to the illegal part. – So

17:08

here we go. Here's the story. I'm going to do the

17:10

story even quicker than you just did it. Two brothers

17:13

loan each other money. They pay it back, not

17:15

in office, end of story. One

17:17

brother gives one brother money. The other brother

17:19

pays it back. No one is elected at all.

17:22

They're both private citizens. What

17:25

are we talking about? – Yeah. – Okay.

17:27

Oh, well, it could be this. It could be that. We

17:29

think it's this. We think that. No evidence. We're

17:32

back to the same thing. Listen, James,

17:35

this is your friend Jared talking to you. Don't

17:37

make me continue to embarrass you

17:39

in committee. I mean, I'll

17:42

bring the board again. I'll start drawing

17:44

things. Okay, don't

17:46

make me do it. I actually

17:48

feel bad when I make

17:51

you look like a fool because I'm just exposing

17:53

what you're doing in committee. And by the way, you don't

17:56

listen to me. Even the Republicans that

17:58

serve with you on committee… They

18:00

think you're a jackass. They've

18:02

told me that because you've embarrassed

18:04

not just yourself You've embarrassed them

18:07

that impeachment

18:08

hearing was embarrassing your

18:10

own witness says there wasn't any evidence

18:12

So

18:12

do yourself a favor take a breath take

18:15

a breath

18:16

Right and don't come to a new

18:18

don't don't have a new hearing Over two

18:20

brothers loaning each other money when nobody

18:22

was in office and that's my that's my the

18:25

more you know James I'm more you know I feel

18:27

like that was perfectly put and also it kind of goes

18:29

without saying but when you Have lost Jonathan Turley

18:31

it might be time to take your ball and go home

18:34

Just just by the way it happened in the first

18:36

two and a half minutes of the hearing Yeah Anyway,

18:38

it was almost like the chairman forgot for a second

18:41

that like oh, yeah half the time of this

18:43

hearing Democrats get to talk Like we

18:45

weren't going to tell the American people Exactly

18:48

what was happening Well, it didn't even matter what

18:50

the Democrats had to say because the Republicans were doing

18:52

the Democrats job forum all those Republican witnesses

18:55

Were like hey, man, there's no there there

18:57

It was so bad that

18:59

when I tell you that I had Half

19:02

a dozen members that I served with on that

19:04

committee come up and tell me how bad

19:06

that went for them And then members

19:09

on the floor came up to talk to

19:11

me that they watched it Fox

19:13

News even panned

19:15

how bad it was Steve Bannon

19:17

said it was terrible. It was a complete

19:19

it was failure theater So look, you

19:22

know Look some of the Republicans really like going to the

19:24

theater. So if James

19:26

wants to have more failure theater will

19:28

be there I'll bring my playbill Okay,

19:31

and we'll and we'll have at it, but he better find

19:34

something on the president United

19:36

States that meets high crimes or and misdemeanors

19:38

Which by the way again, there's been no evidence that

19:40

that happens But if they want to continue this nonsense

19:43

and this continue hunter Biden nonsense and try

19:45

to put that on to onto the president It's

19:47

going to continue to fail. Okay,

19:50

look, they've spent millions of dollars telling the American people

19:52

That hunter Biden has problems and he does he cleared

19:55

us and he's probably broken the law and he's been

19:57

indicted And if he found guilty

19:59

that he needs to go to jail because that's how the

20:01

system of justice works just like we feel about Donald

20:03

Trump. He's innocent until proven guilty but

20:06

ultimately a jury of peers or a judge

20:08

finds him guilty and then he goes to jail.

20:11

But there's nothing on Joe, not a single

20:14

solitary thing and they've spent

20:16

millions of dollars, they've had 10 months

20:18

to find one shred of evidence and

20:21

the best they have is an innuendo

20:24

and that his son's got issues. Yeah

20:26

you know you mentioned that this was failure theater. Somehow

20:29

this was only the second worst news of

20:31

theater that Republicans have dealt with in the last couple months

20:34

so we'll just we'll leave that there.

20:37

With that said Congressman thank you so much for taking

20:39

the time today, I appreciate it. You got it, thank you.

20:42

Thanks again to Jared Moskowitz, that's it for this episode,

20:45

talk to you next week.

20:48

You've been listening to No Lie with Brian Tyler

20:50

Cohen produced by Sam Graber, music by Wellesley,

20:52

interviews captured and edited for YouTube and

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Facebook by Nicholas Nicotero and recorded

20:57

in Los Angeles, California. If you

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enjoyed this episode please subscribe on your preferred

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rating and a review and check out briantylercohen.com

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for links to all of my other channels.