Now that Kevin McCarthy has ousted Liz Cheney, he's more than happy to glibly proclaim the 2020 election outcome settled.
May 12, 2021

On the day that the House held a hearing where House Republicans insisted there was no insurrection on January 6th, there was no violence, and Black Lives Matter protesters are the real rebels, Liz Cheney was ousted on a voice vote for calling out Trump's Big Lie, a lie embraced by over half of Republican voters.

On that same day, after twisting his knife in Cheney's back, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy went to the White House and sat down with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell to discuss "areas where they can find common ground" as if there is any will at all on the part of the Republican Party to govern. No, really.

In the first clip above, behold! Kevin McCarthy speaks after the Republican conference meeting while he was still looking at his knife dripping her blood.

"Well, the conference will decide," McCarthy told a reporter. "But I don't think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election."

"I think that is all over with, I'm sitting there with the president today," he added.

WAIT, WHAT?

A full 2/3rds of Republicans believe the election was stolen from Trump.

That’s old news, but the latest polling, from SSRS for CNN in late April, indicates that – while a huge majority of Democrats, a solid two-thirds majority of independents, and a solid overall majority of Americans believes the Joe Biden’s election victory was legitimate — two-thirds of Republicans either believe or suspect that Trump’s victory was somehow stolen. (And by far the bulk of those, comprising 60% of all Republicans in the sample, took the harder line, saying there is “solid evidence” that the election was stolen from Trump.

This is, in fact, what cost Liz Cheney her leadership role. She called out The Big Lie and called on Republicans to call it out and reject it. McCarthy led the putsch to shut her up by taking her out of a lead role in the party. I'm no fan of Liz Cheney and have my own theory about how she sees this playing out, but on the basic, most fundamental level, she's right and McCarthy is a fcking liar.

McCarthy actually had the nerve to say this thing on the same day House Republicans were in a frenzy over the hearing on the events of January 6th -- a hearing where at least two Republicans insisted there was no violence and Trump incited no violence!

But keep watching the clip, because the second part of it is in November, when McCarthy went on Fox News to tell all the anxious viewers that under NO circumstances were they to accept Biden's victory as official.

Listen to this lying liar! "President Trump won this election," McCarthy said with authority. "So to everyone who is listening, do not be quiet. Do not be silent about this. We cannot allow this to happen before our very eyes."

McCarthy did everything he could to advance and cement The Big Lie. And now he's doing all he can to advance and cement his own political career, even if it means lying about literally everything while silencing the woman who was calling it out.

This is your daily reminder that Republicans are not interested in governing. It's all an act. They want the power without any of the responsibility. And yes, Liz Cheney and her family are as responsible as any for that. Don't mistake her one brush with the truth as anything other than her seeing her own path to leadership, running through the suburbs and other areas that have repudiated the Republican party. And with leaders like McCarthy, she just might succeed.

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