Donald Trump's handpicked RNC chair tried to talk down MTG from Speaker vote!

MICHAEL WHATLEY, the newly installed RNC co-chair, had already briefed Greene’s fellow House Republicans on the importance of party unity that morning, but Greene didn’t show. He delivered his pointed message to her personally: Don’t move against Johnson.

“He said, one, this is not helpful, and two, we want to expand and grow the majority in the House,” said a person familiar with Whatley’s message to Greene. “He was clear that any disruption to the conference on these efforts — including filing this [motion to vacate], does not help the case for party unity.”

In another era, a directive from the top Republican party official certainly would not go unheeded by a House back-bencher. Even in this era, you would think Whatley’s status as DONALD TRUMP’s handpicked RNC steward would mean something to a MAGA acolyte.

But Greene disagreed with Whatley, arguing that the party had time to rebound from a leadership switch before the election. And she admitted she’d spoken to Trump himself earlier in the day — leaving the impression that the former president had told her much the same as Whatley had.

The truth was, Greene had backed herself into a corner, and this morning, she’s facing a potential lose-lose situation: back down and look squishy or stand firm and risk a break with Trump.

At 9 a.m. she’s holding a news conference with fellow Johnson critic THOMAS MASSIE (R-Ky.), and her fellow Republicans are bracing for her to announce a vote on Johnson’s gavel as soon as this afternoon. If so, expect a quick vote to table.

Already her threats have taken a toll on her standing within the House Republican conference, where more and more lawmakers are growing tired of her self-aggrandizing antics, as our colleagues Jordain Carney and Olivia Beavers write.

They note, for instance, that Greene’s latest push comes as the GOP tries to take advantage of the campus unrest to make a messaging push on antisemitism. But, they write, instead of “going on the offense by attacking Democrats for insufficiently condemning pro-Palestinian protests on campuses, Republicans are now bracing for Greene to drag them into another internal fight that most of them would rather delay until after Election Day.”

The bigger issue is that Greene is defying not just her House colleagues, but also Trump and his hand-picked deputy, who made yesterday’s unusual face-to-face appeal.

Whatley told Playbook in a statement that “nothing is more important than party unity and ensuring that we are focused on beating JOE BIDEN and Democrats in November.”

Others in the Trump-aligned orbit are annoyed, to put it mildly, at Greene’s lack of political discipline. Some noted that she’d kept quiet in recent days until House Minority Leader HAKEEM JEFFRIES and other top Democrats made their backing of Johnson public yesterday morning — suggesting Greene got rope-a-doped into sparking another internecine fight.

“Fresh bait always finds a fish,” one senior GOP official told Playbook. “Jeffries throwing that out there, it’s chum in the water. Everyone knows what he did.”

Thomas Massie Asks Speaker Johnson to Resign – Massie Announces He’ll Support MTG Effort to Oust Johnson

April 17, 2024 | Sundance | 650 Comments

At a certain point after following politics closely, you move away from reacting to events and begin to focus on proactively predicting events. You start to develop a mental tuning fork that finds the frequency of DC compromise. In essence, you begin to assemble data and take notes on visible activity that indicates compromise.

Those notes then becomes predictive data and you keep it visible for later reference when trying to review motives and motivations for the DC schemes. Generally, if you keep close watch and take good notes, you will catch around 80% of the public datapoints that highlight the path of the political compromise. Things that make other things make sense.

The origin of MTG’s dark motives and her individual compromise originates in the timeline of her marital breakup, sexual exploits with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and eventually divorce. MTG, Lauren Boebert and Sean Hannity all have this origination timeline in common. I’m not sure what originates the Deep State compromise with Massie yet, when that initial touch took place, but I do know it goes back much further in the timeline of his congressional tenure.

Thomas Massie now joins with MTG in calling for the removal of Speaker Mike Johnson.

Let there be absolutely no doubt, removing Johnson right now is giving the speaker gavel to Democrats. This Machiavellian way to remove Donald Trump has always appeared to be the Deep State insurance policy.

When the U.S. Supreme Court reinstituted Donald Trump on the federal election ballots of the five leftist states who removed him, the high court noted that disqualifying a person from presidential office could only be done by congress, not by the individual states.

If the Democrats take control of the House, disqualifying Donald Trump from federal office will be the purpose of their first legislative act. They already hold the Senate. They will do this. Thomas Massie knows this.

So, ask yourself, who exactly is controlling the action of Thomas Massie; remember, he’s the former endorser of Ron DeSantis on behalf of the Sea Island multinationals (banks). Does the question answer itself?

Accept things as they are, not as you would prefer them to be.

When we *think* we have found the bottom of the corrupt and conniving state within the DC system… Pause, have a nice cup of coffee, then remind ourselves we’ll never find the bottom of this level of corruption; it’s ‘effen bottomless.

AHEM… Gnome’ sayin?

WASHINGTON DC – […] Massie’s decision was not well received during the meeting, according to several members in the room. And Republicans across the conference, including some members of the Freedom Caucus, quickly pushed back on the idea of booting Johnson, noting it would spark chaos without a clear successor — a repeat of the House’s nightmare in October.
[…] Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said after Tuesday’s conference meeting that he still thinks they can avoid a vote to terminate Johnson’s speakership. But one GOP lawmaker, granted anonymity to speak candidly, was less optimistic: “Folks are very discouraged. … We are screwed.”
The simmering rebellion isn’t a total surprise after Johnson on Monday evening announced his plans to send four separate bills to the floor — on aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, plus a fourth with other miscellaneous provisions. That sparked pushback from Greene and some other conservatives, who have long opposed attempts to send further cash to Ukraine. And that opposition to Johnson could grow as the week goes on.
His first major hurdle on that package will be getting it through the Rules Committee, where hardliners of his conference hold three GOP seats. But he’s expected to succeed there; while conservatives could block the bill if they unite with Democrats on the panel, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said on Tuesday that he will vote for the rule, which sets the parameters of the House’s floor debate, in committee.
But it gets tougher from there. To even bring the package up on the floor, Johnson will need a majority of the House. And given conservative opposition he’s almost certainly going to need Democratic support. Typically, the minority party does not help on so-called rule votes, but some have signaled they’d make an exception for Ukraine aid. (read more)

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Thomas Massie Asks Speaker Johnson to Resign – Massie Announces He’ll Support MTG Effort to Oust Johnson

April 17, 2024 | Sundance | 650 Comments

*AHEM*… Gnome’ sayin?

AHEM… Gnome’ sayin?