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OH NO: Trump-Endorsed Republican LOSES ELECTION!
One of the largest indicators for the future of the Republican Party and its control by Donald Trump is whether Trump-backed candidates are still able to win races and pick up seats in Congress. We now have one sign that being a Trump-endorsed Republican in 2021 might not be such a good thing anymore, even in a conservative area. Yesterday, there was a runoff election for the US House seat representing Texas’s 6th congressional district. The result was that Jake Ellzey, a Republican, won the race carrying more than 53% of the vote. However, his opponent was not a Democrat, but a Trump-backed Republican named Susan Wright. Wright is the widow of the late Congressman Ron Wright, who died of COVID-19 complications earlier this year prompting the special election. Ron Wright is so far the only sitting member of Congress who has died from coronavirus.
Ellzey hinted during his victory speech that this was a sign of the old guard returning to the Republican Party: “One of things that we've seen from this campaign is a positive outlook, a Reagan Republican outlook, for the future of our country is what the people of the 6th District really really want.” Importantly though, Ellzey did not run as an anti-Trump Republican, but rather tried to overcome not being endorsed by the former president through raising more money and highlighting other endorsements. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry and US Representative Dan Crenshaw backed his campaign. Trump’s level of support in the North Texas district went down from a double digit win in 2016 to only carrying it by 3 percentage points when he ran for reelection 2020. But just because the former president’s level of support is waning in this district, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s shrinking in other Republican strongholds across the country. We’ll have to wait until next year to see how the rest of these pro-Trump candidates perform.
Matt Gaetz & Marjorie Taylor Greene Conference Goes Horribly Wrong
Republican Representatives Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene tried to hold a press conference yesterday that was meant to be in defense of the January 6th Capitol rioters. This was to be held in conjunction with the start of the House committee on the insurrection in order to run interference for Trump and his supporters. Gaetz and Greene apparently believe that the January 6th defendants are being treated too harshly by the legal system in terms of their detentions. But as soon as they tried to begin the press conference, protesters were able to shut the whole thing down. Greene was speaking at the podium when the event got out of hand. One protester kept blowing a whistle, while another approached Matt Gaetz and asked him repeatedly “are you a pedophile, congressman?” Louie Gohmert, who was also supposed to be a part of the presser, gave a brief, depressed statement before leaving, saying: “thank you, for those of you who really care about due process, thank you.” Everything about this was hysterical, from the premise of the event to the outcome. These far right representatives may have to find a safer space if they want to try to hold the event again.
From yesterday’s show:
Republicans BOO Republican for Telling Vaccine Truth
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson got booed by a far right audience for speaking the truth about COVID vaccines. Hutchinson is one of the several Republican leaders who in recent weeks have been ramping up the calls for people to get immunized. During an event, he told the crowd “does this [vaccine] impact fertility? Well the answer is no and that’s been the data.” This prompted the crowd to boo the governor, so he deferred to the doctor on stage to back up his assertions. As soon as the state’s vaccine official Dr. Jennifer Dillaha opened her mouth to agree with the governor, the boos reconvened along with some heckling and an attempt to stop her from speaking. Dr. Dillaha, through the jeers of “lie” and “liar,” said that while the vaccine doesn’t have any correlation with infertility, COVID itself does sometimes result in issues with pregnancy. Unfortunately, many in the crowd were too far gone to have any shot at being persuaded and this is exactly why the pandemic likely will continue through the fall and winter in the United States.
--More on the show:
--Peter Mougey, Senior Partner at Levin Papantonio Rafferty and Chair of their Securities and Business Litigation Department, joins David to discuss the proposed settlement against multiple pharmaceutical industry players over opioids
--The CDC announces that masks should return even for vaccinated people in some situations, including areas of high spread of COVID-19
--The disgusting anti-intellectualism and pseudo-intellectualism of the COVID-19 pandemic
--Republicans and media figures who claim to be "pro-police" widely ridicule and laugh at the police officers who testified on the first day of the House panel investigation the January 6 Trump riots
--MyPillow guy Mike Lindell offers $5 million to anyone who can disprove his voter fraud allegations, showing he has no idea about the concept of burden of proof
--A Christian pastor named Dan Burgoyne from California shoves his hands into dog poop to make some sort of point about god
--Republican Congressman Jim Jordan is caught obviously obfuscating his conversations with Donald Trump on January 6 when being interviewed on Fox News by Bret Baier
--Voicemail caller reminds us, when it comes to Trump supporters and "The Big Lie," that "it's not a lie if you believe it" per Seinfeld character George Costanza
--On the Bonus Show: Walmart offering college tuition for employees, judge forces accused Capitol rioter to unlock laptop with face recognition, full mandatory masking returning to Nevada, much more...
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