and now we turn to a special day around here called chai day with political strategist chai komanduri, a veteran of several campaigns, including president obama s, who made this point and this bond comparison. explain. it s good to be with you, ari. the bond comparison is simple. donald trump is like a bond villain. he s the hand behind the curtain, and kevin mccarthy is one of his goons. he s basically hired to do trump s bidding. and the reason is is donald trump has that republican congress in his pocket. over 50 members of that caucus have already endorsed donald trump, and that s very early in the cycle. that s with ron desantis still out there raising money but talking about a presidential campaign, polling, et cetera. all that so many members are in the trump camp, and kevin
problems at the top of the show, but as a party leader who s trying to have the sway over the people actually elected in the red fizzle, trump is pretty unpopular. he most recently lost to the current president. he got fewer votes in both of his national elections and he s been seen as a drag on republicans in the midterms that had an effect on those in congress, so how much they listen to him may not be normal math. it s different from, he s so popular. may be they re worry about being primaried, which is different than whether striking a deal is something the country is fine with. komanduri compares trump to a james bond villain, the puppet master pulling strings like this. take a look. you came across me so many times, yet you never saw me. it was me, james, the author of all your pain.
be a tell. chai komanduri argues mccarthy is just following trump s lead. this isn t really biden versus mccarthy it s biden v. trump and mccarthy is doing trump s bidding. telling republicans, yeah, just go ahead and drive the country off a cliff which, not a surprise here, contradict what is trump thought as president. i can t imagine anybody ever using the debt ceiling as a negotiating wedge. it s a sacred element of our country. they can t use the debt ceiling to negotiate. i say to the republicans out there, congressman, senators, if they don t give you massive cuts, you re going to have to do a default. and trump is leaning into this debt clash stance. he had a new follow-up post that says don t make a deal on the debt ceiling unless republicans get everything they want. now, where does trump stand. we were looking at his legal
Ari Melber spoke with Democratic strategist Chai Komanduri on The Beat to understand why George Santos is strategically important to Kevin McCarthy during tense debt ceiling negotiations. The embattled Long Island congressman is facing calls for his expulsion from the House of Representatives over his fraud allegations.
here, republicans stepped in with their procedural movement. they blocked the house vote on expulsion. although they didn t say they loved everything an toes is doing, instead referring to tht ethics committee. no republican voted against that referral. the republicans argument is innocent until proven guilty. let the ethics community look at this. democrats say it s a copout against taking a stand against the kind of lies that undermine the entire institution. i m joined by chai komanduri. welcome, sir. good to be here, ari. obviously we can understand politically drawing attention to such an unpopular fringe figure in the other party. what do you say to the argument that i m about to play for you of kevin mccarthy that you shouldn t expel anyone until they have had their day in court? take a look. look, i think the george santos indictment is very serious. i also know in america you re innocent until proven guilty. but i don t want to sit around