of the republican party in the house are at each other s throats and at the throat of the would be leader kevin mccarthy from california, the man who wishes to be speaker. there is a right wing represented by the freedom caucus. there are still a small handful of moderates, which in a house where there is a very slim majority can cause endless trouble. and then there is the looming shadow and a hidden hand and not so hit man of donald trump, who has control of the freedom caucus in the house and will manipulate and exploit everything that happens in the house in order to defend himself politically and legally. we re dealing with somebody under the gun of numerous prosecutions right now. can you see donald trump but can you also see joe can you see donald trump but can you also seejoe biden going for the
marjorie taylor greene. tara, the freedom caucus has come out in support of mccarthy, but they have yet to put forward a rival for speaker of their own. political reports that the caucus is more likely to exert influence in, quote, use its leverage to secure procedural demands, but not blow up the race for speaker. now, tara, we know where this is going. because how about this. let s go back to november 2021, when you first told me this. he thinks he is going to be the next speaker of the house. he is never going to be speaker of the house, jonathan. never. this guy is spineless. he is doing this because he thinks that if he continues to pledge fealty to trump and to mainstream the party, that somehow these people are going to vote him in a speaker. no they re not. so, tara, that was almost a
this is really mostly just a pr stunt by the freedom caucus that likely won t go anywhere. it represents the complications that kevin mccarthy has keeping together these factions within his conference. the freedom caucus would like to see him do something but he doesn t appear willing to take that step. the house minority leader is also hitting back over the select committee s plans to go after phone records. this feels like a threat. phone records of republican members of congress. reporter: wolf, it s hard to interpret this message that the minority leader put out last night as anything other than a threat. it comes, of course, after cnn s exclusive reporting where we reviewed the select committee asked telecom companies and social media companies to preserve records of republican members of congress. mccarthy in a statement said that if these companies comply
feckless. sorry, you deserve it all. i m a registered conservative but i will say it s been very impressive to see republicans fight for once. don t stop! now fight for everything else. let me get to andy biggs. i will say this, too. owithout the freedom congress, the jim jordans, mark meadows, the ever so young, but he had a great time, he s been great. matt gaetz, elise stefanik, who has been a rising star. ratcliffe, devin nunes, this has been freedom caucus, i don t know. really seems to be the foundation of the backbone of the republican party. sean, the freedom caucus is a group of men and women who really are principled, and you get a great constitutional debate any time you come to the freedom caucus. but one thing we know is that this was an assault on our constitution. it s an assault on the united states of america. it s an assault on the american voters. that is the way we ve viewed this and that is why we ve stepped up and fought tooth and nail..
telling us that the russians are attacking us right now. we know that mitch mcconnell s state got $200 million in money from the oligarch after he led the he relaxation of sanctions on him. but we won t go into that. i want to play you a sound bite of lindsey graham of south carolina this morning from doha. take a listen. if you wonder what is going to happen in washington, impeachment will be over probably by mid-january. personally i think president trump will come out of this stronger. what do you make of lindsey graham? i don t know how long you ve known him, but i ve known him a long time. we worked on the gang of eight together in 2013 writing theism gra immigration bill that got called by the freedom caucus. and we did some good would, on that bill together. but he has become a guy who is just the number one defender of