against a medal of freedom for the law enforcement officials who protect every last one of them. we called on you in the days after january 6th, and we ve called on you to understand what these days are like when it appears like the normal friction, which sort of the baseline is not ideal, might be heightened, and i wonder if today is one of those days in sort of the aftermath of these tapes of hearing kevin mccarthy in his own voice, of seeing these really revealing quotes by mcconnell, who notably isn t denying any of it, or is sort of the baseline dysfunction the new level set? so, a few thoughts. let s take this person by person, i guess, if we could. mccarthy, kevin mccarthy, who is the house republican leader and is seeking to be the next speaker, what most republicans are focusing on is that he dropped those objections, that he, in the aftermath, i think, a lot and again, speaking from what republicans tell me, it doesn t have any impact because he, in fact, did not call tru