If you want to
gauge the real
state of our union,
look no further than your kitchen table.
At least that's according
to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Inflation has exploded
Mortgage rates have doubled
working Americans after inflation
and taxes have gotten a pay cut.
And AIG's
a staple of America's breakfast,
have gone from a cheap source of protein
to a luxury. Good.
If you're eating your eggs right
now, yes,
you know, the cost of eggs is up.
In fact,
it's more than double
what it was just a year ago.
So what are House
Republicans doing about it?
They are holding a series of high
profile hearings to get to the bottom of,
well, not the price of eggs.
Let's put it that way.
Thank God
for Elon Musk
for allowing to show us in the world
that Twitter was basically
a subsidiary of the FBI.
I want to assure you both here
we come not to trash the FBI,
but to rescue the FBI
from political capture.
So I'll ask again,
did you shadow be on my account?
Yes or no?
Again,
not to the best of my recollection.
So the answer is, Mr. Roth. Yes, you did.
So this is the committee
that's looking into the,
quote,
weaponization of the federal government,
federal government.
And a Washington Post ABC
News poll asked a very simple question.
What do you think about this committee?
Is it legitimate?
Is an attempt to score political points?
It's not even close.
56% say it's an attempt to score
political points.
And I come back to the point
that I often raise, which is that
voters are not as stupid
as people in Washington
seem to think that they are.
They understand what's going on here.
Well, yes.
I mean, it's pretty plain insight
and not the first time that Congress
has formed a committee
to just have a political purpose,
no doubt.
But the American people are hip to it.
I mean, listen,
this is part
we were talking in the last segment
about Joe Biden's
good week on economic populism
or what have you.
The other
part of the equation
is just the contrast
with what Republicans are doing.
And so
that also is working to the president's
benefit right now,
because when the Republican House
majority fresh off,
it's yes, more limited victory
perhaps than anticipated
puts this front and center
as as issue number one, not only do
the American people clearly see it
as political gamesmanship,
it is it is so far away
from the actual things
that the American people care about.
That it means the Republicans
going to have to sort of make up ground
here as they go forward.
That's right.
I talked to
a representative comer
who is over the oversight committee
and I asked him,
you know,
a lot of Americans
are going to deem these hearings
as retaliation politics.
And do you feel that way?
Are you going to do anything about it?
And he said
they make no apologies
for making this part of their strategy.
They believe investigating
the president is important
and bringing in issues
related to his family members.
So to your point,
I feel it's really striking,
you know, as a Capitol Hill
reporter to see them
double down on this,
knowing that the American people
aren't really interested,
knowing that over on the other side
of the Capitol,
senators are doing hearings
on the Chinese
surveillance balloon
and other matters
that Americans really
want to tune in about.
But right now,
what we're seeing is Republicans
off to a little bit of a slower start
on some of their plans,
but yet they're not backing down.
Yeah, I mean, it's
it is a little too transparent
and it also is so it's in such contrast
to when there's real work
being done to the real work
that's being done
in other parts of the Hill.
One of the highlights
we'll call it a highlight of this week's
hearings
was conservatives
trying to make this claim
that social media was censoring them
due to undue influence
from people in the government.
Just take a listen to this exchange
that happened between Congressman
Maxwell Frost and one of the Twitter
witnesses.
In this hearing
earlier, you testified about a 2019 tweet
that was about President Trump.
And I think it's from Miss Teagan.
What was the tweet about?
Please excuse my language.
This is a direct quote.
But Chrissy Teigen
referred to Donald Trump
as a free speech.
And what happened after MS.
Teigen posted her tweet?
What did the White House do?
What did the Trump White House do,
for my understanding?
The White House
reached out to ask
that this tweet be removed.
So this is all totally backfired
in spectacular fashion.
I mean, it was one part of
I remember talking to a someone close
to President Biden, and they were
I was asking them
about the increased oversight
that would happen from Congress.
And what they were saying is, look,
as long as we can
keep proposing plans
and frame the opposition
as not being pragmatic,
but not getting things done,
then that's going to be our strategy
going forward.
This helps with that.
This does help with that in a way.
That being said, to say that
there's not people
that are nervous in the White House
about some of the increased
investigations,
including maybe on immigration
and potentially
the Homeland Security Secretary
being brought down.
I wrote a story
this week about
White House officials
increasingly anxious
about the time
that it takes away
from actually addressing
real issues that are happening, I think.
But I think that they've hired lawyers
to deal with it.
But this is
I mean, the social media stuff
is such a cul de sac in all of this.
I do want to get one more thing in here
on a bit of a different topic.
Sarah Huckabee
Sanders
gave the Republican response
to Biden this week.
And I just want to play real quick what
she had to say.
Most Americans simply want
to live their lives in freedom and peace.
But we are under attack in a left
wing culture war.
We didn't start
and never wanted to fight.
Every day
we are told
we must partake in their rituals,
salute their flags
and worship their false idols.
I it's it just speaks to this question
of what
path is the Republican Party
going to take here?
They seem to be leaning into the culture
war stuff in addition to all of this
sort of fringy
conspiracy stuff
on the social media platform.
These are appeals
to the base
Pew Research Center,
which is really unparalleled,
has terrific
mainstream, large sample research
just in the last couple of days,
put out
an updated list of America's
top policy priorities
strengthen the economy.
No. One.
75% say it's top priority number
to reducing health care costs.
That's why you see Biden
leaning into insulin
and some of these other discussions.
Number three, defend against terrorism.
That's why the border
and the China
spy plane issues have such resonance.
You got to get way down that
list to get to two issues
issues of race equity in America.
That's 32%.
That would be on the Democratic base.
Side, I think.
And the issue of parents
having more control over things
or parental issues
down at 27%,
the only major issue
with lower interest in
that is COVID Here we are in early 2020.
What about these are
these are issues
that really appeal to the base
when you're looking at
what's left of the center or swing voters
or the broadest base of Americans,
it's the economy.
It's health care.
It's it's
protecting American national security.