Politics devolved into fisticuffs after two Republicans in Michigan engaged
in a scuffle that sent one of them to the emergency room over the weekend.
Now, the fight involved Wayne County Republican, James Chapman and
Claire County Republican Chair, Mark DeYoung, okay?
So there you see their images.
Chapman is on the left hand side, DeYoung is on the right hand side.
Now let's get to the context of what led to this brawl.
So the GOP's State Committee came together for a meeting at the Doherty Hotel
in Clare, as members have been feuding over the party's direction and
the leadership approach of the new chairwoman, Kristina Karamo.
And that's according to the Detroit News.
Now, some Republican politicians arriving at the venue
on Saturday were pretty frustrated to find that they couldn't enter.
It was a closed door meeting that was limited only to members of
the state committee.
Now, in an interview with The Detroit News, James Chapman,
a Republican from Wayne County, said that he had traveled to Clare in order
to attend the meeting, but was forced to listen to it through a locked door,
was not very happy about that.
So Chapman said, he and others said the Pledge of Allegiance together in
the lobby outside the meeting and
acknowledged that he wiggled the knob of the door leading into the meeting room.
Eventually, Mark DeYoung, Chairman of the Clare County Republican Party,
heard the wiggling and walked over to the door,
where he saw someone flip him off through a small window, and he didn't like that.
So when DeYoung finally opened the door, all hell broke loose and
things got a little crazy, okay?
So DeYoung told the press that, quote,
he kicked me in my balls as soon as I opened the door.
>> [LAUGH] I mean,
that's taking ball busting to a literal degree right there, okay?
>> So the scuffle, believe it or not,
intensified with Chapman running at DeYoung and slamming him into a chair.
During a phone interview from the emergency room, by the way,
he noted that he suffered a broken rib as a result of this fight.
Chapman alleged that DeYoung had said, quote,
I'll kick your ass, and swung at him.
DeYoung denied those claims.
At one point, Chapman removed his own glasses when things started to get real
serious, and he said this, when you see me taking my glasses off, I'm ready to rock.
>> [LAUGH] >> So
then Chapman allegedly proceeded to take DeYoung by the legs and knock him over.
Multiple officers were called, and they showed up to the hotel after the incident.
And DeYoung says he intends to press charges against Chapman as a result
of this.
So here's an image that was tweeted out.
Scuffle breaks out at Michigan GOP state committee meeting and
Mark DeYoung says this, we're so divided, I just wish we could come together.
And it warms my heart a little bit because I was under the assumption that it was
just the left that engaged in this kind of infighting, but luckily, no,
both sides engage in that kind of fighting.
Well, I haven't seen any physical stuff on the left, but
there's certainly some physical stuff going on on the right.
[LAUGH] >> Yeah,
I think the two parties are actually super different in this regard.
And I don't mean the two sides, I mean the two parties, okay?
So Ana's right, within online left wing community, online right wing community,
everybody's attacking each other 24/7, right.
So we're similar in that sense these days.
The left didn't used to attack each other this much, but now it's all bets are off,
right, so I get that.
But among the political parties, no, it's very stark difference.
And this time, it's a rare time where they should meet in the middle.
So for the Republicans, they're literally assaulting each other, right?
>> And bragging about it.
>> Totally.
>> I'm ready to rock.
>> Okay, [LAUGH] l Marjorie Taylor Green gets up in Lauren Bobert's
face in Congress and calls her a little bitch.
People start wearing, like, rifle things, and there's nonstop.
And then the attack against Kevin McCarthy, and, I mean,
it's just a bloody mess, right?
There's that Trump supporter who want to go potentially kill Obama and
Jamie Raskin, but he also wanted to kill Kevin McCarthy, right?
They wanted to hang Mike Pence, you remember, on January 6?
And meanwhile, this guy comes in and
sent the guy to a hospital without how he kicked him in the balls,okay?
[LAUGH] This is crazy.
No, you got Republicans, you got to dial down that violence, that's insane, right?
Meanwhile, the Democrats, exact opposite.
My God, criticizing Biden on something he definitely should be criticized about,
that he didn't do at all, that he totally lied about.
No, no, no, no, no, no, I can't criticize them, but the media would yell at me.
No, no, every Democrat's great.
The Democratic leaders are wonderful.
The Democratic Party is great, I love it when we lose all these elections,
they're so great.
No, I need you to fight a little bit, progressives get into action,
fight back a little bit rhetorically, politically,
not like the lunatic right wingers with fights and literal fights.
>> By the way, this apparently isn't the first time that political
tensions among the Republican Party erupted into fisticuffs violence.
So at least four county parties in Michigan have been at open
war with themselves, with members suing one another or
putting forward competing slates that claim to be in charge.
The night before an April state party meeting, two GOP officials got
into a physical altercation in a hotel bar over an attempt to expel members.
And so here's footage from that incident between
Kalamazoo Republican Party Chair Kelly Sackett and
Macomb County GOP Secretary Melissa Pehlis.
Let's watch these things.
>> I don't [INAUDIBLE] question.
>> Damn, what I am suppose to do with that.
If they hear these things and they don't think it is.
>> [INAUDIBLE] How many [INAUDIBLE]?
[INAUDIBLE] >> How many [INAUDIBLE]?
>> By the power invested in me.
Is that what you said?
You're all going to jail.
You're all going to go down.
>> [LAUGH] are you sure, get f*** out of here.
>> By [INAUDIBLE] you're no longer [INAUDIBLE]
>> Get you s**t out of here.
>> Aah!
>> Now we got a problem.
>> Yeah, it's not good.
That's don't don't do that.
>> So, look, the Civil Rights Movement had this great phrase that I love so much.
They would create good trouble.
That's where they're not the aggressors, but the vicious racist sheriffs in
the south would attack them, and then they would get the press to pay attention to
that so they could win over the white population, which they had to in order
to get the Civil Rights back to the Voting Rights Act passed, right?
They would create good trouble after good trouble because they were on the right
side of the issues.
The Republicans have nothing but bad trouble, like weirdo violence and
all that stuff.
And on the Democratic side, we have no trouble, nothing, zero.
No fight, no spirit, nothing, okay?
So the whole thing is out of whack.
The one fun part of the story is the glasses, okay?
And there I'm with the brother, even though he's the one that's totally wrong.
When I used to fight when I was younger- >> You would take your glasses off?
>> The minute I took my glasses or my jacket off-
>> You were ready to rock?
>> [LAUGH] Exactly.
And my friends would be like, boy.
If I start taking the glasses off, they'd like, Cenk, don't do it,
don't do it, okay?
[LAUGH] So because when you get into a fight,
you don't wanna get punched in the face with your glasses on.
>> Of course, I mean, yeah.
>> [LAUGH] Right, and when Alex Jones evaded our set at the 2016 RNC,
when I got up, I almost started to take my jacket off, and that's when Ben sprung up.
>> I remember that, yeah.
>> [LAUGH] He's like, I've seen this movie before, and so I hear you, but
that's because, look, in that case, the Alex Jones case is totally different.
But when I was younger, I was a kid, I mean, a little bit older than that, right,
but these are grown adults that are politicians.
I mean, this is madness.
>> Look, and I understand that passions are evoked in these political debates and
these political fights, especially when there's disagreement
with those on your side, but it's not helpful in any way, and in fact,
makes your party look foolish if things devolve into violence of any form, okay?
Violence doesn't win anyone over- >> 100%.
>> Ever, it just doesn't it, doesn't.
It doesn't take a freaking rocket scientist to figure that out.
>> Okay, so I'm gonna give you a poll real quick that's serious, and
then a lighter thing.
28% of Republicans said it might be time for violence.
That's a real poll, they did it twice, 28%.
That's tens of millions of people who say it might be time for violence,
that's a dangerous trend.
>> We should also pull the far left on that issue.
>> Okay, well, that's another, but by the way, they probably have and
it's not anywhere near that number.
So anyways, the left is, but now the absurdity.
I mean, think you could begin to see how different the two parties are,
cuz imagine if I criticized AOC earlier in the show for
not fighting against Biden enough, right.
Imagine if AOC walked in and just kicked Biden in the balls.
I'd be like, no, no, no that's not what I meant, that's insane.
Imagine if Bernie was like,
I don't like the way Senator Coons is treating you, bam!
[LAUGH] That's insane, insane.
And it's become relatively common in the Republican Party.
No, this country is like, we've got to somehow bring sanity back.
But I don't think either side is sane in the exact wrong direction.
>> Well, I think who might bring sanity back, Cenk, is freshman Republican
lawmaker George Santos, who we will be talking about in our bonus episode for
our members today because he fancies himself as like the modern day Rosa Parks.
>> Okay, yeah, and- >> [LAUGH]
>> And we also have speaking of ridiculous
fights among grown ass men, Elon Musk and
Zuckerberg round eight or whatever we're on.
>> Aye!
>> Okay, and now they're literally measuring their penises.
Literally, that's the threat.
tyt.com/join, become a member, we'll see you there in a minute.