Something is terribly wrong with Arizona GOP Rep. Paul Gosar, and it goes way beyond his extremist right-wing political views and fondness for batshit crazy conspiracy theories.
Gosar was one of the speakers at failed, one-term, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump’s rally in Florence, Arizona, on Saturday evening, but when the congressman began speaking, his head swayed back and forth and he was unable to complete some of his sentences. Take a look:
Granted, it’d be tempting to say that karma is catching up with Gosar, but many who saw the video couldn’t help but express concern for him, which is something he’s never done for anyone else. After all, this is the same Paul Gosar who posted an anime video of him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and President Joe Biden back in November.
Here’s some of the reaction to Gosar’s bizarre behavior:
This is what my family members who had Parkinson’s were like. I hope someone helps him and he retires from Congress, away from us to do more damage to American ppl & to himself as he badly needs to care for his health issues https://t.co/6Htu7LJeBg
This is just sad. He clearly needs medical help. I know his family spoke out against him, but is there nobody who cares for this man who can intervene?
Parkinson's? Lewy Body Dementia? ALS? He definitely has a serious health issue and is rapidly deteriorating. It looks like he is also in denial of his condition.
Wow. Could that be Huntington's disease? Almost 7 years ago, when he was ~49, he claimed arthritis & two compressed vertebrae in his neck & lower back from hunching over as a dentist caused spasms in his hand. Whatever he has, it has worsened markedly.https://t.co/3lW9mY3hpe
I have Parkinson’s. That is exactly what I look like when I try to take the carbidopa/levodopa medicine that they prescribe for it. It’s called dyskinesia. Involuntary movement, especially of the head and hands.
For those of you keeping score at home in the Great GOP Civil War of 2021, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) says he’s officially done with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) because Mitch isn’t being sufficiently subservient to failed, one-term former President Donald Trump.
Yep. Lindsey says he won’t even support Mitch to be the next majority leader if Republicans happen to win back control of the Senate in the midterm elections.
During an appearance on Fox News Wednesday evening, Lindsey told host Sean Hannity:
“Elections are about the future. If you want to be a Republican leader in the House or the Senate, you have to have a working relationship with President Donald Trump. He’s the most consequential Republican since Ronald Reagan. It’s his nomination if he wants it, and I think he’ll get reelected in 2024.”
If elections are about the future, as Graham asserts, why would you want to hitch your wagon to a man who was impeached twice, lost by nearly 8 million votes, and has a lower positive approval rating among the public than gonorrhea, not to mention that he’s facing indictment in multiple jurisdictions?
But Lindsey was far from finished laying a massive smooch on Trump’s fat butt, adding:
“I’m not going to vote for anybody for leader of the Senate as a Republican unless they can prove to me that they can advocate an ‘American First’ agenda and have a working relationship with President Trump, because if you can’t do that, you will fail.”
Graham: If you want to be a Republican leader in the House or the Senate, you have to have a working relationship with Trump. Can Senator McConnell effectively work with the Donald Trump. I’m not going to vote for anybody that can’t have a working relationship with Trump pic.twitter.com/boOjekgyTT
Pay attention, Lindsey: DONALD TRUMP HAS ALREADY FAILED! He failed miserably and will go down as the worst president in American history. Step aside, Millard Fillmore and Warren Harding, Dotard Donnie is taking your spot!
Graham was asked Thursday by Fox host Sandra Smith if he really meant what he told Hannity:
“When you go back to the warning to Mitch McConnell, why would you do that in this moment in a midterm election election year?”
Graham snapped back with this reply:
“Are you not listening? It’s not a warning. He says he wants to be the Republican leader. I’ve acknowledged he’s been the most consequential Republican leader of my lifetime. … But look what Mitch accomplished working with Donald Trump. The question is, how do we go forward as a party?”
Graham then added to be an effective GOP leader “you don’t have to kiss Donald Trump’s ass, but you got to have a working relationship with him for us to be successful.”
Fox News anchor Sandra Smith: "When you go back to the warning to Mitch McConnell, why would you do that in this moment in a midterm election year?"
If that’s the case, then why is Lindsey so eager to pucker up and kiss Donald Trump’s ass?
Republicans are convinced they’ve got the 2022 midterms all sewn up, but based on the way they’re sniping at each other ten months out, they might not want to count those chickens just yet.
Oh, and Lindsey, one other thing: Do us all a favor and wipe that orange and brown smudge off your nose.
For Republicans, last week began with ecstasy and ended with agony, as factions within the party began to turn on each other.
The high point for the GOP was when Glenn Youngkin (R) defeated Terry McAuliffe (D) in the Virginia gubernatorial election. For a while, it even looked as if the incumbent Democratic governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, might also be ousted by a GOP challenger, but Murphy managed to squeak out a narrow victory.
And then, as Aaron Blake of the Washington Postnotes, came Friday, and for most of the day it appeared House Democrats might not have the votes to pass President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package. But something odd happened: Republicans in the House failed to hold all of their members to vote against the Biden bill:
Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed late Friday night and is headed for his signature after months of intense wrangling over the details — particularly whether it would be tied to a larger spending plan that progressives insisted upon passing alongside it. But in the end it wasn’t really those progressives who provided the key votes, but rather the 13 Republicans. The final vote count was 228 to 206, meaning if no Republicans had voted for the bill, it wouldn’t have passed.
Those 13 defections may have all but sealed the fate of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), especially if Republicans manage to retake the majority in the 2022 midterm elections.
The sniping began immediately after the infrastructure bill passed with GOP support, and the right-wing of the party wasn’t shy about expressing their disgust:
I can’t believe Republicans just gave the Democrats their socialism bill.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) issued a statement which read in part:
“That 13 House Republicans provided the votes needed to pass this is absurd.”
The ever-histrionic Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) went on a tweet storm, threatening to do everything but call down a plague of frogs and locusts on the nation:
“Majority Makers” just became Socialism Makers.
There is only one cure.
Remove them from committees.
Stop helping them financially.
They don’t deserve it and solidly proved it by delivering Biden’s agenda.
Keep in mind that McCarthy clearly misread what was building inside the House GOP caucus, saying earlier this week that he expected the infrastructure was doomed to failure:
It did not fail. McCarthy and the GOP leadership did. And that alone tells you Republicans are in disarray. That doesn’t bode well for their plans to retake the majority a year from now.
Oh, and there’s also a human infrastructure bill headed down the tracks. It could come up for a vote as soon as next week.
The downfall of Kevin McCarthy, meanwhile, is almost complete.
On Saturday, a couple hundred protesters showed up at the “Justice for J6” rally in Washington, D.C. The crowd was reportedly so sparse that media and police outnumbered the people there to show their support for the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, many of whom are still in custody and facing years in prison.
Most notably absent at the rally were Congressional Republicans, including Reps. Matt Gaetz (FL) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), both of whom have said they think the Jan. 6 rioters are being treated unfairly.
The absence of the elected GOP members was certainly noticed by the rallygoers, according to the right-wing Washington Times:
“Where’s McCarthy? Where’s McConnell? They’re all useless,” one demonstrator in the crowd yelled.
Steve Merkel of Baltimore who attended the rally called Republicans “cowards,” and said it was wrong that no one came out to support nonviolent offenders charged over the riot.
Merkel added:
“They’re cowards because they’re not standing up for those constitutional rights. They’re supposed to be protected. I call them political animals who are afraid of bad media coverage.”
What’s this? Trouble in right-wing insurrectionist paradise? Sure sounds that way.
As Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) later remarked, the pathetic turnout and lack of any elected Republicans in attendance suggests that the Cult of Trump may be dissipating:
“The police showed up in force, and they had the presence that they should have had on January 6th, considering what Donald Trump was promising, and I think that may have been a deterrent. Also, perhaps Donald Trump’s ability to inspire people to show up on his behalf may also be fading.”
On @Acosta ,Rep. Eric Swalwell says the failure of #JusticeforJ6 suggestsTrump's ability to incite a crowd may be fading, "Perhaps Donald Trump's ability to inspire people to show up on his behalf may also be fading." pic.twitter.com/RrvetW363g
On Friday, the unofficial kickoff of the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination took place in Des Moines as 1,200 evangelicals gathered to hear potential GOP candidates tell them why they’re the best choice to be standard bearer for conservatives.
James Pindell of the Boston Globe was also in attendance, and while he expected to hear unwavering support for ex-president Donald Trump, what he found was the most Republicans are ready to move on from Trump:
“I agree with pretty much everything Trump did on policy as president, but I don’t think it would be good for him or good for the country if he ran again,” said Ken Hayes, a retired nonprofit worker from rural Fort Dodge, who said he prayed for Trump every day the man was in office.
There was still a core of support for Trump among those who showed up, but of the 15 attendees Pindell spoke with, not a one said they thought it would be a good idea for the Donald to run again in three years:
“For Mary Bloom, a 55-year-old homeschooling parent who attended Friday’s event and believes some of Trump’s claims about the 2020 election, ‘It is what it is and we all need to move on to the next election.’
“Indeed, while Iowa traditionally grants winners of the first-in-the-nation contest momentum in the presidential race, in 2024 it could do something else: show that the party is moving on. That subtext was apparent in speeches on Friday.”
For example, the words of former Vice President Mike Pence, who is seen by some as the natural next step after Trump. He told the crowd he was already tired of the Biden administration:
“After 177 days of open borders, higher taxes, runaway spending, defunding the police, abortion on demand, censoring free speech, canceling our most cherished liberties, I’ve had enough.”
David Kochel, a longtime Iowa GOP consultant, admits he thinks “without a doubt” that Trump would win the Iowa Caucuses. But he’s not sure if the former president will be in the running:
“The base doesn’t know what Trump is going to do either. Everyone is in the same boat to see whether he will run. And who knows where we will all be in six months.”
That’s certainly true, because in six months there’s a better than even chance Donald Trump will be indicted and facing decades behind bars. And even if he does run, he’ll be doing so as a failed, one-term, twice-impeached loser. That’s not exactly a winning résumé for a presidential contender.
