Everybody’s Working for the Weakened

When your adversary is digging a hole, hand him a shovel. Or better yet, hand him a Jim Jordan. If, after the appointment of Stephen Miller and the backing of Pete Hegseth, you still had any questions about how the GOP would respond to the election beatdown, this should clarify things. House Republicans Select Jim Jordan as Their New Leader. He’s got all the qualifications you’d expect: He is inappropriately combative, remarkably unlikable, has never passed a bill, “played a key role in Trump’s bid to overturn the results of the 2020 election,” and has been implicated in a sexual abuse cover-up.

+ “Revolutions rarely get more moderate. And having lost the political middle, Trump may now be down to his truest believers.” CNN: Republicans take an approach that defies logic after brutal midterm losses. (In fairness, defying logic had been working out pretty well until last week.)

+ The president may look weakened to voters, but he still looks pretty strong among his enablers. House Republicans Block Hegseth Impeachment. In this case, the House GOP had some help from Democrats who were absent from the vote in numbers that could’ve made the difference. Did Hegseth’s gig just get saved because of scheduling conflicts and bad traffic? (Considering the midterm voting numbers, I’m pretty sure Democrats qualify for the carpool lane.)