THE SHOW NOTES: Speakerless Republicans; The Middle East Simmers; Haley Surges

Oct 23, 2023

Yep, I’m out sick and not on radio and still doing show notes because there’s so much going on, and Philip is on vacation this week for his birthday. Thanks to Alan Sanders for filling in for me on the radio today. I’ll be back tomorrow.

Without further ado…

Welcome! The GOP remains speaker-less. The supposed front-runner, Tom Emmers, has a Trump problem. Trump hates him. There are now nine candidates for Speaker.

Headline of the Day: Biden fears wider war in Middle East.

(No) Surprise: Nikki Haley’s momentum is real. All you have to do is go online and watch the DeSantis fans attack her. They’ve spent more time assailing her this week than focusing on Ramaswamy or Trump. USA Today finds Haley now in double digits, one point behind DeSantis.

Gross: White black activist Shaun King remains a horrible person.

MUST SEE TV: Customs and Border Patrol are warning Hamas and Hezbollah may be exploiting the porous southern border.

More here at the Daily Callers, which broke the story.

Must Read: The Day the Delusions Died.

Many people woke up on October 7 sympathetic to parts of woke ideology and went to bed that evening questioning how they had signed on to a worldview that had nothing to say about the mass rape and murder of innocent people by terrorists.

The Show Notes contain all the prep I do for radio. I’m going to distribute them to everyone today. If you are not a paid subscriber, you can click the subscribe button below and starting getting them every day.

The Speaker Race

Trump Issue: The media puts House GOP Whip Tom Emmers as the frontrunner. Don’t be so sure. While he was the head of the NRCC in the 2022 cycle and oversaw the only bright spot for the GOP that year, Trump has a beef with Emmers. After the 2020 election, Emmers would not oppose the Electoral College and went on record saying he did not think the election was stolen. While that would be helpful for the GOP moving forward, it may be fatal to Emmers getting support.

Caveat: Going with Emmers gets the GOP past the 2020 stuff, which they must do to reconnect with independent voters. He can only lose four votes, but as both NRCC Chair and now Whip, Emmers knows how to count votes. Some conservatives view him more favorably than they viewed McCarthy, who now supports Emmers.

Format: They’re going to try something new today at 6:30 p.m. Julia Johnson of the Washington Examiner has the details.

The format for the House Republicans' scheduled candidate forum at 6:30 p.m. reportedly differs from the previous two, in which Jordan and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) were selected as speaker designees.
Each candidate will give a two-minute speech to start, according to Axios. Then, all prospective speakers will participate in a 90-minute question-and-answer session with the conference, followed by one-minute closing speeches.
In the past forums, candidates were given half an hour to speak and pitch themselves to conference members.
The nine announced candidates are House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) and Reps. Mike Johnson (R-LA), Kevin Hern (R-OK), Gary Palmer (R-AL), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Jack Bergman (R-MI), Austin Scott (R-GA), Pete Sessions (R-TX), and Dan Meuser (R-PA).
Following the forum on Monday evening, the conference is expected to hold an internal conference vote at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday. Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-NC) recently predicted that a new speaker designee could be headed to the floor for a vote "as soon as Tuesday."

The Middle East

Israel has assembled hundreds of journalists to show them the raw footage of Hamas body cameras and more. The horror is gruesome and real. Israel has never done this before. But in an age of distrust, mistrust, and misinformation, they thought it necessary to show the sheer depravity of what Hamas did.

Israel has begun more intensive strikes into Gaza, but so far has held off on a ground invasion at the request of the Biden Administration. Biden wants more time to try to get the hostages out.

Meanwhile, we are moving an aircraft carrier closer to Iran.

The aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower and her strike group are bound for the Persian Gulf, an area of operations under the command of Fifth Fleet, as the USS Gerald R. Ford and her strike group remain in the eastern Mediterranean off of Israel’s shoreline. For those, like me, who find Middle Eastern geography a mush, moving from west to east, we have the Ford, then Israel, then the Eisenhower, and then Iran. U.S. naval forces will be on either side of Israel in force, with one of our carriers between Iran and Israel — a little, “Hey, how ya doing?” for the ayatollah to chew on as he considers the degree to which Iran will support its proxies assaulting Israel. After all, with a combat radius of 500 miles, the carriers’ Superhornets can, theoretically, cover just about any part of that area of the globe in 20mm rounds and hellfire. This isn’t to say we will — only that we can. A favorite aphorism: “Not a threat, but a promise.”

Nikki Haley is Surging

It’s not just that Nikki Haley is surging, it is that she is the only candidate other than Trump to be trending up in the Real Clear Politics polling average. On top of that, the USA Today poll now has Haley at 11%, one point behind DeSantis.

Haley already has edged narrowly ahead of DeSantis In New Hampshire and South Carolina, which hold early contests on the primary calendar.
The two contenders have been targeting each other, sparring in public over Mideast policy and competing in private with appeals to major Republican donors.
Last week, the Florida governor suggested Haley as president would admit to the United States refugees from war-torn Gaza, and a political action committee allied with DeSantis bought ads making the allegation. Haley said she didn't support the idea and accused DeSantis of distorting her previous remarks.

SOURCE.

In fact, you can tell the Haley momentum is real because DeSantis and the DeSantis-related Super PAC, Never Back Down, have turned their fire on Haley. You can forget the polls. But when a major presidential campaign suddenly starts directing fire in Haley’s direction, you know they know she is gaining ground, and they’re trying to stop it.

The Hospital Bombing

CNN is the latest news organization to conclude Israel did not bomb the Gaza Baptist Hospital. After days of embarrassment and ridicule, the New York Times is finally getting a clue too.

So now we have the New York Times, CNN, the Associated Press, the US Government, and the French Government all concluding a rocket misfired from Gaza towards Israel, causing the damage. Also, 500 people did not die. But tomorrow, you and I know damn well the press will parrot Hamas propaganda again.

Oh wait, we don’t have to wait till tomorrow. From CNBC: “Israel-Hamas war live updates: Gaza health ministry says death toll tops 5,000; Israeli soldiers conducting ‘readiness’ exercises.”

The Gaza Health Ministry is Hamas, you idiots.

Why Did the GOP Go With NBC?

The GOP seems intent on boycotting CNN for a debate but has chosen to let NBC handle the next debate. You’ll note that NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC have been the biggest water carriers for Hamas propaganda out there. NBC and CNBC are still citing the “Gaza Health Ministry” as reliable and objective outlets.

Ben Collins, the disinformation reporter at NBC, is relentlessly anti-GOP and doubled down on Hamas’s propaganda about the hospital. To my knowledge, he has neither retracted nor apologized.

It’s not just MSNBC. NBC itself has now routinely become a paragon of wokeness. Partnering with Salem and others will not negate the fact that NBC News is the most hostile media outlet in the nation to the GOP at this time and the RNC has decided that the network should be allowed to host the next debate.

Since Philip is on Vacation

And in Other News…

Herzog confirms Israel found Hamas files with instructions for making chemical weapons (Axios)
Associated Press Won't Let Reporters Call Hamas a Terrorist Organization (WFB)
BLM activist Shaun King ‘lying’ about claims he helped free American hostages in Gaza, family says: ‘We are not affiliated’ (NY Post)
New SAT Data Highlights the Deep Inequality at the Heart of American Education (NY Times) [Note from Erick: I add this here, but seriously, the solution is school choice. Government schools fail kids.]
Battleground Dem senators consider bucking Biden on border, Iran (Politico)
U.A.W. Expands Strike to a Ram Plant in Michigan (NY Times)
Chevron to Buy Hess for $53 Billion in Latest Oil Megadeal (Bloomberg)
Bond Rout Drives 10-Year Treasury Yield to 5% (WSJ)
Housing’s Other Threat to the Economy (WSJ)
More people are missing car payments in another ominous sign for the economy (Business Insider)
US renews warning it will defend Philippines after incidents with Chinese vessels in South China Sea (AP)
Kremlin says U.S. can't build 'new world order' that Biden spoke of (Reuters)
'Go woke, go broke': Billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya suggests that Northeast cities like NYC and Boston are hemorrhaging income due to political ideology — while the South keeps booming (Moneywise)