by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
You hear a lot of chatter about this or that thing on Twitter a lot of times, so the idea that the “votes aren’t there” for Kevin McCarthy to become Speaker should probably be taken with a grain of salt. As I’ve written before, I think in the end, there might be a bit of a kerfuffle but ultimately McCarthy becomes speaker and proceeds to impeach a lot of people inside the Biden Administration.
But let’s waste some time and really think about the prospect of Trump becoming Speaker of the House.
The first thing to remember is just because a bunch of people fear Trump might do it, doesn’t mean he has the abstract cognitive ability to actually do such a thing. Trump is dumb and simple. His political instincts are extremely simple. They’re a grunt generated by whatever out of the bowels of the Far Right.
So, while yes, it would make a light of nightmarish sense for Trump to swoop in and become Speaker if McCarthy can’t summon the votes at the required time….I really have a lot of doubts he would do it. Or even that his poor peabrain could even comprehend the strategy necessary to pull it off.
Now, let’s get to the issue of if Trump could actually BE Speaker. Apparently, the idea of a non-member being Speaker of the House is one of those things where because the Constitution doesn’t say it can’t happen…it could very well happen. There is no specific exclusion as to someone who isn’t a House member being speaker.
The more ominous interpretation of this situation is when shit like Trump becoming Speaker happens…it’s a death rattle for the traditional norms associated with our Constitutional (Democratic) Republic. Trump fucking with the Constitution by doing something that isn’t expressly forbidden is very much something a far more astute autocrat might attempt.
But Trump, like I said, is a moron with a peabrain so…the idea that Trump could do even such a basic autocratic play is very, very debatable.
So, what if Trump did become Speaker, if only for 100 days as Steve Bannon has suggested. Then what?
Well, it would be a complete and total shitshow, not seen since the worst days of Trumplandia. I could see Trump having one specific purpose for being Speaker — impeaching Biden and Harris. I could further see him — if he somehow could manage the mental energy to think like this — ranting about how Texas and other Red States should leave the Union if the Senate didn’t impeach Biden and Harris so he could become POTUS again early.
Such a scenario is both hysterical, fantastical AND possible. It’s easy to imagine Trump using secession of Red States as just a one-off rhetorical flourish and before you know it Texas has one foot out the Union.
I just don’t see any of this happening. It might be interesting in the House for a few hours as McCarthy struggles to get the 218 votes he needs…but he’ll ultimately get them. God help us all if he doesn’t a Trump manages to become Speaker.
Here are some of the people who might get impeached by the Republican House, no matter who is Speaker.
President Biden
It’s pretty clear to me that a Republican House will be so full of spite and rage and bloodlust for revenge that it’s very possible they may accidently on purpose impeach Biden for no apparent reason in the early days of 2023. It will be so transparent as to what is going on that House Republicans are going to do severe political damage to themselves. But it won’t matter — that political damage would only matter if we were a functioning democracy. But we’re no longer a functioning democracy, we’re in between autocracy and democracy — in other words, an “anocracy.”
There are at least two reasons why Biden will be impeached. One is, of course, his wastrel son Hunter Biden. The other is the “border crisis.” The big issue is will these be two seperate impeachments so Democrats will not longer have Trump being impeached twice as a talking point, or if these two issues will be fused together into one event.
At the moment, I honestly don’t know. There’s always a chance that MAGA Republicans will impeach Biden THREE times, for two reasons. They both scream at the top of their lungs that Biden is the only president to be impeached three times and at the same time they can, expo facto say it’s no big deal that Trump was impeached twice.
Veep Harris
I have no idea why House Republicans will impeach Harris, but they’ll think of something. Just the idea that they could somehow impeach and convict Biden and Harris in quick succession is enough to give them all a boner and they have no self control so they’re going to do it at some point between 2023 and 2025.
DHS Secretary Mayorkas
As I understand it, there’s already a move afoot by House Republicans to hit the ground running impeaching Mayorkas for his handling of the “border crisis.” So, there’s every reason to believe that he’s going to be impeached at some point between 2023 and 2025.
HHS Secretary Becerra
This is a bit more speculative, but I could see that once the impeachment counter-revolution gets going that House Republicans will set their sights on Becerra for something connected to “gender affirming” care of minors. That seems like just the type of culture war edge issue that MAGA House Republicans would want to wallow in for a few months to prove a point. I could also see a potential impeachment article surrounding the Biden Administration’s handling of COVID — even though it was Trump who fucked that particular situation up. Who cares about facts when you have lies?
Education Secretary Cardona
This is also rather speculative, but once the monster of impeachment is unleashed, House Republicans may go after Cordona on the nebulous charge of encouraging “critical race theory” in schools — even if this is total bullshit. They just want to be able to hold hearings where they rant about CRT for hours on end. It will juice the base while “owning” the libs.
FBI Director Wray
If this happens, it will be a prime example of how wrapped up in their own bullshit MAGA House Republicans will be once they have power. Wray is ON THEIR SIDE and they will still come after him because something something Deep State.
Attorney General Garland
This is obvious — MAGA Republicans are so blinded by their anger over the Mar-a-Lago raid that they want to impeach Garland for approving it, despite it being totally justified given what Trump did.
There could be a few Federal judges that spark MAGA ire that will be impeached as well.
