On Sunday, Washington Post “conservative” George Will won the admiration of his liberal peers when he penned a column calling for the Republican Party to lose control Congress. His anti-Republican screed was featured on CNN’s Inside Politics and ABC’s This Week. But on NBC’s Meet the Press, moderator Chuck Todd put it up for a panel discussion during the show’s “End Game” segment.
“All right, we had a couple of interesting former Republicans, I guess, calling for Democrats to take control of [the] House,” Todd announced as they came back from a commercial break. As he read from Will’s column, you could just sense his excitement breaking through:
But how about George Will, guys? “The Congressional Republican caucuses must be substantially reduced. So substantially that their remnants, reduced to minorities, will be stripped of the Constitution’s Article I powers that they have been too invertebrate to use to use against the current wielder of Article II powers. They will then have leisure time to wonder why they worked so hard to achieve membership in a legislature whose unexercised muscles have been atrophied because of people like them.”
This came after he touting “former Republican” Michael Bloomberg requesting the same thing from the public. “First, you had Michael Bloomberg, he's going to support flipping the House,” Todd prefaced. “He says, ‘Republicans in Congress have had almost two years to prove they can govern responsibly and they failed. As we approach the 2018 midterms, it's critical we elect people who lead in ways that this Congress won’t.’”
NBC Capitol Hill correspondent Kasie Hunt warned that if the Republican electorate defied Will by giving Republicans a narrow majority, then the “far-right” of the party would hold all the power. “If never-Trump Republicans want Democrats to win the House, they better get their act together and work as hard as they can because otherwise, the consequences will be worse with them,” she cautioned.
“How should you embrace your new progressive friend, George Will,” Todd jokingly asked Democratic strategist Heather McGhee, to the laughter of the rest of the panel.
McGhee was over the moon and argued that it was the Republican Party finally putting country over party for the betterment of everyone. “So I absolutely believe that this is the beginning of the change and rebirth of the Republican Party, which is going to be necessary,” she opined. “It is too far into the fringe. We have the fringe in the White House and this country is not going to be able to be a bipartisan country if the Republicans continue to be this identity.”
Conservative Resurgent editor, Erick Erickson disagreed with Will that Republicans needed to lose the House to save its soul, but he did agree that Congress had given up its ability to legislate properly. “Congress now, apparently, is a class of pundits as opposed to a class of legislators. It's a problem on both sides of the aisle where both sides want the issue to campaign on,” he said.
Meanwhile, on CNN, host John King didn’t have a panel discussion but read a passage for viewers where Will called the Republican Congress President Trump’s “poodles.” On ABC, Clinton lackey George Stephanopoulos shared Will’s ideas with retiring anti-Trump Republican Senator, Jeff Flake (AZ) and touted how “a Republican leading conservative says it's time to elect Democrats to the Congress.”
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
NBC
Meet the Press
June 24, 2018
11:23:22 AM Eastern [2 minute 29 seconds]CHUCK TODD: Back now with "Endgame." All right, we had a couple of interesting former Republicans, I guess, calling for Democrats to take control of [the] House. First, you had Michael Bloomberg, he's going to support flipping the House. He says, “Republicans in Congress have had almost two years to prove they can govern responsibly and they failed. As we approach the 2018 midterms, it's critical we elect people who lead in ways that this Congress won’t.” You can argue whether Bloomberg is a real Republican before he switched to Democrat, I'll take your point there.
But how about George Will, guys? “The Congressional Republican caucuses must be substantially reduced. So substantially that their remnants, reduced to minorities, will be stripped of the Constitution’s Article I powers that they have been too invertebrate to use to use against the current wielder of Article II powers. They will then have leisure time to wonder why they worked so hard to achieve membership in a legislature whose unexercised muscles have been atrophied because of people like them.”
Mr. Erickson, what do you make of this?
[Laughter]
ERICK ERICKSON: I disagree with my friend George Will on this. Although, I do agree with him that Congress has had their muscles atrophy in legislating. Congress now, apparently, is a class of pundits as opposed to a class of legislators. It's a problem on both sides of the aisle where both sides want the issue to campaign on. I do think there is a danger for Democrats though, in that typically in the midterms you depend on an incumbent party that doesn't turn out and the progressive culture war, the immigration issues and whatnot are firing up the Republican base.
TODD: Kasie.
KASIE HUNT: You know, one risk here that I do think when I read George Will's column about diminishing these majorities, I think for some Republicans they don't realize if they get really close, but they don't actually win the -- if Democrats don't actually win the House, you're going to be left with the narrowest of Republican majorities and that’s going to hand all of the power to the far right of the conference. So if Republicans-- if never-Trump Republicans want Democrats to win the House, they better get their act together and work as hard as they can because otherwise, the consequences will be worse with them.
TODD: How should you embrace your new progressive friend, George Will?
[Laughter]
HEATHER MCGHEE: You know, listen, I have been asking for Republicans to put country over party since Trump walked down those stairs. So I absolutely believe that this is the beginning of the change and rebirth of the Republican Party, which is going to be necessary. It is too far into the fringe. We have the fringe in the White House and this country is not going to be able to be a bipartisan country if the Republicans continue to be this identity.
(…)
