Trump floated as a ( highly unlikely) Speaker candidate
Plus, monumental labor action in the healthcare sector and new polling on about "The New Conservative Voter."
With the ousting of former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), an unprecedented vacancy has some Republican lawmakers and pundits suggesting former President Donald Trump should assume the mantle of Speaker. The position can be filled by someone who is not an elected official.
Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) posted on X (formerly Twitter) that the “only candidate for Speaker I am currently supporting is President Donald J. Trump.”
“He will end the war in Ukraine. He will secure the border. He will end the politically weaponized government. He will make America energy independent again. He will pass my bill to stop transgender surgeries on kids and keep men out of women’s sports. He will support our military and police. And so much more!” Greene coherently argued.
Other GOP congresspeople like Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) and Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) echoed similar sentiments.
Fox News host Sean Hannity reported yesterday that Trump would be open to the improbable nomination.
“Now, sources telling me at this hour some House Republicans have been in contact with and have started an effort to draft former president Donald Trump to be the next speaker, and I have been told that President Trump might be open to helping the Republican Party at least in the short term, if necessary,” he said on-air.
While this is not the first time that the idea of a Speaker Trump has been floated — Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) nominated Trump during the January vote for speaker — that was prior to the countless indictments brought against the former president. Current House Republican rules do not allow someone who is facing an indictment with a potential sentence greater than two years to serve in a leadership position.
More realistic, if disheartening options for House Speaker are Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R–LA).
Today, 75,000 workers employed by the health care provider Kaiser Permanente walked off the job. Nurses, home health aides, sonographers and medical technicians across the company’s 39 hospitals will now engage in a historically large, industrial-level stoppage.
Workers in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington will strike for three days, and Virginia and Washington, D.C. employees will strike for one. Demands made by union representatives include a $25 hourly minimum wage and new employment thresholds to address understaffing. The two parties last negotiated a contract just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“I am down here in support of my colleagues — as I am one. Kaiser is so petty: P-E-T-T-Y,” Deborah Hernandez, a home healthcare worker on one picket line, shared with More Perfect Union. “They will not even let us piss. You don't want to pay me no money, and you don't want to let me pee. Now that is not the most pathetic thing I have ever seen.”
On the employer side, Kaiser executive Michelle Gaskill-Hames told the Associated Press that while she understood that workers were burnt out, the health care giant treated employees significantly better than their competitors.
Meanwhile, on the legislative side, California Democrats passed a bill that would incrementally raise the salaries of health care workers over the course of ten years — though Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has yet to sign it into law.
POLL WATCHERS
The American Compass, a conservative think tank focused on populist policy and workers’ rights, released a new analysis that suggests that old-school, Reagan-style politics are on its deathbed. More and more Republican voters are moving away from concerns about big government and appear more eager for the state to combat what they perceive to be a cultural decline brought on by “wokeness” and international trade.
Such data demonstrates the growing divide between the GOP’s leadership — which echoed the kind of libertarian skepticism of yore during the second primary debate last week — and a base that seems fed up with market-first policy. If you’re wondering how figures like Trump manage to maintain appeal in spite of their many contradictions, this might be one of the skeleton keys.
