House GOP Threatens to Punish Those Who Oppose McCarthy

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Offer ends January 8th, 2023. Excludes Bike, Bike Plus, and Tread Basics. See additional terms at OnePeloton.com. Live from the Liberty University studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's favorite cuntotin, Bible-clinging, deplorable American. That's us, that's right.

I love this American ride. Todd Starnes. Oh, yeah. And hello, America. Welcome to the Todd Starnes radio program.

Happy to have you with us on what is yet another historic day in America. Day two of the gridlock in the House of Representatives. Day two, and we still do not know who the next Speaker of the House is going to be. We are anticipating the fourth House Speaker vote, and that is set to begin at any moment now. and we will be dipping into the coverage as we did yesterday.

We'll be keeping you updated on the very latest details.

Now, we're getting some word from our sources up in Washington that there's a very good chance McCarthy may call to delay the vote today. And we will let you know if that happens. McCarthy is concerned that he still doesn't have the votes. And so if this goes to a fourth vote and he does not win, McCarthy says he is staying put, that he's not going to be backing down, and neither are the House Republicans.

So we literally have gridlock right now in the House of Representatives. And we will be asking you this question throughout the day. What do you want McCarthy to do? Should McCarthy continue to fight the fight, or should he throw in the towel? What do you think the conservatives should do?

Should the conservatives keep fighting the good fight, or should they throw in the towel, surrender to Kevin McCarthy and the establishment Republicans in Washington, D.C.?

Now, while we take your calls and your thoughts on that, we need you to call your elected member of Congress. Give them guidance. We want you to tell them what to do. This is your job as a voter. This is your job as a constituent.

You got to let them know what you think about all of this.

Now, I was watching Fox and Friends earlier. I was watching Fox News last night, Fox and Friends this morning. And I'm telling you, the entire network, the Paul Ryan Fox News channel, has completely lost their marbles over this. They are pitching a royal hissy fit. And it's sun up to sun down.

Everybody except for Tucker Carlson has cast their support to Kevin McCarthy. And Sean Hannity, if you've noticed, and this is interesting, going back to, there was a conversation that Laura Ingram had with Sean Hannity a couple of months back, and right when they tossed to the next show. And Laura Ingram was trying to get Hannity on the record for who he supported. And he wouldn't go there. He wouldn't tell you.

Well, I'm a talk radio host who is not afraid or ashamed to tell you where I stand on the issues. And I don't believe Kevin McCarthy is the right man for the job. Does that mean that I hate Kevin McCarthy? No. Does that mean that I'm not a conservative?

No. But if you listen to the other side, that's exactly what they're telling you. I mean, MTG has completely gone off unhinged now. As a matter of fact, we have some new audio. This is MTG calling out Chip Roy, cut number four.

You know Chip Roy, who everybody's saying Chip Roy's conservative? Chip Roy did not object on January 6th to Joe Biden's electoral college vote. No, he voted for Joe Biden's Electoral College votes. And let me tell you something else. Chip Roy, you know what else?

He set out the vote for the January 6th committee. He did not vote against it. He set it out because he was for it.

Okay.

Well, you know what? A lot of other Republicans voted to accept the Electoral College votes. Does that make Chip Roy a liberal? Is that what Marjorie Taylor Greene is now saying? I mean, this is what concerns me about Marjorie.

If you don't agree with her, you're a liberal. This is what she's saying. And we had audio yesterday from MTG, and she was blasting any conservative who stood up to Kevin McCarthy.

Now, I don't know what Kevin McCarthy has promised her, but this is not the same MTG that used to come on this radio program all the time. But MTG does not like anybody who calls her out or disagrees with her. And if you disagree with MTG, if you call her out on something, then that becomes a big problem for her, and she'll shut you down. That's her history, her brief history on Capitol Hill. But it's really interesting because, again, MTG was punished by the Democrats for not going along, not towing the party line.

And now you have members of the Republican Party that are threatening conservatives who do not vote for Kevin McCarthy. Our information is that Congressman Mike Rogers from Alabama is telling these conservative renegades in private that if they keep this up, they will be stripped of their committee assignments.

So you could have upwards of 20 Republicans who are thrown off their committees. And why is that? Because they simply did not go along with the plan.

Now, what have they been telling you? And I just want to throw this out there. And this is not Todd Starnes, holier than thou. That's not the point of the question I'm about to ask. But if you submit yourself out there as a conservative Christian, and you're going to be the standard bearer of conservative Christian values in the House of Representatives, would you use God's name in vain?

I mean, I know sometimes even on this program we get a little salty. I get that in the heat of the moment. But we've never used God's name in vain. I don't know any good church-going Christian who's actually used God's name in vain. And yesterday, Kevin McCarthy used God's name in vain.

Behind closed doors, he has been cursing out these members of these renegade members. And look, that's, I mean, yeah, I get it. It's politics. It's not church. But I'm not, I don't know of any good church-going person who would take God's name in vain.

And it goes back to something Tucker Carlson said, and by the way, I believe his show, the only show on Fox News, that's actually raising issues here. Tucker Carlson said that Kevin McCarthy is a political agnostic. and by the way all these folks on tv like oh my god the country's in jeopardy we're gonna die we're gonna lose the republic oh are you kidding me they love this stuff they're eating this stuff up you know why because the ratings are through the roof these cable news channels are making money on all of this they want you to be involved they want you to be engaged they love it but when you have jake tamper over at cnn the most profane name in news thank you judge joe brown when you have cnn praising marjorie taylor green and saying she makes more sense than anybody else that's a red flag something is not right here something is going on. And I'll tell you what it is. Ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump sparked the ire and the wrath of Democrats and Republicans because he promised to drain the swamp.

He was in the middle of draining that swamp, which is why they got him out of office, because they realized that the tens of millions of dollars they were earning from the lobbyist, the amount of treasure they were accumulating for themselves, Trump knew that was a problem, and Trump knew that was not right. And he called them out on it. And that's why they had to get rid of Trump. Explain to me why someone like Liz Cheney, who does not come from a, she's not from a family of means. Explain to me how Liz Cheney has tens of millions of dollars in her bank account.

Explain that one to me. explain why most of the members of Congress are millionaires, but they weren't millionaires when they got elected. How was that possible?

So Trump was trying to stop all this. He was trying to drain the swamp. And these 20 House Republicans that are standing in opposition to Kevin McCarthy, they are doing the exact same thing Donald Trump is doing. And I know Trump has come out this morning and he said, you know what, vote for McCarthy. think he's going to be a good speaker.

I wish the president hadn't done that because I don't believe it. Not one bit. But I can tell you this. We're going to fight the good fight. And these 20 House Republicans, I wish there had been 100, but we could only find 20 who had the courage, who had the will to stand up and fight.

You see, they're trying to drain the swamp in the House of Representatives. They're trying to make sure that we don't pass any more trillion dollar spending bills without reading every single piece of the bill. They're trying to do what we, the people, sent them to Washington, D.C. to do in the first place. That's all they're trying to do.

But thank goodness we have 20. I'll take it. I'll take those 20. Those people are brave and they are courageous. And they realize what they have done here.

They realize their political careers may be on the line. They may be stripped of their committee assignments. They may be ostracized. They may have offices in an outhouse. They know that what just happened, they're going to have to pay a price.

But they considered the cost and they said it's worth the fight.

So my question here, and we're going to go to break, and the proceedings already beginning on Capitol Hill. We'll dip into some of that through the day. But my question to you, who do you stand with? Do you stand with Kevin McCarthy and Paul Ryan's Fox News channel, or do you stand with these 20 House Republicans who are just trying to do the right thing? 844-747-8868.

That is our phone number. That's 844-747-8868. We have a lot of guests lined up today. We don't know if they're going to be able to make it because of the votes, but Congressman Chip Roy is expected to drop by. Congressman Troy Nels from Texas will be here.

We're going to be talking to Mark Meckler from Convention of the States. They've got some new polling data out that shows, believe it or not, that the American people are actually siding with these 20 conservative Republicans. This is the Todd Stern Show. I'm Grace Baker with the Todd Stern Show, and folks, I've got a story to tell you. You know how much I love Merlot and how I want her to be around for a very long time.

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That's P-A-W-M-A-D-E dot com slash Todd or call 833-Pawmaid. Hello, Todd Starnes. Keep up the good work. I just listened to your dialogue about the 20 conservative Freedom Caucus members in Congress. I am standing with them.

We do not want Kevin McCarthy elected to the Speaker of the House. Those 20 are courageous. They're not selfish. They're courageous. Keep up the good work, Todd.

Thank you. All right. And thank you, sir. That's Philip, by the way, from Daphne, Alabama calling in. You said, how did Philip do that?

How did he leave us a message?

Well, it's very simple. He's got the app, and you can get it, too. It's free of charge. We have thousands of Americans all over the country listening to us by app. You say, all right well where do i go it's very simple you can go to kwam radio.com kwam radio.com our flagship station in memphis tennessee and download the app and you'll be able to leave us a shout out uh just like philip did from daphne alabama all right um right now we are watching nominations being made kevin mccarthy has officially uh been nominated can we dip into some live coverage here, guys.

We've got Chip Roy, Congressman Chip Roy from Texas, who is now addressing the assembled body there on the House floor. Let me know when we get that ready. In the meantime, we'll go to the phones. Victor in Maryland, welcome to the program. What say you, sir?

I say I'm siding with the 20 conservatives. I love the gridlock. Nothing's going to get done. The Democrats are going out of their tree. As for Newt Gingrich, I've lost confidence in him a long time ago when he sat on the sofa with Nancy Pelosi and said we can fight climate change together.

and I called him on it when he was on C-SPAN a number of years ago, and my friends told me that he smiled.

So anyhow, I have no confidence in Newt Gingrich, but I am definitely siding with the 20 conservatives. Yeah, it's Victor. I'm very disappointed in Speaker Newt, and not only just saying that he just, you know, again, he respectfully disagrees. He said that they had psychological problems. I don't want to remind our listening audience of his very unmanly behavior when one of his ex-wives was in the hospital suffering from cancer and he showed up with the divorce papers.

I think that would be very inappropriate to do at a time like this because we've all made horrible decisions in our lives. But Speaker Newt, for him to come out and question anybody's moral integrity, I got a big problem with that. victor yeah go ahead so do i um that's why i never i didn't like i liked him at first when i met him at a science fiction convention showed him the first talking calculator for the blind and then when he sat on the sofa as i said with nancy pelosi that that did it for me all right victor appreciate that call and thank you for listening let's dip in now this is congressman This country needs leadership that does not reflect this city, this town that is badly broken. The House of Representatives is the people's house. It represents the entirety of our country, and we each represent some 750,000 people.

and we come here and it here we sit in a room filled with those representatives and my friend mr gallagher and he is my friend and i agree with him on many things and i agree with almost everything that you were talking about but we should be in here having this kind of a conversation with this many people in the room about ukraine and we should debate the merits and we should debate the ups and downs of being involved. We should debate the $45 billion. We should debate whether it should be more or less. We should debate whether it should be paid for. We should debate what the result we should demand.

The only way you're going to get that is if you change the rules and have the leadership to advance the rules to make sure that we can do that. All right, let me jump back in here for a moment. And we're going to be dipping in and out all day as we give you a flavor of what's happening on Capitol Hill. But Chip Roy made an interesting comment, and did you notice the tepid applause? He said we needed a Congress that represented America and not Washington, D.C.

Talking about the lobbyists. Tepid applause. This is the problem here, folks. A majority of the Republican Party has been bought and paid for by these lobbyists and by the Chamber of Commerce. This is the problem.

And so you have people like Chip Roy who are standing up and saying, hey, we got a problem here. We cannot do business as usual. And what I find fascinating is the other side of this. The other side is out there using all sorts of hate and vitriol. They're using the power of Fox News Channel and talk radio hosts like Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin.

They're using all of these people. And yet what's amazing is that we, the people, are on the other side and we're not budging, not one bit.

So the question is, who do you stand with? By the way, we have a Twitter poll up on my Twitter page, Todd Starnes. You can go to Twitter, go to our website and click over. Should House Republicans surrender to McCarthy? The voting is underway.

Hundreds of people already weighing in. over 84% say absolutely not, do not surrender. You'll be able to vote on that. We're going to be taking your calls right after we get back from the break. 844-747-8868, toll-free telephone number.

That's 844-747-8868. Also, I want to remind you about our upcoming trip to Israel, our Stand with Israel tour. It's going to be in November of 2023. we're going to have an incredible seven-day first-class trip to the Holy Land. You'll be meeting with speakers inside Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

It is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime exclusive trip, and we want you to be a part of that. You can give us a call if you would like information on how to sign up, or you can go to toddstarns.com and click on our banner. If you'd like to give us a call and ask for intel, you can. 844-747-8868. The fourth House Speaker vote set to begin shortly.

We're following breaking news from our nation's capital on the Todd Starnes Radio Show. I've noticed that when I go to the shopping mall and buy one of the towels, they just don't seem to work very well. They feel too soft and too lotion-y. They just don't absorb the water.

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Todd Starnes here. We got the Manta's Martini. That's a Diet Coke with a wedge of lemons for you Pentecostals out there. The big old thing of Orville Redenbacher.

Well, I wish we did. And we're watching the fourth ballot vote underway right now. McCarthy, 29. Jeffries, 24. Others, 4.

All right, we asked you a question, and as promised, we're going right to the phone lines. Should the House 20, should they surrender, should they capitulate to Kevin McCarthy and the establishment leadership? 844-747-8868 is our number. Let's start in North Mississippi, the top of Mississippi. Rick is listening to us on our flagship radio station, the great KWAM.

Hey, Rick, how's it going today? I'm doing good, Todd. How are you? Better than I deserve, as Dave Ramsey would say. My thoughts is 20 congressmen need to hang in there.

This is government in action. This is the way our forefathers designed it to work. It's what it's supposed to be. Our federal government was designed to stop, not to go forward. Rick, I'm with you on that.

I mean, you know, they're talking about chaos and what Hannity called it, a circus, a clown show. I see this as democracy in action. It may not be pretty all the times, but this is what it is. And I'm running out of people to listen to because just about everybody on the radio, except for a select few, are showing their true colors of what they are. You know, and Rick, I don't have a problem with that because I think a lot of people are tuning into us.

they're realizing, hey, wait a second, there's somebody who is still sticking to his guns, and I'm not paid to work off talking points. I don't take any money from the Republicans. I just speak my mind on the radio, Rick. That's all there is to it. I hear you, Todd.

That's the way it should be. Yes, sir.

Well, Rick, you picked a good radio station to listen to and tell your friends to check out the Mighty 990 KWAM. I will. All right, thanks for calling in. Let's go to Oregon. Kathy is listening to us on the great KYKN.

Hey, Kathy, what's on your mind today? Hi, Todd. I'm just wondering, why do I never hear Steve Scalise's name mentioned? He's the only member of Congress that actually took a bullet for being a conservative, and he's still there. It's a fair point.

You know, I can't be. I've wondered that myself. I know people who know him in Louisiana. That's where he's from. And he represents that part of the country in Congress.

And you're right for someone who, like you said, took a bullet, nearly lost his life because of the fact that he was a conservative gunned down by a Bernie Sanders supporter. You do wonder why he was not elevated to more of a, you know, of a person of stature and leadership. can he still be nominated? Yes. Yes, he can be nominated.

And that is, the working theory is, if McCarthy's not the guy Scalise is, there are a couple of things about Scalise. And the question is, is he a conservative, or is he more along the lines of party leadership, go along to get along? And that's something that we would need to do a deeper dive on. but Scalise is more than likely the next guy in line for the job. But doesn't it kind of take a certain temperament to work both sides of the aisle?

I really don't want somebody in there that will just fight, fight, fight Dems on every single issue. I mean, because then you just have a wrestling match. Who do you like, Kathy? I mean, if you had to pick somebody, and if it's not going to be McCarthy, Who would you say? I think Steve Scalise.

Scalise is your guy. Everybody's talking about Jim Jordan, but he wants to get these guys in court. He wants to really bust up the place. Yeah, and Kathy, I really do wish, and this is my one criticism of the House 20, I wish they would not be putting Jim Jordan's name out there because he doesn't want it. He genuinely does not want the job.

He wants to be chairman of House Judiciary so he can go after and root out all the bad guys. Right.

So, yes, Steve Scalise is, um, I think he's the guy.

Well, we got you down, Kathy. Steve Scalise. And we'll see what others have to say. Kathy, appreciate that call. 844-747-8868.

That's also the polling question over on the Twitter page, and we've got hundreds of people weighing in. 84% say House Republicans should not surrender to Kevin McCarthy. By the way, the vote, McCarthy 44, Jeffries 57, others 8. Let's go to Jay in Arkansas listening to us on KWAM. Hey, Jay, what's on your mind?

Well, Todd, I've got to tell you, man, you know what? the 20 Republicans in Congress are the only Republicans in Congress. Jay, isn't that heartbreaking? Isn't that heartbreaking when you think about what they're standing up for? These are common sense things, but they're the only ones with the courage to take a stand.

Well, the sad part about that is I had to vote for French Hill, which he's the representative here in Arkansas for me. And I say for me, jokingly, because he doesn't represent anything for me because he's voting for this. Yes, he is. Yes, he is, Jay. And French Hill has not been a friend of the conservative movement while he's been up on Capitol Hill.

I can tell you that as well. Oh, no. And the sad part about it is he runs for re-election, and he pulls the same old ad out about him driving the old blue, his vehicle or whatever. And that's the biggest, saddest bunch of crap I've ever seen. Because you know who in well is lying.

Jay, look, we know all about that. We had Fred Thompson riding around in a red pickup truck that wasn't even his.

So back in the day.

So we know all about that. If you've got to borrow camo and a gun for your campaign ad, you've got problems.

Well, you know, and John Bozeman was the same way when he first ran for election. Yep, sure was. He was running around and camouflaged and borrowing somebody's gun and all that. You know, and I used to think the world of Tom Cotton, but I have lost all respect for Tom Cotton. Oh, that guy.

Complete. Oh, yeah. Complete snake right there. a snake in the grass. I would vote for a low dirty Democrat before I vote for Tom Cotton At least you know the Democrat would be honest with you Well that it That the problem is you know the Democrats You know what they're going to do.

These snaky, low-down, dirty people that call themselves Republicans that are not Republicans, you never know what they'll do. And let me tell you about this, Jay, and we're going to have to leave it there, but I appreciate your call and your passion. I hear you, and you're right to be angry. But the kind of attitude that McCarthy and Tom Cotton and all those other guys, Lindsey Graham, that's the same kind of an attitude that some of those Fox News personalities you see on TV, that's the same kind of personality they have, and that's what they think about you. They look down on you.

It used to be back in the day, Fox News, we were all one. We were one with the people, one with the listening audience. but something happened over the past years or several years or so and now Fox has I guess they bought into all of their press and it's one of these we're more important uh you will especially in the radio industry uh they really don't like the radio stations that they're on and they had this attitude of well we're Fox News who are you I mean that's the attitude and fine that's that can be your attitude I suppose but I don't think that engenders a lot of respect or devotion All right, let's go to our good buddy, Mike, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, owner of GreatNougatRadio.com. Mike, what say you? How's my best talk show host in the nation here?

Mike, we're just carrying on, brother. It's so funny. I think we're the last man standing here. I'll tell you, getting my ire, I want to see fighting. You know, this isn't the Republican Party.

This is the George Bush Party. You know, Republicans, the FBI was sent against Trump. They gave Twitter $3 million. We have a legal occupant, and you don't want to see fighting? I don't want him to fight.

I want him to get along. No, I want him to purge. I want him to physically fight, Todd. These Democrats deserve nothing less, and these rhinos deserve nothing less. These people need to be purged as occupiers and enemies of our constitutional republic.

You know, Jefferson said there should be a bloody revolution every 20 years, and I agree with him. I know when he's saying he's – maybe what we should do, and I'm going to get a lot of people mad. Here's the problem. You ready? You ready to get your phones lit up?

We gave women the right to vote. and when women got the right to vote, if it wasn't for women voting, we'd never have a liberal Democrat in there. Maybe, maybe we should take their vote away. Mike, you're killing me. I don't think any conservative man calling in is going to say anything because he wants to eat supper tonight.

That's the only thing I can think of. It's the call that you had before.

Now, I'm being facetious. You know I'm being facetious. I don't think our callers are going to think that. I'm tongue-in-cheek here. Good Lord.

Callers like that. I'm a Republican, but we don't want to fight. Let's just get along. You know what? Go knit.

Go make your cookies. Stop boating. Macrame. All right. Mike, good.

How do we get them fired up? Good Lord. All right. Thanks a lot, Mike. Appreciate it.

Mike from Nougat Radio. He says the problem is that we gave women the right to vote. By the way, to his point about fistfights, I mean, that's the way it used to be up on Capitol Hill. Back in 1856, you might remember this if you were a student of history. That was the infamous caning of Congressman Charles, or rather Senator Charles Sumner.

There was a pro-slavery Democrat, and it's always important to remember, children, the Democrats. were the party of slavery. A pro-slavery Democrat from South Carolina used a walking cane to attack Senator Charles Sumner, who happened to be an abolitionist Republican from Massachusetts. Yes, children, the Republicans were anti-slavery. Democrats pro-slavery.

Anyway, you had an act of violence there where this poor guy, this senator, was caned on Capitol Hill.

So literally, Congress used to be a combat zone. All right, 844-747-8868. Let's go to North Carolina. Gray listening to us on one of our newer affiliates, WSJF. Great station in the Winston-Salem area.

Gray, what's on your mind today? I just wanted to answer the woman's question about Steve Scalise. Steve Scalise is the minority whip for the Republicans. He's actually whipping votes for McCarthy. It would have to matriculate a long way before Scalise would be on the ballot for speaker.

And a lot of the people who oppose McCarthy would probably oppose Scalise for reasons that they oppose McCarthy. And so that's that there. But I will say this about the tenor of your conversation today. There is a time and a place to make a point. And when I get off the phone, you can call me what you will.

I'm as rib-rock conservative as there can be. But politics is the art of the possible, not the art of how I want it to be. And at the end of the day, Kevin McCarthy is not the best option for speakers, for people who believe the things that I believe. But he is night and day compared to Hakeem Jeffries. And every time we vote, that's the danger that we put ourselves in.

Let me jump in and address this. And, Gray, I'm not going to say anything about you off air that I wouldn't say to your face. But, again, that's not this kind of a radio show. My concern, by the way, is that McCarthy supporters are out there engaging in that kind of nonsense. And that is troubling.

But I want to take you to task on what you said. At the end of the day, you said McCarthy does not believe what you believe, by and large. And if that's the case, well, it doesn't have to be Hakeem Jeffries. There's got to be somebody else out there, and that's the point of this process, is to let's find that person who would be the conservative House speaker that we're really wanting. Why do we have to settle, Gray?

Well, we're going to wind up having to settle because there's the same reason.

Okay, let's look at it this way. Look at what goes on in Israel. Look at what goes on in Italy. You know, I had a major in political science. When I graduated in 92, I think since World War II, Italy had had 32 different governments.

OK, that's because they couldn't they couldn't agree. And it was just a matter of factions.

Now, we're we are a factional country, but we only have two parties. And so just like you have people who, well, there are fewer and fewer in the Democrat Party who were sort of reasonable. But you have a panoply of opinions across the Democrat Party and we have a great deal of different opinions across the Republican Party. But at the end of the day, you do not want that. Here's what I fear is going to happen is that a few token Democrats are going to vote for McCarthy and then we're going to have McCarthy and then they're going to have him by the proverbial you know what.

and it's going to make a bad McCarthy speakership worse. And I would rather McCarthy make promises to people that I more closely agree with, put them in positions where they can affect change, commit himself to doing particular things as speaker, bringing things forward, issuing subpoenas, so on and so forth. And he would have to do that because of compromises that he makes than to have him beholden to Democrats. Because at any one of these elections, you can take the Republicans that are for McCarthy and a few rogue Democrats voting for him, and we've got Kevin McCarthy as speaker.

Well, great. You and I, there's very little – I think we're talking about a smidge of difference here. My only objection to your thought there is I'm tired of settling for bad. I'm tired of it, and I think the American people are tired of it too.

So let's try to make a stand here and right some wrongs. Otherwise, we're going to have another situation where you've got Mitch McConnell palling around with Joe Biden and laughing at our expense, drinking the Kentucky bourbon because of this massive omnibus that passed because Republicans stood down. And I think that's ultimately what this is all about. Gray, we got to run. I am super late for a break.

Give us a call back. I like the way you're thinking. Folks, look, we are a place for debate. If you agree or disagree, you're going to have a plan for him here. Come armed like Gray did.

He was ready for battle. and we got a lot of the Democrats call in, a lot of the leftists, and they just want to scream at you.

Well, you can scream if you want to, but you got to come armed with facts. All right, got to take a break here. This is the Todd Stern Show. Start a journey, not a fad. Kick off your fitness journey with up to $500 off Peloton Bike, Bike Plus, or Dread packages.

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See additional terms at OnePeloton.com. All right, folks. Looks like McCarthy has lost the fourth consecutive vote. The total is still coming in, 130 to 121. Others, 13.

That's the key number there, the others. Hang tight. If you're on hold, don't go anywhere because we're going to be getting to your calls right out of the gate in the next hour. And we're going to be opening up the phone lines for all three hours of today's program. There is also talk of a possible coalition government that has been banted about.

I don't see that as a win for anybody, but we'll see how that plays out. You're going to hear a lot of apocalyptic talk over the next 24, 48 hours. Don't buy into it, folks. Just don't buy into it. And a lot of you out there are saying, well, Todd, Todd, are you concerned that most of the big dogs in talk radio are on the other side?

They don't believe the way you believe? No, not at all. As a matter of fact, this big dog is happy to be right where he's at. And you know why? Because I'm not getting my paycheck from Paul Ryan.

That's why. Stick around, everybody. Hour two coming up next. This is the Todd Stern Show. Start a journey, not a fad.

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Excludes Bike, Bike Plus, and Tread Basics. See additional terms at OnePeloton.com. Live from the Liberty University studio in Memphis, Tennessee, it's America's conservative blowtorch. That's us, that's right. I love this American ride.

Todd Starnes. Oh, yeah. All right, let's get to it, America. Hello, everybody. I'm Todd Starnes, one of the few talk radio hosts in America who doesn't work off talking points.

And quite frankly, I really don't care what the folks over at Fox News or the others might have to say about me, because we're just going to call it like we see it here on this radio program. A lot going on. Votes still being counted. But I'm looking at the numbers.

So far, 20 people have voted against McCarthy. That number may go up, but it's not going down, and that's bad news for McCarthy on this fourth vote. Will there be a fifth vote? We will keep you updated on that, but we're talking about four rebukes, and again, 20 Republican lawmakers who are refusing to give Kevin McCarthy their vote. And when you go down this list, MTG, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and I want to read a, we got a message over off the Rumble, and you can actually, you can watch us on Rumble.

But one of our listeners on Rumble was asking, what's up with MTG? And it's a good question. The person writing says, hey, Todd, why is it that when a female leader has the guts to stand up for something like Donald Trump, she gets called out? MTG is not a pushover. Kevin McCarthy is not the person to be Speaker of the House.

Well, MTG says he is, and if you disagree with her, there's going to be a you-know-what to pay because she's coming after you. And when you go down the list of these Republicans that she says are liberals, are leftists, I'm going to just read through these real quick. We're going to go right to the phones, but I want you to listen here. Andy Biggs, Dan Bishop, Lauren Boebert, Andrew Clyde, Matt Gaetz, Bob Good, Paul Gosar, Mary Miller, Ralph Norman, Scott Perry. Do those people really sound like liberals to you?

I mean, really, it's look, if you're going to if you're going to have some if you're going to have an argument and if you've got if you want to debate somebody, that's fine. But for somebody to say that Andy Biggs or Andrew Clyde or Andy Ogles, who I know, Scott Perry, who I know, to say that they are liberals, I mean, come on. That's ludicrous. 844-747-8868 is our toll-free telephone number. That's 844-747-8868.

We are going to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line first. Congressman Troy Nels joins us. congressman uh first welcome to the program tell us where you're at right now uh thank you todd for having me it's always good to be with you i'm in the cloakroom the cloakroom is behind uh uh the house of representatives uh and i just finished voting and i'm looking at the voting going on right now in real time and uh you have a mccarthy with 184 jeffries with 201 and donald from Florida with 20.

So it appears to me that the discussions that took place since we left the House floor into this morning, nothing's happened. The 20 that are against McCarthy are still not willing to move. And Congressman, we know that there have been a lot of conversations in hallways, behind closed doors. What is the resolution here? Are we going to end up going, Back in 1923, there were nine ballots.

Where do you see this playing out?

Well, I hope not. And understand, Todd, I am a member of the Freedom Caucus. There's probably 35 to 40 of us in the Freedom Caucus. We consider ourselves America's first patriots. And I just try to talk to members and others and say, hey, listen, just because we would lose this battle doesn't mean we'd lose the war.

I believe with such a thin majority, only having four, you know, 222, you need 218 to get anything through. I believe that the Freedom Caucus is more relevant than ever before. And we will make sure that no legislation gets through the House without our endorsement, without our support. I mean, there's 35 to 40 of us. And I believe that we will be able to move Kevin McCarthy to the right because we have such great numbers, 35 to 40 of us, and he only has a four-seat majority.

Congressman, I get what you're saying. We're having people calling in, and they agree with you. They say, you know what, we know he's not the best choice. We know he may not support all of our positions, but he's better than a Democrat. And I think a lot of people out there are tired of that mentality.

They're tired of just settling. They want someone who is going to be a guaranteed fighter. You believe Kevin McCarthy is that guy?

Well, right now what I do believe is that he did make several concessions as it relates to House rules. Many of the rules that the Freedom Caucus members proposed, many of them were accepted, yes. They weren't accepted until November and December, but nonetheless they were accepted. And I just try to tell my friends, I said, okay, we've identified a problem. You have a problem with Kevin McCarthy.

Okay, what is the solution? and everybody respects Jim Jordan. He's probably the most well-respected member in the conference. Jim Jordan doesn't want it. And when they nominate Jim Jordan, he gets his 20 votes, 19 to 20 votes.

So if it's not Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise, he nominated Kevin McCarthy.

So you've got to have what is the option. If it's not McCarthy, then who? And if you don't have a solution to the problem, well, that just, it just, I don't want to say we're looking silly. the Republican Party to the American people, but right now this isn't good for us right now. No, I think we look silly.

Congressman, I think we look silly when the Senate Republicans went along with that debacle of an omnibus. And I think the Republicans, by and large, and I speak as a member of the Republican Party, I think we're kind of frustrated with sending all you folks to Congress on Capitol Hill, and then the leadership is probably to the left of where you are and others, and they make the deals. They always, always capitulate, and we're sick of it. I can't disagree. Yes, this is a swamp, and things need to change, but you've got to understand, if you want that to change, I don't know who the 20 field would have enough support in this conference to get to 218, and I'll guarantee you there's 200 or so.

There's 201. The vote just And McCarthy had 201 Republicans and Donald had 20. Out of that 201, there's probably 160 of them or so that I don't think are going to sway. They're not moving from Kevin McCarthy. And when you look at having a five to one majority, I just believe that, yes, fellas, guys and cows, we may not win this battle, but we can win the war.

And we are more relevant than ever before because of the thin majority in our numbers.

So if he wants to get anything done as Speaker, any legislation passed, he's going to have to get our support and our enforcement of any legislation.

Some things could speak through, but anything major, I believe he's going to need our endorsement, and that's how we hold him accountable. Congressman, your phone signal is really getting scrunchy, but I think we have the gist of what you were saying, and so we're going to let you get back to it. I suspect you're going to have to get off to what looks to be a fifth vote now. I know we disagree on this, but I appreciate you coming on the program and sharing your point of view. I appreciate it, Todd.

I think that the American people put us in charge now. They gave the Republican Party the gavel, and they want us to lead. The American people are begging for leadership because this administration doesn't have it. Nancy Pelosi and them, they've destroyed our country.

So they're begging for leadership. And now is the time for us to get to work and address the inflation and all the different crises we have, whether it's the southern border, whether it's crime out of control, fuel prices, energy issues, all sorts of issues. We need to get to work for the American people, and let's move forward. All right. Congressman Troy Nels, ladies and gentlemen, Republican from Texas on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker Line.

Congressman, thank you. Thank you. All right, folks, here's where we're at now. the final vote tally in ballot number four, McCarthy 201, Jeffries 212, others 20, and one person voted present.

So there you go. It's interesting if you heard the congressman did not answer my question. If he believed that McCarthy was the best they've got, he didn't answer that question. And that tells me a lot.

So in other words, they're asking us to settle. That's what this is really all about. It's not about ideology. It's not about conservative principles anymore. This is all about settling.

This is all about party, right? Paul Shanklin, our good buddy, said, so where is the love in the party they used to show the gang of eight or the gang of seven or whatever McCain was in charge of the Senate? And that's a great point, because keep in mind, it's people like Kevin McCarthy, people like Kevin McCarthy, who cost us Obamacare, who cost us the Senate, who cost us the presidency, because Kevin McCarthy is no different than John McCain, and he's no different than Mitt Romney. But again, we're just being told to settle. 844-747-8868.

Let's go to Dave on the talk station. And Dave, I understand you agree with Congressman Nels.

Well, I do, Todd, and I'll tell you why. This is kind of, I'm a real simple guy. I'm one of the 80 bazillion retired Marines here in the area in coastal Carolina. And with all the damage that's been done to this place, I'm leaving in North Carolina. And so when I look for representation at the federal level, and I called, I've mentioned a few times on your show that here in the third district, you know, Greg Murphy just isn't getting it done for us.

And everybody, he comes on local radio and I called his office this morning after he came on local radio again. And, oh, democracy is complicated and all that. And it just, the American people are in fact looking for leadership, but you know what? These guys were elected in November. We've had this issue since then.

They've had two months. They're not done. It's time to wrap it up. It's time. And, and I, I'm going to lead to a question for you on this, but, but the thing is we're going nowhere.

We need to get something done. And last night I heard that the people, the 20 opposition members that went to McCarthy said, okay, this is what we want. We want this, this, and this. And he said, okay, to like 90% of it.

Okay, page two.

Now we want this, this, and this. He said, okay, to 90% of it.

Okay, now page three. And that's how, you know, the childish, the junior high lunchroom has got to come to an end up there. And I don't care who it is, because if it is McCarthy, then the thing is, all the others have got to rein him in and say, OK, you were given the chance. This is it. If you go Mitch McConnell on us, you know, we will find a way administratively, procedurally to bring you to an end.

And they can do that. Nobody's doing that. Nobody's holding each other accountable. They're not working together. We've always got these little factions.

And like I told Congressman Murphy's office this morning, the world is watching this. The nation is frustrated, but the world is watching this. And they're saying, see, they just can't. They had too much to prepare for one day and they couldn't do it.

So I need strong leadership. And, you know, Murphy keeps saying, well, I'm a doctor. And he used an analogy of going in for an operation. You got to have an end game. you know what i don't care about all that they had time to get together to do a plan christmas morning with your family you know what an hour that afternoon on the phone with two people and this is what i told his office you get two people then you get five people seven people you lead up till you get your groups so you either so dave let me jump in here So you're a McCarthy guy.

You're supporting McCarthy. Not necessarily, but at this point.

Well, that's what they're voting on. Right, but we're at the point where it's not going to go somewhere else. I would love for Jim Jordan to be it, because Jordan's one of the five names that we always hear. But here's the thing. He says he doesn't want it.

So we've got to quit dawdling around, and there's got to be a solution to this. if McCarthy isn't my choice then you know what it doesn't matter if that's what's going to work for now and like I said let the other Republicans control him this may be the last chance that Republicans get to vote on anything you know that we get to vote for Republicans because we're we're going to our own demise so my question to you would be if you don't think it's McCarthy for whatever reason, who would you think and how would we get them there? Yeah, that's a good question, Dave. Look, if the numbers after the fifth vote, and we don't know when that's going to happen, but if there's a fifth vote today and McCarthy is still not able to get that number, I think there have to be discussions. And you look for some sort of a Lee Zeldin who just left Congress, the guy very popular.

We need somebody who's a fighter, and Lee Zeldin is certainly a fighter. There are plenty of other people there that would be able to step in. That would be able to step in.

Well, and that's a good question. But my issue is this, Dave. We're going to put McCarthy in as Speaker of the House, and he pulls another Paul Ryan. You're never going to be able to get people to vote for Republicans. You won't be able to trust them.

And that's the issue here. I think, why are we settling? That's my question. We don't have to settle, but we are. That's what I'm saying.

we aren't if and only if if mccarthy goes in now all these people have said i oppose you for this okay we're not going anywhere we're not getting it done so if they go ahead you know and put mccarthy in the seat in the speaker seat now they can say okay you wanted it we gave it to you we put you there you've you've accepted all these terms we're going to hold you to them and well I don't think it's going to work, Dave. I really don't. I hate to do this, Dave, but we've got to run. We are so late for a break. Dave, you give us a call back, and I appreciate you disagreeing with me.

I do. And, folks, that's what this is all about. There is a civil war in the Republican Party right now, and we're seeing that playing out on national television. Is this a bad thing for the world? What do I care?

I don't care about the world. I don't care about what's happening in Zimbabwe or France. I care about what's happening right here in the United States of America. And if they look at us and they want to be horrified, fine, be horrified. Why don't you take a quick look at what's happening in Parliament right now?

Hang tight. We'll be right back. Start a journey, not a fad. Kick off your fitness journey with up to $500 off Peloton Bike, Bike Plus, or Tread Packages. Choose the package that will take your training to the next level with accessories like our cycling shoes, heart rate band, non-slip grip dumbbells, and more.

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All right, welcome back, America. This is the Todd Starnes Radio Show, proudly broadcasting on 140 radio stations around the nation. But our flagship station right here in Memphis, Tennessee, home of Elvis and B.B. King and the Blues. Let's go to the phones.

It's also home to Chuck in Midtown Memphis, listening to us on our flagship station, KWAM. Hey, Chuck, what's on your mind today? Hello, Mr. Starnes.

Well, what's on my mind is leadership, and I think maybe that that is the main qualification for the Speaker of the House is good leadership. And I have a question as far as Mr. McCarthy. Like, why is it that he can't hear the people? In other words, I'm ready to support him.

President Trump is ready to support him or is supporting him. Marjorie Taylor Greene is supporting him. But Mr. McCarthy does not seem to be willing to tell people, I hear you now. I hear your constituents the Freedom Caucus I hear your constituents And maybe I was not listening clearly enough in the past and I willing to change And I humbly ask for your vote for me as Speaker of the House.

And I will try my best to serve all of the Republicans' constituents. influence, and we know which side of the needle, moderate to leaning to the right, to moderate, is where the Republican Party is supposed to be. You know what I haven't heard, Chuck, and we're going to head to a break here, and so I'm going to have to hang up on you, but I want you to, first of all, thank you, Chuck, for listening to KWAM, but I think you're on to something here, Chuck, because we haven't I heard McCarthy come out and say what you just said. And maybe if he had, and I don't know, maybe there's still time for McCarthy to get out there and say, you know what, I was wrong to fight against conservative candidates. I was wrong to talk about Trump and resigning in private.

I was wrong about that, but I've made amends. Will he say that? We'll see, America. Start a journey, not a fad. Kick off your fitness journey with up to $500 off Peloton Bike, Bike Plus, or Tread Packages.

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See additional terms at OnePeloton.com. All right, welcome back, everybody. I'm happy to have you with us today. All right, so here's where we're at.

Sorry about that, ladies and gentlemen. Here's where we're at. This just in from The Hill. And this, what I'm about to read to you, is going to explain Kevin McCarthy in a nutshell. Again, I never met the man.

And I just, let me back up for a moment. Back when I was at Fox News Channel, one of the first people we reached out to was Kevin McCarthy to be a guest on the show. And we have had lots of people over the years on this program. Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, President Trump multiple times. Just about every major member of Congress has been on my show.

Even Ronna McDaniel has been on the show. Kevin McCarthy was the one guy who refused to come on, refused to come on to this program. And from what I was told, the reason why is because I had been critical at times of some of the things McCarthy had done. and he did not want to be subjected to any sort of ambush or any sorts of difficult questions.

Well, if you've listened to this program for any amount of time, you know that we don't do the ambush stuff here. We just don't play that game. I know some people do it, and that's their shtick, and that's good, whatever. But we don't do that here. And it always bothered me that McCarthy would not sit down for an interview because something was just not right there.

And I had heard a lot of stories about McCarthy over the years, and I just dismissed them. But I will say this. His behavior in recent days has given me pause. But this news just in, that Kevin McCarthy has reached out to Democrats. And he's talking with the Democrats about a deal to support a consensus candidate for speaker or hold out from voting to ensure he needs to reach a lower threshold.

So Kevin McCarthy, ladies and gentlemen, at this moment is meeting with Democrats to meek out and to eke out some sort of a deal so that he can become Speaker of the House.

Now, what does that tell you about Kevin McCarthy? 844-747-8868. That's our toll-free telephone number. That's 844-747-8868. I want to play some audio from Congressman Matt Gaetz.

Cut number one, please.

Well, we were threatened by my committee chairman to be on the Armed Services Committee, Mr. Rogers, that if we did not vote for Mr. McCarthy, we would be removed from committees. Our position is that if Kevin McCarthy is the Speaker of the House and we don't have an ability to ensure that there is oomph behind the agenda and energy behind our oversight, that the committee assignments don't mean that much anyway. I'm not here to participate in some puppet show where we pass a bunch of messaging bills, send them to the Senate, watch them die, fail to use leverage, and don't hold the Biden administration accountable.

I don't want to relive the Benghazi experience where it's just theater pretending to be oversight. We can do better than that, and that's our purpose today.

So understand what McCarthy is doing here, and he's giving an illustration of how he will govern. He will govern with fear, force and fear. You don't vote like I tell you to vote. There will be you-know-what to pay. That's what this is all about.

You oppose me, you're not getting a seat on any committee. You're going to sit your butt down. And now Kevin McCarthy talking to Democrats about a deal on a consensus candidate? That tells you everything you need to know about Kevin McCarthy. Honestly, they ought to hold the fifth vote right now as soon as everybody finds out about this, and let's see if that 20 votes goes to 40, 50, or 60, or even higher.

Because that tells me Kevin McCarthy would rather work with Democrats than members of his own party. 844-747-8868, toll-free telephone number. Let's go to Charles WSIC. Charles, what's on your mind? Happy New Year, Todd.

Todd, I was just, wow, that was revealing what you just said. But what I was thinking, Todd I think what the Republicans And I support these 20 Republican members of the Congress I think they're showing a lot of guts And that's what we want We want people going to go up there and fight for us And there's this feeling that McCarthy's not going to do that Based upon the way he's behaved and the way he's voted Like what you just mentioned But I think if I were the holdouts I think I would go to McCarthy and I would say, and maybe they've done this and maybe you have some insight on this, but I would go to them and I would say, you know what, we are so worried that you're not going to follow through on the agenda that everybody's campaigned on, your commitment to America. Look what's happened recently with this $1.7 trillion omnibus bill.

So this is what we want. We want a written, not a verbal, we want a written ironclad agreement from you that you are not going to raise the debt limit. that you're not going to let the Democrats have any more money, the FBI, the DOJ, which will pretty much nullify that $1 trillion omnibus bill, Todd, because we're running annual deficits of over $1 trillion right now. But I think if McCarthy would give them that commitment along with the other rules changes, I think that the 20 may go along with him.

Now, in the absence of that, Todd, the next person that gets up there and nominates an alternative to McCarthy, I would say, you know what, it's time that we have somebody that's going to fight for us, and we only know one person over the last four or five years that's willing to fight for us and willing to execute on what he says he's going to do, and therefore I'm going to nominate Donald John Trump as Speaker of the House. And let's see if the Republicans will follow their leader.

Now, Charles, that is an interesting thing. And as you're speaking, I'm thinking to myself, I could see how that would work. I mean, if the Republicans are hopelessly locked, deadlocked, which it certainly appears they are, and if this report from TheHill.com is true, they've got even bigger problems, then maybe Trump is the guy. And the question at that point is, will Trump be able to get those votes, or will there be establishment Republicans standing in the way of even Trump getting the nod for the speakership?

Well, there's only one way to find out, Todd. But, Todd, this debt ceiling increase, as you know, this is the last leverage that Republicans have because of the capitulation last week with the omnibus bill. And if they raise that debt limit, everything that McCarthy and a lot of people are talking about is just a bunch of happy talk. I mean, you can talk about, you know, laying off 87,000 IRS agents. You can talk about doing this and that.

But the reality is Chuck Schumer is the majority leader. Joe Biden's in the White House right now, and they don't have to follow through with any of that. But if you control the purse strings, you control everything. He who has the gold rules and the Republican Party right now, if they play their cards right, can have all the gold. But I definitely think that if McCarthy's not willing to do that, I think Trump would be a good alternative.

and let's just throw it out there and see what happens. I'd love to see him land in Washington D.C. right now and go right there to the floor of the House and say, hey, guess what? I'm willing to stand up. I was your leader for four years.

I'm willing to lead you again. Trust me to execute and follow through on this agenda that you and I both want. Yeah, Charles, appreciate that call, and we're going to put that out to our listeners as well. And Charles raises an interesting point. Would Donald Trump be the guy that could step in and unite the Republicans in the House of Representatives.

What say you, ladies and gentlemen, 844-747-8868? That is a toll-free telephone number. That's 844-747-8868. And it seems to me that maybe, just maybe, President Trump needs to get on a plane and go to Washington just to get this all sorted out. Because now it is official that McCarthy does not have the votes in round four.

He has been re-nominated again as we get ready for round five of voting on Capitol Hill. But right now, nobody is budging, not a single person. As a matter of fact, do we have the C-SPAN audio?

Okay, let's listen in. This is Warren Davidson, a congressman from Ohio. The next Speaker of the House. Unlike Democrats, nearly every Republican at least campaigns on some form of smaller, more accountable government. Once we get here, the bipartisan consensus keeps growing a bigger, less accountable government.

The American people know that the status quo is broken, that we become less free, less safe, and more burdened by debt. The American people are sick and tired of it, and they keep sending us reinforcements. It's reinforcements that today help make up our small majority. But a majority is only a majority if we actually work together.

Now, lots of people back home don't trust me. All right, let me jump in there because we've got to take a break here. That's Warren Davidson. He's a supporter of Kevin McCarthy. He says the status quo is broke.

Well, of course it is, which is why we need someone other than Kevin McCarthy in that speakership. We do. All right, got to take a break. 844-747-8868. Polls showing a very tight race between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.

And this could be one of the biggest political battles ever. Newsmax wants to know what you think. They're conducting an urgent poll asking if President Trump should continue his run for the presidency. Or what about DeSantis? And you can now vote in the Fox News poll.

Text the word skip to 39747. That's skip to 39747. Let your voice be heard.

Now, iTunes and Newsmax for news I can trust. They're carried on every major cable system. And if your cable system does not carry Newsmax, just give them a call and demand the change. Be sure to vote again in Newsmax's poll on whether Trump should run again. Text SKIP to 39747.

That's SKIP to 39747. Start a journey, not a fad. Kick off your fitness journey with up to $500 off Peloton Bike, Bike Plus, or Tread Packages. Choose the package that will take your training to the next level with accessories like our cycling shoes, heart rate band, non-slip grip dumbbells, and more. Join now and you'll see why 92% of households that start the year with Peloton are still active a year later.

All access membership separate. Offer ends January 8th, 2023. Excludes Bike, Bike Plus, and Tread Basics. See additional terms at OnePeloton.com. How about the House puts a name forward like Newt Gingrich that will know we'll get things done.

Surely he could get enough votes. And it is not a part of the Constitution that the Speaker of the House actually has to be a current elected representative. They could even put Donald Trump up there if they wanted also. All right, that was Sean from Arkansas. Look, it's a fair point.

They can. You don't have to be an elected member of Congress. You could certainly be Speaker of the House. That's why we had Charles suggest maybe Donald Trump as the nominee, throw his name under the hat. That might be an interesting thing for the conservatives to do here.

See if that might move the needle. What say you, ladies and gentlemen? 844-747-8868 That's 844-747-8868 I want to play some audio real quick from Byron Donalds the Republican congressman from Florida Cut number 6 At the end of the day, do I believe Republicans are going to figure this out? Of course, we are going to elect the speaker We're going to get that work done But I think it's important for the American people to understand that unlike the Democrats who just do leadership by acclamation we are actually having a deliberative process about what leadership looks like in the House of Representatives. We know Washington does not work.

So having that deliberative discussion, which in some parts is messy at times, is in the long term in the best interest of America and of the body of the House of Representatives. All right, let's go to Jesse in North Carolina, WSIC, our great affiliate there. Jesse, what's your take on McCarthy? Hey, this is a great opportunity for both sides to come together and nominate a good God-fearing man or woman, one that's like an Isaiah to the law. Isaiah 820, to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to the word, it is because they are of no light in them.

And anybody that used God's name and name, I don't think should hold that position.

Now, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, I would feel like would be a great speaker. He is a really good speaker of Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina here. I've heard him, seen him in person. I think he'd make a really good nominee for Speaker of the House. All right.

Well, Jesse, I appreciate the call. And we've got you down, Mark Robinson, who happens to be the lieutenant governor of North Carolina. Good guy. He's been on the show before. Jesse, thanks for the call.

Let's go to Pat in Oregon on KYKN. Hey, Pat, what's up? Hi. Hey, I've had some good discussion. I think Trump would be very good for a nomination, but I'm just not sure that he would be elected.

My suggestion would be, and I can't think of the name of her, from South Dakota, the flamethrower gal. the governor there say that one more time pat uh my suggestion would be uh the flame for a flamethrower gal from south i think she's in south oh christy no christy no the governor yeah yeah okay he's got a lot of gut she's uh conservative and uh i'll bet uh nancy pelosi doesn't know how to use a flamethrower pat that's a that's a great point all right we got christy noem in the mix pat appreciate that and thank you for listening i want to go back to the capital uh let's uh listen in as lauren bobert speaks rubber stamp the status quo or keep on going along to get along it's to use our votes to elect a speaker who will enable us to get our country back on track Getting the job done is what we were elected to do, and that starts with having a leader who supports Republican principles, builds consensus, and has a proven track record of success. Byron Donalds is that leader. Republicans, including many moderates, have been impressed by Byron Donalds. They're impressed by his ability to work together.

They respect his leadership. We see him as someone who can communicate what we are all wanting to do in this house to Americans. And he represents so much more than just his district in Florida. Many millions of Americans all over this nation praise the work and the leadership of Byron Donalds. All right, there you go.

So let's work together.

So Lauren Boebert throwing Byron Donald's name into the hat. You know, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of Trump getting on board his airplane, flying into Washington, D.C., walking right smack into the middle of that mess up on Capitol Hill right now and saying, folks, I'm the solution. 844-747-8868 is our telephone number. Let's go to Mike in Georgia, WDUN, our great station there. Hey, Mike, what's on your mind?

Well, just to simplify and broad stroke it, do we think the character votes of the members are in the group of 20 holdouts? Or do we think the character votes in the best interest of America are in the other people, establishment types who've been up there for years, selling America down the river? And so to me, the 20 are holding out for a reason. To me, it's like the line drawn in the sand at the Alamo.

Now is the time to take a stand and to go through with McCarthy would be like being engaged to a woman for several years who's been cheating on you left and right. And you go ahead with a wedding because she's promising to do better. You know, it's just ludicrous. And I am for Donald Trump. I don't think we're ready for it.

I think the coach is too strong for them, but I think that's what we need, whether or not we're mature enough to realize we need it and sidestep all of the corruption or whatever's brought us to this contaminated state. It's a mess, Mike, and we're going to leave this hour on that note. Mike, thanks for that call. Folks, it's very simple. As the fifth round of valedictine gets underway, who do you support?

The 20 House Conservatives or Kevin McCarthy and Fox News. 844-747-8868. That's our number. The website, ToddStarnes.com. We'll be right back.

Live from the Liberty University studio in Memphis, Tennessee, It's common sense conservative commentary from Todd Starnes. That's us. That's right. I love this American ride. I have a little math problem to start out the third hour of the Todd Starnes radio program.

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the show. Always glad to have you with us. noon to three eastern and i would be remiss if i did not encourage you to invite a friend a family member a colleague to listen in as well but here is here is my question so liz lizard cheney the former congresswoman from wyoming made about well she makes about 174 000 a year that's what she's made for the past six years, $174,000 a year. That's a pretty good salary.

But her net worth has grown from $7 million when she first took office to more than $44 million. Her net worth skyrocketing up to 600% in Congress.

Now, how pray tell is that possible for a woman who makes $174,000 a year. I mean, that, ladies and gentlemen, is a... That's a financial advisor I want to talk to. 844-747-8868. That is our toll-free telephone number this hour of the program.

That's 844-747-8868. I want to go right now, though, to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line. Honored to have with us Mark Meckler from Convention of the States. Mark, hope you're doing well today. I'm doing great.

Good to be with you. Mark, interesting survey as we're watching the House Speaker vote again. You guys have commissioned a survey with the Trafalgar Group, and you've determined that there's big trouble not just in the House but also in the RNC, and we understand only 6% of Republican voters want Ronna McDaniel to stay in office. Yeah, that's correct. I mean, people are pretty frustrated, and I think that's fair.

You have 73 and a half percent of Republicans say that the party should elect somebody new to serve as chair of the RNC. And I think this is really important. When you have failed leadership and failed leadership is demonstrated by poor results and everybody would agree the results of the midterm elections were poor compared to what was expected. Then usually the people at the top step away. And it's literally only in politics where you see people fail and then stay in their position or actually get a better position.

And so I think it's incredible that you've got a woman who's failed repeatedly in the elections to produce good results, and she still believes she deserves that share. I think the American people feel otherwise. You know, I go back to a couple of weeks ago when it was suggested that Ronna McDaniel might want to debate Harmeet Dillon, maybe Mike Lindell. They're both in the running for the RNC chair. But McDaniel declined, and basically, in essence, she said, well, the only people that matter to me are the committee members, the people who actually vote.

So I see what the polling data is here, but I'm not sure that it's going to matter all that much at the end of the day. Do you? No, look, I mean, what really matters, I agree with that, are the people who are actually on the committee. And the question is, though, do they feel beholden to Ronna McDaniel, or do they feel beholden to the people that they represent, which really are the American people, the rank-and-file Republicans, the people who consider themselves or register themselves as members of the Republican Party? And we're either going to be bottom-up as a party or we're going to be top-down, and Ronald McDaniel has exhibited a top-down leadership style, and the people are looking for something more bottom-up.

Let's take a look at some of the findings here. Again, 73.5% of GOP voters say the party should elect someone new. Only 5.6% say that Ron and McDaniel should be that individual. How is this playing out? And is there a connection between the unrest and unhappiness within the RNC and what's happening right now in the House of Representatives?

Undoubtedly, there's a connection. And the numbers are very similar. You've got 62.7% of Republican voters say that the party and its congressional leadership was ineffective in getting Republicans elected in 2022.

So they have the same feeling. And again, rightly so. The people at the top of the party, in this case McCarthy and obviously in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, these are folks who were responsible through their leadership acts and getting people elected. They obviously didn't do a very good job of that. And so the people are looking for some kind of accountability like they would get in any other business.

I think that's a fair assessment. And again, for Ron McDaniel to dismiss anyone who's not a committee member, I mean, it really does say a lot about the average person who happens to be a member of the party. I'm a member of the Republican Party. I give them money. I'm likely not to if she's the new RNC chair because, quite frankly, my money is going to losing causes, and I want to be able to back a winner.

Yeah, interestingly, she was asked about this poll on air last night, and she said it was just an invalid poll.

So here you have a reputable national pollster like Trafalgar doing legitimate polling, and we pay for this polling. We're actually looking for real results. I don't have a predetermined outcome when we ask Trafalgar to do a poll for us. And her only answer to that poll is it just wasn't legitimate, and she didn't trust the poll. Isn't that great?

You know, again, we're weeding out these never-Trumpers, these people who say they're conservative, but they're really not. there CINOs, conservatives in name only. Ronna McDaniel seems to think she can drop the Romney from her name, and all of a sudden we're going to forget about where she comes from. Yeah, I also think it's interesting. You know, the way to deal with a severe professional is you say, look, I realize the results are disappointing.

I take responsibility for that. Here's why I think it happened. Here's what we're going to do to correct. But what I've seen her doing is going out and saying that she's very proud of the results and people should be happy with the results, and that's why she should be reelected. If you're trying to sell people a bill of goods, it's just not selling.

All right, amazing stuff there on this poll. And, folks, we've got a link to it over on our website, toddsterns.com.

So, Mark, have you been following the voting and everything? There's a lot of palace intrigue in D.C. right now. Yeah, it is very interesting. Look, I think one thing you can say about it is, at least overall, this is a win for conservatives.

They have prevented McCarthy from being elected. Whether he's ultimately elected or not, they've flexed their muscle and shown their power. I'll be quite honest, I'm not in favor of all this shenanigans. I think it makes the Republican Party look bad. I think the Democrat Party is enjoying it.

You see this all over the leftist media. You elected these people. They're not even capable of electing their own speaker, let alone governing. And I think there's some truth to that. McCarthy, as much as I don't like McCarthy, he raised the money.

He's the one guy in the caucus that travels basically 365 days a year, fought for that position by raising money for everybody. I think he's probably the only guy that actually really wants to be Speaker that has a chance of being Speaker.

So I don't love the way it's playing out, but I think at least in the visual of it, it is a win for conservatives right now. All right, we've got to leave it there. Mark, I always appreciate your insight. Good polling data. Appreciate you.

Great talking to you. Thanks. All right, Mark Meckler, everybody, from Convention of States and their polling data. An overwhelming number of Republican voters want McDaniel out. By the way, this item just sent to us, Lauren Boebert, in her remarks, it looks like McCarthy's playing hardball.

She said that McCarthy threatened all of the 20. They were threatened privately. She also says that President Trump gave her a call and purportedly called other holdouts and told them that McCarthy deserves their vote. In response to that Boebert says that Trump should have told McCarthy that he doesn have the votes So they playing hardball and it going to get ugly You just better get ready for that But again when you step back understand only one side is throwing the hate and the vitriol Only one side is threatening, and that is the establishment side.

Now, we got a call from a Memphis, Tennessee listener wanting to know about Congressman David Kustoff. Where did he vote?

Well, he voted for McCarthy. We invited the congressman multiple times to come onto the program, which he's done before in the past, but the congressman is not available.

So you can – a lot of these folks are not available. And I appreciate Congressman Troy Nell's coming on because he and I clearly disagree on this matter. But I do want to hear his side of it. And I just want – I want one of these Republicans to acknowledge, yeah, they voted for McCarthy, but they know that he's not a true conservative. They know that he has spent his time and effort and money fighting against conservative candidates and that he tried to stab Donald Trump in the back.

President Trump, a very forgiving man, I don't think I could have done that. 844-747-8868, our toll-free telephone number, that's 844-747-8868. This is the Todd Stern Show. Start a journey, not a fad. Kick off your fitness journey with up to $500 off Peloton Bike, Bike Plus, or Tread packages.

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See additional terms at OnePeloton.com. All right. So President Trump raising the ire of pro-life groups around the country. The president basically accusing the pro-life movement of blowing up the midterm elections.

Now, there are several pro-life groups, including Lila Rose's organization, also the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group, and they're firing back. And the president, as a matter of fact, there is a, oh, what was the story? There was a story in The New Yorker saying that the president is basically turning his back on the pro-life movement. That's not what he's doing here, but I want to go through this and try to help us understand where Trump is coming from.

The president argued on True Social that the Republicans failed in the midterms, and it was not his fault. He blamed it on those who pushed hard against abortion laws after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Quote, it was the abortion issue poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on no exceptions, even in the case of rape, incest, or life of the mother. That lost large numbers of voters.

Pro-life groups are really upset with all of this. The Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group accused President Trump of the ostrich approach as in putting his head in the sand. former vice president mike pence actually retweeted something they wrote about it basically giving him distance between him and trump they said the approach to winning on abortion and federal races proven for a decade is this state clearly the ambitious consensus pro-life position and contrast that with the extreme view of democrat opponents we look forward to hearing that position fully articulated by Mr. Trump and all presidential candidates.

Now, President Trump has a point here, and it's a good point and one that we ought to consider. Yes, the president is pro-life. Yes, I'm pro-life. But you've got to play smart politics here. And the Republicans have not played smart politics.

And I will say this, I don't think some in the pro-life movement have played smart politics. And I would point out the vote in Kansas. That was the first national vote after Roe v. Wade was overturned in extremely pro-life Kansas. But the legislation was so poorly written and so broad that it failed miserably.

Just miserably.

Now, there are people out there that are going to say, well, we knew Trump was pro-choice. he's pro-abortion? No, I don't think he is. I think he's pro-winning, and he understands that if you go out there and you campaign on a law, let me ask you this. Let me ask you this.

Do you want, let's just say, that every single thing that the pro-life movement wants becomes a reality, and a woman's life is in danger, and she decides to go and have an abortion, which I can't even imagine. It is a heart-wrenching decision to make. Do you save the life of the baby or the mom? And let's just say they save the life of the mom. Do they support throwing the mom in jail?

Is that what we're saying here? I don't think it is, but you've got to be able to articulate that in the political arena. And if you don't, and if you can't, you will lose races. And this is why I believe that Lindsey Graham sabotaged the midterm elections. See, people don't like to talk about this, but Lindsey Graham came out just, what, barely a month before the elections and announced that he was introducing pro-life legislation that would be among the strongest in the nation.

And it stunned everybody. Who in their right mind would introduce something like that just before the election? And you know what? You know what happened here, folks? it mobilized the abortion industry and they took out conservatives.

Now, you can say what you want to say about Trump, but this is about playing smart politics.

So my question is this. Are we better off just throwing these pieces of legislation out there and hoping it works, or is it better to have a smart plan of action?

Now, in the case of Kansas, and this is very important, in the case of the Kansas vote, Republicans, pro-life conservatives, went to the pro-life movement and they said, you can't do this right now. This is not the time, it is not the place for this kind of legislation. And the pro-life movement actually went to the Republican lawmakers and said, if you do not support this and support this vote, we will publicly turn our backs on you. And so what do the Republicans do?

Well, they didn't want to lose the pro-life support, so they got behind the bill and they got their butts handed to them. And now the pro-life movement in Kansas is screwed because they didn't play smart politics. That's all Trump is talking about here. You've got to play smart politics. They didn't play smart politics.

844-747-8868 is our toll-free telephone number that's 844-747-8868 so do you have a problem with what trump had to say about the about the pro-lifers in the republican party i don't think it's that unreasonable you want to be smart about it right Anyway, but there are some of the pro-life movement, and you question them, they come after you. And I get it. I get it. But you know what? At the end of the day, you've got to be able to win these elections.

And they're not able to do that because they're not playing smart politics. All right, here's Newt Gingrich. Speaker Newt is questioning the moral values of anyone who stands in opposition to Kevin McCarthy. Cut number seven.

Well, look, I don't understand what they're doing. They're not voting against Kevin McCarthy. They're voting against over 215 members of their own conference. Their conference voted overwhelmingly, 85%, for McCarthy to be speaker.

So this is a fight between a handful of people and the entire rest of the conference. And they're saying they have the right to screw up everything.

Well, the precedent that sets is so do the moderates, so do the members from Florida. I mean, any five people can get up and say, I'm now going to screw up the conference too. The choice is Kevin McCarthy or chaos. And there's nobody going to replace Kevin because he has far more people totally dedicated to him than this handful of never-enders. And the result's going to be anybody who tried to replace Kevin would face total chaos.

It would be impossible to govern.

So I hope in the next 24 hours that this handful of members will realize they don't have the moral right to reject the choice of 85 percent of their conference. They don't have the moral right to break up the House against the wishes of over 215 fellow Republicans. And I think it's a remarkably short-sighted and candidly selfish position. And I don't understand where they're coming from. And I don't understand where Speaker Newt's coming from.

What about you? 844-747-8868. All right, let's check back in up on Capitol Hill where McCartney has failed on a fifth vote.

So a fifth vote for Speaker of the House. We don't know what's going to happen next. More than likely, a sixth vote is going to happen.

Now, we are expecting Congressman Chip Roy to phone in if he's able to, but there are a lot of moving parts today, so we will do what we can. In the meantime, I would like to play some audio, and this is a bit long, but you need to hear this because Congressman Chip Roy is speaking truth to power right now. Cut number five.

So this is what the chamber looks like when we're actually debating and the bodies are in the chairs. How many times have we been down here giving speeches and there's not a soul in the chamber? Yet this is what it takes to get 435 people in the chamber and have an actual debate. The American people are watching, and that's a good thing. What we're doing is exercising our rights to vote and have a debate and have a discussion about the future of this country through the decision of choosing a speaker.

This is not personal. It's not. This is about the future of the country. This is about the direction of the country. American people who are looking at this body and wondering why we can pass $1.7 trillion bills that are unpaid for.

They can just slide in $45 billion for Ukraine but not pay for it $40 billion for emergency spending and not pay for it 10% increase in defense spending 6% increase in non-defense spending and not pay for it And not do a thing except put language in a bill That prohibits our ability to use the money to secure the border That bill gets rammed through And we know exactly how it gets rammed through because the defense world and the non-defense world come together and say, you know what, we're going to cut a deal and we'll all go to the mics and we're all going to give speeches and the American people are the big losers. That's what happens. We know that's what happens. The Rules Committee sits up there and passes a bill, sends it to the floor, and we have no debate on the floor of this body. We haven't been able to offer an amendment on the floor of this body since May of 2016.

The former leader and I have discussed this right here. That's true. But the fact is, this place has to change. It has to change. And the change comes by either adopting rules and procedures that will make us actually do our job, or it comes from leadership.

And people ask me, what do you want? I want the tools or I want the leadership to stop the swamp from running over the average American every single day. We can't keep doing this. I'm going to sit here until we figure out how to stop spending money we don't have. I don't want any more empty promises.

I don't want any more, oh, don't worry, trust us, we'll do it. I want to know that we're going to be able to exercise our rights as a member of this body to stand up for the American people and actually fix this country. And it's not going to happen when we use our men and women in uniform and defense and wrap ourselves around that and then spend more money that we don't have, weakening that defense, weakening our country in the process. But that's what we just did. Ladies and gentlemen, I am asking for us to come together and figure out how to solve these problems.

And to do that, I'm going to do what I did my very first act as a member of Congress or as a congressman-elect and nominate Jim Jordan for speaker.

Now, Jim has said he doesn't want that nomination, and Jim has been down here nominating Kevin, and I respect that. And again, I have no personal animus towards Kevin. And I've worked for the last two months to try to figure out how to get the rules to make this place better, and we've made progress. but we do not have the tools or the leadership yet to stop the swamp for rolling over the american people jim has been doing it he has a track record of doing it and for those reasons i am nominating jim jordan from ohio for speaker of the house of representatives all right uh there's trip roy and there's some pretty powerful speeches going on here scott scott perry the chairman of the house reading caucus uh shared this on his twitter page and i want to share this with you because it's a fair point he's making. Why do members have trust issues with Kevin McCarthy?

Why is that? Even the people who are voting for McCarthy really don't want to vote for him. The only reason they're voting for him is there's an R behind his name. Unfortunately, that R stands for RINO.

So Scott Perry points out that every major budget bill that has passed under Kevin McCarthy's leadership of the last GOP-controlled House was passed with more Democrat than Republican support.

Now, why do you think that is? Why do you think it is that McCarthy was able to pass budget bills with more Democrat support than Republican support during the Trump years? Anybody see that as a problem? I want to read an interesting piece from Daniel Horowitz over at The Blaze. If you don't support Kevin McCarthy for speaker, you are somehow helping the Democrats because of a phantom concern that for the first time ever, RINOs will get together and elect a Democrat speaker.

This is the propaganda being disseminated by McCarthy and his allies in the broken conservative media. Aside from the fact that this concern is completely unfounded, they're forgetting the irony that McCarthy himself on the most important pieces of legislation, budgets and debt ceiling, worked with Democrats.

Now what's up with that, ladies and gentlemen? He worked with the Democrats as a floor leader to squander the golden years of Trump's presidency with budget bills that Democrats often supported unanimously. Horowitz goes on to write, it's getting old. Republicans work with Democrats on every policy that matters, especially at the time the ball is actually in play. Yet every time we seek to do surgery, either through elections, policy fights, or leadership battles, we're told that if we don't help the Republicans who work with the Democrats, we are helping the Democrats.

In a nutshell, what Horowitz is trying to say here is that Kevin McCarthy's already working with the Democrats. And he's working with Conservative Media Inc., talking about Fox News Channel, talking about talk radio. Mark Levin talking about what Jim we've got oh goodness gracious Ben Shapiro my mind slightly wandered it happens one time a year ladies and gentlemen and today is that day again the final vote in round 5 McCarthy 201 Jeffries 212 others 20 one person voting present all right we got to take a break your calls coming up 844-747-8868 who do you support kevin mccarthy or the house 20 this is the todd stern show start a journey not a fad kick off your fitness journey with up to 500 off peloton bike bike plus or tread packages choose the package that will take your training to the next level with accessories like our cycling shoes heart rate band, non-slip grip dumbbells, and more. Join now and you'll see why 92% of households that start the year with Peloton are still active a year later. All access membership separate.

Offer ends January 8th, 2023. Excludes Bike, Bike Plus, and Tread Basics. See additional terms at OnePeloton.com. All right. Well, this could go on and on and on here, folks.

We're waiting now for, what, ballot number six. In the meantime, now would be a great opportunity to remind you that you've got to consider changing your cell phone service. And one of the big reasons why is these big cell phone companies are actually using their dollars to support liberal causes. but not our friends over at Patriot Mobile. As a matter of fact, Patriot Mobile, they do the exact opposite.

They support causes we care about. PatriotMobile.com slash Todd. They've got a great website for listeners of the Todd Stearns Radio program. That's PatriotMobile.com slash Todd. And they have some incredible deals just for our listeners.

Now, if you're a veteran or a first responder, they're going to give you huge discounts on what you're already going to be getting. By the way, if you sign up now, they've got some great, great offers for you. Again, patriotmobile.com slash Todd. Be sure to use my promo code Todd when you call in. All right, let's go to the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line.

Our good friend, he is the host of his own program at WRVA, our great affiliate in Richmond, Virginia. You also hear him filling in for our friend Glenn Beck. Jeff Katz hanging out with us. Wow, that was pretty impressive.

Well, it's fun, but it's no Todd Starnes fun.

Well, yeah, we know that, but still, I mean, you know, I don't have a palace in Dallas, but, you know, we've got a nice little place in Tennessee. It's nice. It's comfortable. It's comfortable. Wow, Jeff Katz.

I mean, this is great for us in the radio business, but geez-aloo, this is nuts. It is. It is great for talk radio, but, man, is it bad for the country. This is some troubling stuff. And listen, I know that Kevin McCarthy wants more than anything else to get that gavel and Santa didn't bring it to him for Christmas, but maybe it's time for him to step aside and, I don't know, make room for somebody else.

I mean, the argument is what Speaker Newt Gingrich, and I've really been disappointed in Speaker Newt lately. I just don't get this. He said it's Kevin or Chaos. Those are your two choices.

well right now it's kevin and chaos if if you're uh you're looking at it and uh there are a lot of things that you can say about kevin mccarthy but i think what the house freedom caucus has said about him that he's not really all that conservative and that he's so willing uh to make deals with democrats i think those are important issues and uh i know that republicans desperately need to be in control of the house we've got to uh put the brakes on some of the nonsense that we are seeing from the left. But it would appear as if Kevin McCarthy doesn't have the votes. He was offered, as I understand it, Todd, he was offered all sorts of opportunities to go along. The big issue, I guess, is this whole vacate the chair and go back to the rules that existed before Nancy Pelosi. And he has said, no, I'm not going to do that.

So we're in this bizarre standoff right now. We had a poll that we posted at the start of the show, should House Republicans surrender to McCarthy? We've had almost 4,000 people weighing in so far. 84.7% say no, they should stay put. And that seems to be, I haven't been keeping tabs or tallies of the callers today, but most of our callers are saying, you know what, they've got to hold the line here.

I think they are holding the line, Todd. And I understand that sometimes in the delicate art of politics, there's compromise here, there's compromise there. But I don't think the House Freedom Caucus is saying anything outrageous when they're saying, we're going to do what our voters said we should do, what our constituents sent us here to do. And I hate to see the chaos. I hate to see the fact that the left is so thrilled at what they're watching.

I get that part of it, that we don't look great as far as conservatives go. Let me phrase that, as far as Republicans go. I think as far as rock-solid conservatives go, I think they're doing what they need to do. I was really baffled by President Trump's comments urging everybody to get on board with Kevin McCarthy. And as you have alluded to throughout the course of your great program, my friend, you've seen folks who say, hey, he's my favorite president, he's the best president, but he really ought to tell Kevin McCarthy to move aside.

Yeah, I mean, that's what Boebert said just a little while ago in her remarks on the floor of the House. I want to share this with you and give folks an update. We told you earlier, the Hill.com reporting, that McCarthy was talking with Democrats about some sort of a consensus deal. They're now retracting the McCarthy part of that. But instead, it turns out it's Congressman Don Bacon, the Republican from Nebraska.

And this is where it gets squirrely.

So Bacon is saying that some Republicans have started preliminary talks with Democrats about a deal to support a consensus candidate. Wow.

Well, you know, this is a great opportunity for all of those so-called moderate Democrats who have said, oh, we're bipartisan. and couldn't they come over and support Kevin McCarthy? Would Kevin McCarthy want their support? Is Kevin McCarthy so desperate to be Speaker of the House that he'll make a deal with the Democrats? I hate to say this.

I think he is. I think he would rather, at this point, make a deal with the Nancy Pelosi-Hakim Jeffries crowd than actually have any more substantive discussions with the House conservatives. What about Lizard Cheney? Do you think Lizard might come back? At this point, man, I think everything is in motion.

Everything's a possibility. And I guess I should break it to you. I have nominated you, sir, to be Speaker of the House. All right, you and Jeff Stein over at KXEL, what are you guys doing here? This is poppycock, sir.

Poppycock, I see. If nominated, I will not accept. If elected, I will not, sir. Oh, come on, Todd. I don't know.

The country is calling you. I don't know if they want me wielding that gavel. It might accidentally slip a couple of times. I've got a sneaking suspicion it might swing to the left and swing to the right and take out a couple of folks. I could see you doing that accidentally.

But this is a troubling time, my friend. And I don't know. At the moment, it continues to look rather silly to some and to others. It is all a matter of principle. And it's been a long time since somebody stood on principle.

in the House of Representatives. How about that? Yeah, Jeff Katz on the Patriot Mobile Newsmaker line this afternoon. Jeff, are you surprised by, you know, there are a few of us in the talk radio world now who are actually standing along with what we've dubbed the House 20. I mean, Fox News, aside from Tucker Carlson, who, by the way, I think nailed it.

He called him a political agnostic, talking about McCarthy. But Fox News Channel, by and large, is in McCarthy's pocket. Absolutely. My goodness. All of the talk radio personalities that I've looked at throughout the course of the day, they're saying that these guys are buffoons and it looks like a clown car.

And Fox News, as you say, seems to be very much going along with that. But, again, I think this is about principle. And Tucker Carlson, I think, is being very, very polite when he says of Kevin McCarthy that he's politically agnostic. I think he's a wheeler dealer from word go. I think he's always been about making a deal, and I don't mean the art of a deal like former President Trump.

I mean just making a deal and making sure he gets ahead.

So I think sometimes stuff comes back to bite you, and maybe that's what's going on.

Well, and we've got to encourage these guys to hold the line. I mean, this is that Mel Gibson moment in the Patriot where you've got to hold the line. And like you, I'm just surprised there were not more Republicans willing to put it all out there. I am a little shocked that it seems to be stuck there at 20. And that would say to me that McCarthy is probably making lots of promises and lots of deals with everybody except those 20 people.

And those 20 people are saying, I'm not open to a deal. I made a deal with my voters. My deal was I would represent you and be an honest, consistent conservative. And by God, that's what I'm going to do. And I think what's interesting here, we've got about 30 seconds, Steph, is that this fifth ballot failed.

in spite of President Trump's endorsement. I think that's the big story here. You are correct, as usual, Todd. That is the big takeaway. If President Trump can't get Kevin McCarthy elected, I think it's time for Kevin McCarthy to say, thanks so much.

I'm out of here. Yeah, I'm with you. All right, Jeff Katz, what's coming up on your big show today? We'll probably talk a lot about exactly what you and I just spoke about, my friend, because I don't think we've seen the last ballot of the day. nine with you on that one and it could what is it nine back in 1923 this could be mercy yeah record setting and get some popcorn well and the good news is yellowstone is on hiatus so what else do we have to do you know i am now watching the morning show on apple with jennifer aniston and uh reese witherspoon quite interesting i'll have to get your look i've seen that we'll have to compare notes so okay all right jeff's time we got to wrap it up there uh have a great show my friend thank you todd all right jeff katz ladies and gentlemen wrva great radio station all right look we're going to continue the conversation over at toddstarns.com i would recommend you head over there and we're going to keep you updated our good friend caleb park posting stories all day you get out there and be good america Start a journey, not a fad.

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