The following is an excerpt from Thursday’s episode of the “The ReidOut.” It has been slightly edited for length and clarity.
When you can’t govern, just rely on publicity stunts — that is the mantra presumably of the presently very unserious Republican Party.
On Thursday, the nominal House Speaker Kevin McCarthy got in a photo op of his own, with a highly produced video of his jaunt to the southern border in Arizona with a delegation of Republican freshmen.
Not to be outdone, Kevin’s supervisor in Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has teamed up with none other than George Santos as co-sponsor of a bill that could be used to ban books by LGBTQ authors in schools nationwide.
They’re all taking a page out of the Ron DeSantis playbook as he continues his own demagoguing photo ops to entertain MAGA voters, signing a bill allowing him to ship migrants across the country using Florida taxpayer money.
But DeSantis is much more private about a behind-the-scenes effort that is frighteningly serious. Last month, The Tampa Bay Times reported that he is appearing in radio ads — in Idaho, of all places — invoking Article 5 of the U.S. Constitution to call for a convention to amend the Constitution.
DeSantis’ stated goal is to get in an amendment imposing congressional term limits. But, as Puck News notes, “even this position has allowed fringe conservatives to dream of a day when they can use their control of state legislatures to fix all sorts of perceived federalist ills.”
Check out Thursday’s episode of “The ReidOut” for more on DeSantis’ Constitution ploy.
Joy-Ann Reid
Joy-Ann Reid is host of “The ReidOut” at 7 p.m. ET on MSNBC. “The ReidOut” features one-on-one conversations with politicians and newsmakers while addressing provocative political issues both inside and outside of the beltway.