After Donald Trump disclosed that he’s received a target letter from special counsel Jack Smith’s office, the former president called Capitol Hill to press House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik to lend him a hand.
Trump’s appeal appears to have been a great success: He asked the House GOP leaders to take his side over law enforcement, take steps to help rally support among their colleagues, and commit to using congressional committees as vehicles for his grievances — and by all accounts, his subordinates complied. As we discussed yesterday, the former president effectively positioned himself as the shadow House speaker, leaving McCarthy and Stefanik to serve as obedient members of Trump’s whip team.
As a public-relations matter, this very likely made Trump happy, but the practical implications are quite limited. McCarthy and Stefanik can peddle strange talking points and perhaps generate some headlines for conservative media outlets, but that won’t stop the former president’s legal troubles from intensifying.
It’s why Trump has also called on congressional Republicans to defund the special counsels’ investigations — and it’s also why one of his most trusted House loyalists has introduced new legislation to do exactly that. The conservative Washington Times reported:
Rep. Matt Gaetz has introduced legislation prohibiting federal funding for the Special Counsel’s Office investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack and attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election outcome. Mr. Gaetz‘s bill would block any authorized or appropriated federal funds or any federal trust-fund money from being used for special counsel Jack Smith‘s grand jury and investigation.
As of this morning, the Florida congressman’s new bill, H.R. 4707, has zero co-sponsors, though it stands to reason other Trump loyalists will soon sign on to the effort.
To be sure, it’s tempting to ignore such a measure. It’s very unlikely to pass — a point Gaetz himself acknowledged while unveiling his legislation yesterday — and it’s even less likely to be considered by the Democratic-led Senate. It’s an unserious effort launched by a Republican who’s earned a reputation as an unserious lawmaker.
So why not just ignore it? Because I’m not altogether sure what McCarthy might do with a bill like this one. Common sense might suggest that the House speaker, who sees oddball bills introduced on a nearly daily basis, would ignore Gaetz’s proposal and treat it as a foolish stunt. But in recent weeks and months, many also assumed McCarthy would ignore the efforts to “expunge” Trump’s impeachments, impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland, load up the NDAA with far-right culture war priorities, and turn over sensitive Jan. 6 security footage to a far-right media personality. Instead, McCarthy endorsed all of these. As the House speaker takes orders from Trump, while going along with absurd talking points about Smith, the justice system, and the “weaponization” of agencies that haven’t actually been weaponized, it’s tough to assume that McCarthy will know better when it comes to Gaetz’s misguided bill.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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