Welcome to the beat, I'm Ari Melber, and the top story in Washington tonight draws on

a classic political reality of phrase you may have heard.

This is what democracy looks like.

That can be an appeal and argument or a kind of protest and lament to how democracy is

going, which is how many view what is going on tonight as we keep track of some of the

very first hearings of this new Republican Congress and some of the floor speeches defining

the new agenda.

Alcohol, tobacco, and firearms.

In Western Colorado, we call that a fun weekend.

Bottom line socialism bad, capitalism good.

Sounds like you're prepared to go over the cliff if you have to.

Over the cliff.

You should shut it down.

Drag queen story time, where men dress up as women and read confusing books to children.

First I thought you said, dry clean.

Confusing indeed.

Now, in all fairness, selected rhetoric or a few sound bites need not to find an entire

party.

You could take other areas in history, find a couple sound bites, and that wouldn't be

the whole story.

But the spats that we're seeing at the hearings, the often bizarre and sometimes quite

downright hateful speeches.

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