Are personality politics distracting from the GOP’s agenda?

KCRW's Left, Right & Center

KCRW

352865, News

4.2 • 4.8K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2023

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

During his first month in Congress, Republican Representative George Santos from New York has been a giant distraction for the new House leadership.

He was caught lying about parts of his job experience, education and even his heritage. He’s now facing multiple state and federal investigations into his personal and campaign finances. Members from both parties and the majority of his constituents want him to resign. And he announced this week he’s temporarily declining his committee assignments.

Santos said it was voluntary, and he was stepping down to clear his name and focus on serving his constituents. But what does all the attention on one member tell us about the direction of the new Congress?

The House also voted to remove Representative Ilhan Omar from the foreign relations committee. However, a small group of Republicans want to end the partisan war over committee assignments. Do they want to focus on real business?

Host David Greene discusses with Mo Elleithee, executive director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service, and Sarah Isgur, senior editor at The Dispatch.

Plus, the Republican field for the presidential nomination in 2024 has been relatively quiet. Former President Donald Trump is trying to regain momentum. And there has long been speculation that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence will run as well.

But now, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley says she’ll announce her candidacy this month. Will this turn out to be a contest of personalities? And how do these people represent different visions for GOP leadership?

And the pandemic permanently altered the American workplace. How can downtowns and office managers adjust to a new reality? And what would incentivize people to come back?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, this is David Green. I'm the co-founder of Fearless Media and I am your host
0:05.1	here on Left, Right and Center. You know, there are a lot of things in George Santos'
0:10.7	life that we really don't know. After all, the Freshman Republican Congressman from New
0:15.5	York City was caught lying about parts of his job experience, his education, even his
0:20.5	heritage. But here's some things that we do know. His first weeks in Congress have been
0:24.9	something of a charade and a giant distraction for the new Republican leadership. There
0:29.6	are also members from both parties who wish he would just resign. And now we know that
0:34.7	he's not going to be serving on any committees for the time being. Santos announced that
0:38.3	he's temporarily declining those assignments. He was supposed to be on two fairly low profile
0:43.9	panels, the House Committee on Small Business and the House Science Space and Technology
0:48.0	Committee. Santos said in a statement that he's voluntarily stepping down so he can
0:53.4	properly clear his name and also so he can focus on serving his constituents who voted
0:58.0	him into office. So what is all this attention on this one member tell us about the direction
1:03.6	of this new Congress? Well, I have Moelay Thie here to talk about that. He's Executive Director
1:08.0	at Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service. Was Communications Director
1:12.8	for the Democratic National Committee and advised Hillary Clinton and Sarah Isger back
1:17.1	as well. She's a lawyer who was spokesperson at the Department of Justice under President
1:21.2	Trump and is now senior editor at the dispatch. Welcome back, Mo and Sarah. Always great
1:26.0	to have you. Nice to be back. Thank you. Thank you. Sarah Santos, how does this guy
1:30.0	still have his job? I mean, let's put this in some context. The House has always been
1:36.9	a little bit of the zoo, right? So on the one hand, Santos is maybe more of an egregious
1:42.4	example. On the other hand, during my 18 months at the Department of Justice, we indicted
	...

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