As Trump Faces Charges, Who Is in Control of the Republican Party?
The Political Scene | The New Yorker
The New Yorker
4.3 • 3.9K Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2023
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Donald Trump’s arraignment, on Tuesday, spurred a media frenzy that dominated the news. But the week also revealed a vacuum of leadership in the current Republican Party. Some G.O.P. members voiced wholehearted support for Trump. Some chose to only condemn the prosecution, in order to appease his followers. Some said nothing at all. One lawmaker who has offered no comment on the indictment so far is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been absent from the Senate since March 8th, when a fall sent him to the hospital with a concussion. Though the eighty-one-year-old senator has been weighing in on floor debates from rehab and his home, his absence has some colleagues worried about the future of the Party. In this week’s political roundtable, the New Yorker staff writers Susan B. Glasser, Jane Mayer, and Evan Osnos consider who is actually in charge of the Republican Party right now, and where they might be taking it.
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| 0:47.7 | Can we discuss the fact that Evan is yet again ahead of the pack on his yacht beach? I mean, you know, who knew that the |
| 0:57.8 | biggest story breaking was going to be about Clarence Thomas and his wife on a yacht belonging to |
| 1:05.4 | billionaire Harlan Crow, island hopping in Indonesia, just one of the many, many, many, many, many undisclosed |
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| 1:19.1 | Now, you've written about yachts, Evan, but have you written on a yacht like that? |
| 1:24.2 | In my personal estimation. What's so funny, right, is that, you know, the old adage Harry Truman's was if you want a friend in Washington, you should get a dog. |
| 1:32.7 | Is the saying, no, if you want a friend in Washington, get a billionaire? |
| 1:36.8 | Exactly. |
| 1:37.5 | Or at least somebody with a private plane and a private jet. |
| 1:50.2 | Welcome to the political scene, a weekly discussion about the big questions in American politics. I'm Evan Osnows, and I'm joined by my colleagues Jane Mayer and Susan Glasser. Hi, Jane. |
| 1:56.5 | Hey, Evan. Hey, Susan. Hi, guys. Great to be with you. |
| 2:07.6 | Here are some words I've never uttered before. |
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