The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 4:

• On Wednesday, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) became the 56th Speaker of the House of Representatives with a 220 to 209 floor vote—ending three-weeks of Republican infighting with unanimous support for his candidacy. In his first speech as Speaker from the House floor, Johnson vowed to “ensure that our republic remains standing as the great beacon of hope, light, and freedom in a world that desperately needs it.” MSNBC condemned the selection of Johnson citing his expressed doubts about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. However, didn’t MSNBC spend years expressing similar doubts about the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s election victory in 2016—baselessly blaming Russian interference?
• Many progressive media outlets and politicians, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have denounced Mike Johnson’s speakership—referring to him as an “election denier.” On X, President of American Commitment Phil Kerpen highlights the hypocrisy, noting that following the 2016 election Jeffries’ tweeted: “The more we learn about 2016 election the more illegitimate it becomes. America deserves to know whether we have a fake president in the Oval Office #RussianInterference.”
• While accepting the House Republican nomination to be Speaker of the House, following an internal vote on Tuesday night, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) told the press that “democracy is messy sometimes” but ensured that House Republicans are once again “united.” On Wednesday, he earned all 220 House Republican votes to become the 56th Speaker of the House of Representatives.
• Brooke Singman of Fox News reports: “The FBI maintained more than 40 confidential human sources on various criminal matters related to the Biden family, including Joe Biden, dating back to his time as vice president, according to information obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley…Grassley learned that an FBI task force within the Washington Field Office sought to, and in some cases, successfully, shut down reporting and information from those sources by falsely discrediting the information as foreign disinformation. That effort ‘caused investigative activity to cease.’” You can read the full report here: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fbi-received-criminal-information-40-confidential-sources-joe-biden-hunter-jim-grassley
• During a campaign in Derry, New Hampshire, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump recalled when Joe Biden threatened to “take [Trump] behind a barn.” In response to the comment, Trump joked that Biden had a fake nose and that if the two ever fought there “would be plastic everywhere.”
• In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, more than forty states allege that Meta—parent company of Facebook and Instagram—has harmed children, fueling a national mental health crisis in the process. The lawsuit accuses Meta of violating state consumer protections. You can read more here: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/24/states-sue-meta-addictive-features-kids-00123217