On Tuesday evening’s episode of MSNBC’s The eleventh Hour, Stephanie Ruhle officiated over yet one more session of commiseration concerning the actions of the brand new administration, with the same old heavy emphasis on Elon Musk and DOGE. Becoming a member of her was Reed Galen, creator of The Residence Entrance on Substack, who –with out proof – accused the administration and Musk, with media complicity, of leaning on recalcitrant officeholders in some imprecise and unspecified manner.
In the course of the nightly ritual of Trump/Musk/DOGE- bashing, Galen determined to pin the blame on Congress, together with each events, and mentioned,
Republicans in Congress now are the lemmings, and Democrats are the headless chickens. There’s no one…actually minding the shop over there…there was once a time when Congress jealously guarded its place as a co-equal department of presidency, and people days are over.
Apparently, in his evaluation, Congress had not stopped “jealously guarding” that place again earlier than the daybreak of present residing reminiscence, permitting its powers to be eroded over many many years.
Fairly, they’d “jealously guard[ed]” away proper up till Trump’s return to workplace final month, when their will to dwell as a legislative physique had instantly one way or the other simply imploded. Even informal scrutiny of recent American historical past would have proven that Galen was presenting, at finest, solely a tiny sliver of the total image.
Ruhle grudgingly reminded Galen, “However…there was some pushback from Republicans, when their constituents at residence complain. Then they name the White Home.”
Galen conceded the purpose, however claimed that such efforts have been all the time stymied by the “right-wing media machine”:
We should not neglect that the one factor that has been constructed up during the last 40 or 50 years, is an extremely efficient and environment friendly right-wing media machine that always blocks out quite a lot of these issues, or overwhelms that type of information, even when folks begin getting calls of their places of work, whether or not it is on the Capitol or on the district degree or on the state degree… And so, there’s all the time a strategy to counteract that.
At that second, Galen was talking on a serious information community which had endlessly and unabashedly criticized, berated, cursed out, and thrown wild accusations on the present president, his administration, and your complete proper facet of the political spectrum usually, and which at that very second was going through a $30 million defamation go well with for a baseless story aired simply to sensationalize a favourite left-wing narrative.
However, he went forward and requested the world, with no proof, and no specifics, to take him at his phrase {that a} “right-wing media machine” was suppressing the reality in America.
Galen then acquired again round to the usual pet obsessions, saying that what most Republican officeholders actually feared probably the most have been “Trump’s private ire, and Elon Musk’s checking account.”
He then addressed the Democratic facet of the aisle, and said that they appeared to have a naive concept that:
[W]e need to work with ‘Secretary X,’ as a result of if we do not, then that may damage my constituents. And what I- what I attempt to inform my buddies is: They’ll damage you. They’ll damage your constituents. After which they’ll blame you for it.
…[W]e shouldn’t be beneath any phantasm…There isn’t a good deed that can- is coming from these folks as a result of they really feel like doing you a favor. It is all transactional, and in the event that they really feel like they’ll make your life tougher on the expense of your folks in your state, your voters, your constituents, that is what they’ll do. They do not care. And I am unsure how for much longer it is going to take Democrats to determine that out, however they higher determine it out quickly.
Not for the primary time on MSNBC, the informal perspective about shameless bias and baseless accusations, plus the entire lack of self-awareness about it, have been staggering.
For full transcript, click on ‘develop’ to learn:
MSNBC’s The eleventh Hour
02/19/2025
11:50 PM[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: CONGRESS CAN’T DO ANYTHING BUT COMPLAIN ABOUT MUSK FIRINGS]
(…)
REED GALEN (AUTHOR, THE HOME FRONT ON SUBSTACK): And I really feel like Republicans in Congress now are the lemmings, and Democrats are the headless chickens. There’s nobody- you know- actually minding the shop over there.
Uh- You recognize- there was once a time when Congress jealously guarded its place as a co-equal department of presidency, and people days are over.
STEPHANIE RUHLE: However- however let’s simply keep on that, as a result of there- there was some pushback from Republicans, when their constituents at residence complain. Then they name the White Home.
GALEN: Nicely, that is true, but in addition, we should not neglect that the one factor that has been constructed up during the last 40 or 50 years, is an extremely efficient and environment friendly right-wing media machine that always blocks out quite a lot of these issues, or overwhelms that type of information, even when folks begin getting calls of their places of work, whether or not it is on the Capitol or on the district degree or on the state degree, in the event you’re a- let’s say- a legislator or a governor. And so, there’s all the time a strategy to counteract that.
However bear in mind, too, that quite a lot of these guys- and most of them are guys- are prepared to go together with this as a result of the factor they worry extra, is Trump’s private ire, and Elon Musk’s checking account, which might each function large major election voter- excuse me- drivers, ought to these folks resolve to get out of line, and I feel that is what you are seeing.
Look, they’ve all the time been afraid. They’re simply as afraid as they’ve ever been.
RUHLE: And headless chickens. Why do you will have that evaluation of Democrats? What do you suppose they need to be doing?
GALEN: Nicely, I feel what they need to have been doing, it is too late to do in most- in- for probably the most part- they need to have had some kind of plan to get collectively and determine methods to decelerate as a lot of this stuff as they might.
They need to have understood- as so lots of us- and I- look- I did some very unimaginable work with folks just like the Brennan middle for justice at NYU and quite a lot of very sensible folks across the desk, who mentioned, ‘that is what is going on to occur, these are the issues that you are able to do.’ And quite a lot of them did not occur.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: MUSK, DOGE MOVE QUICKLY TO DISMANTLE FEDERAL AGENCIES]
Now, look, I do not know if there wasn’t consensus, if folks have been afraid-
You recognize- I- I feel that there is nonetheless this fantasyland concept that, properly, now we have to work with ‘Secretary X,’ as a result of if we do not, then that may damage my constituents. And what I- what I attempt to inform my buddies is: They’ll damage you. They’ll damage your constituents. After which they’ll blame you for it.
Like- we shouldn’t be beneath any phantasm, Stephanie, after- 10 years of this, proper? There isn’t a good deed that can- is coming from these folks as a result of they really feel like doing you a favor. It is all transactional, and in the event that they really feel like they’ll make your life tougher on the expense of your folks in your state, your voters, your constituents, that is what they’ll do.
They do not care. And I am unsure how for much longer it is going to take Democrats to determine that out, however they higher determine it out quickly.
RUHLE: However do not Democrats have a difficult needle to string? As a result of they cannot be seen as merely defending the established order? As a result of that is additionally not what the American folks need.
GALEN: Nicely, I feel that is proper. However this is- you truly make an unimaginable level, which is, the issues that up to now they’ve been making an attempt to defend-
Look, I feel USAID most likely does unimaginable work throughout the world- I do know that there are quite a lot of farmers who get USAID cash to ship their- their merchandise abroad. But when that is the very first thing that you will lower and Dem- and the Democrats are going to leap on that bear lure is [sic] like- ‘this should be defended. This should be defended,’ each on the purpose of international help and since Congress did not say you could possibly do it, proper?
These are course of arguments, but in addition it provides yet another hammer for Trump and people folks to say, “See, they do not actually care about you. They’re pleased to ship all that cash that must be going to you.’ Or perhaps ‘we should not be spending all of it abroad.’
And so I feel they simply have to grasp the character of the battle they’re in- which, once more, they’ve all the time had bother with- but in addition understanding the character of claiming, ‘what are the battles we will battle? What are the issues we should defend? What are the issues we will not do? What are the issues we are able to do?’
However they acquired to get on offense and so they acquired to remain on offense between now and the next- you know- 22 months earlier than an election, and daily that they’ll be in a battle with this administration.
RUHLE: All proper then Reed, thanks a lot for becoming a member of me tonight.
(…)
