> It’s still unclear who is running things among House Republicans. WIRED reached out to a slew of Republican leaders—former speaker McCarthy, speaker pro tem Patrick McHenry, former speaker-designate Scalise, majority whip Tom Emmer, and GOP conference chair Elise Stefanik—asking who made the call to temporarily confiscate member’s phones this week. None responded.
Super curious about this.
It goes beyond Gaetz. House members have been muzzled by anonymous Republican Party puppet masters for the whole week, forcing them to pretend to be united despite the chaos coming from the House GOP’s lack of leadership. During their covert meetings to select McCarthy’s successor, Republicans took the unusual step of seizing their personal devices in an effort to stop leaks.
What’s a Republican without the dirt on everyone else?
Listen, when you are having real frank discussions about who is the most corrupt so they can get the job, with different members going back and forth about how they grift better or how they coup better or how they got away with various crimes, you dont want that coming out on Video or audio..so it makes perfect sense that they confiscated the phones.
It’s because they’re children. I do not understand how these people get voted into office. I mean I know the answer is ignorance but I still just can’t accept it.
Perfectly normal, healthy behaviour.
A class full of unruly toddlers
There is not enough info to detail how this works.
Lawmakers have both personal and government issues devices. Are they confiscating both, or just one?
Do they have a right to confiscate devices outside of working hours?
If the confiscation is only during hearings/meetings and the devices are returned after, what’s stopping them from just posting/sharing with media after each meeting?
Why just phones? You can easily send an email/text with a tablet/watch/laptop these days.
I thought this was an important insight and it’s one I’ve not yet seen discussed anywhere else:
>Today’s members of Congress are beholden to their online followings, not some party leader. Even one picked by the overwhelming majority—some 96 percent, in McCarthy’s case—of their peers. Regaining control of the seemingly uncontrollable seems to, once again, be proving a fool’s errand.
“The power centers no longer go up through leadership,” Jolly says. “Go back as far as you want—20 years, 30 years, whatever—all power structures funneled through leadership. Now they’re all these independent power structures that reward and stabilize members regardless of if they’ve been there a year or 30 years. In fact, in many ways, the people who have been there 30 years probably have less security than the ones that just got there.”
I mean, these talks (and votes) should be happening on the floor. Should be on cspan. There should be nothing to leak, in that world. If you don’t want secrets to leak…. don’t keep secrets.
Nice the see the the US House of Representatives have to be bound by the same rules as a bunch of poorly behaved children.
That’s the face of someone keistering a phone. /s
These guys ever seen the Simpsons? As long as they are part of the Republican Party, Trump will always control their lives. They need to just form a “No Trumps” Party. Just allow one Trump, his niece seems like a decent human being.
Keep a bottle of hand sanitizer handy when Gaetz slips you his phone. I’d expect fucking tormented ghosts to flood out of the charging port like a scene from Return of the King but with extra sadness.
Is it just me or is the GOP using the same tactics as totalitarian regimes?
Remember during the McCarthy’s speaker votes the GQP were getting instructions from Trump by cell phone txt?
Republicans don’t trust Republicans. They know they’re all corrupt.
17 comments
> It’s still unclear who is running things among House Republicans. WIRED reached out to a slew of Republican leaders—former speaker McCarthy, speaker pro tem Patrick McHenry, former speaker-designate Scalise, majority whip Tom Emmer, and GOP conference chair Elise Stefanik—asking who made the call to temporarily confiscate member’s phones this week. None responded.
Super curious about this.
It goes beyond Gaetz. House members have been muzzled by anonymous Republican Party puppet masters for the whole week, forcing them to pretend to be united despite the chaos coming from the House GOP’s lack of leadership. During their covert meetings to select McCarthy’s successor, Republicans took the unusual step of seizing their personal devices in an effort to stop leaks.
What’s a Republican without the dirt on everyone else?
Listen, when you are having real frank discussions about who is the most corrupt so they can get the job, with different members going back and forth about how they grift better or how they coup better or how they got away with various crimes, you dont want that coming out on Video or audio..so it makes perfect sense that they confiscated the phones.
It’s because they’re children. I do not understand how these people get voted into office. I mean I know the answer is ignorance but I still just can’t accept it.
Perfectly normal, healthy behaviour.
A class full of unruly toddlers
There is not enough info to detail how this works.
Lawmakers have both personal and government issues devices. Are they confiscating both, or just one?
Do they have a right to confiscate devices outside of working hours?
If the confiscation is only during hearings/meetings and the devices are returned after, what’s stopping them from just posting/sharing with media after each meeting?
Why just phones? You can easily send an email/text with a tablet/watch/laptop these days.
I thought this was an important insight and it’s one I’ve not yet seen discussed anywhere else:
>Today’s members of Congress are beholden to their online followings, not some party leader. Even one picked by the overwhelming majority—some 96 percent, in McCarthy’s case—of their peers. Regaining control of the seemingly uncontrollable seems to, once again, be proving a fool’s errand.
“The power centers no longer go up through leadership,” Jolly says. “Go back as far as you want—20 years, 30 years, whatever—all power structures funneled through leadership. Now they’re all these independent power structures that reward and stabilize members regardless of if they’ve been there a year or 30 years. In fact, in many ways, the people who have been there 30 years probably have less security than the ones that just got there.”
I mean, these talks (and votes) should be happening on the floor. Should be on cspan. There should be nothing to leak, in that world. If you don’t want secrets to leak…. don’t keep secrets.
Nice the see the the US House of Representatives have to be bound by the same rules as a bunch of poorly behaved children.
That’s the face of someone keistering a phone. /s
These guys ever seen the Simpsons? As long as they are part of the Republican Party, Trump will always control their lives. They need to just form a “No Trumps” Party. Just allow one Trump, his niece seems like a decent human being.
Keep a bottle of hand sanitizer handy when Gaetz slips you his phone. I’d expect fucking tormented ghosts to flood out of the charging port like a scene from Return of the King but with extra sadness.
Is it just me or is the GOP using the same tactics as totalitarian regimes?
Remember during the McCarthy’s speaker votes the GQP were getting instructions from Trump by cell phone txt?
Republicans don’t trust Republicans. They know they’re all corrupt.