FEVER DREAMS

Republicans Are Back on Their Bullshit—and It’s Already Returning to Bite Them

Congressional chaos, COVID vaccine scaremongering, and online misogyny. It may be a new year, but rightwingers never seem to change.

It may be the start of a new year, but the Republican Party is back to its old antics again—throwing the House of Representatives into chaos as a rogue group of far-right members of Congress refuse to step into line and back Kevin McCarthy’s bid for the speaker’s gavel.

On this week’s episode of The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams podcast, hosts Kelly Weill and Will Sommer predict that 2023 will only bring more insane antics from the chamber’s more controversial corners—and Fever Dreams favorites like Reps. Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene are already floating their best ideas for what to do with their newfound majority power.

The most interesting concession Kevin McCarthy may be forced to make is the establishment of a “new Church Committee.”

“Now this is a reference to a congressional committee, I believe in the ’70s, from a senator named Church that investigated CIA and FBI malfeasance, and looked into their involvement in assassinations, stuff like that,” Sommer said. “So they say they want a new Church Committee, but this time to look into, like, why didn’t the FBI investigate Hunter Biden’s laptop enough and the Twitter Files.”

“I think the Republican takeover of the House is going to have so many bizarre pet projects that the average person just has no idea what they’re about,” Sommer added.

Then, the hosts explore the deep, dark world of right-wing COVID misinformation peddlers—who are still railing against vaccines and pitching bunk cures.

Their latest project is blaming the shocking collapse of Buffalo Bills’ safety Damar Hamlin on the NFL’s vaccine mandate (without any sort of evidence).

“On some level these people really wanted the vaccine just to clear out all their political enemies, right?” Weill said. “They wanted, on a set date, the microchip to activate and everyone would fall into a stupor, leaving them, the unvaccinated, the only people to walk the Earth. And I’m just sorry they didn’t get that.”

Then, Fever Dreams explores the arrest of misogynist influencer Andrew Tate—and how the downfall of a MAGA-adjacent internet celebrity leaves the rest of that ecosystem in the lurch.

“These guys are left trying to deal with the dissonance of being like, we’re on the hunt for the child traffickers—also, we’re best friends with this guy who’s under investigation for trafficking,” Sommer said.

Listen, and subscribe, to Fever Dreams on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.

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