Things are going super over in the United Kingdom, jokes Molly Jong-Fast to British journalist Ian Dunt on this episode of The New Abnormal podcast.
Dunt breaks down the events that led to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation—as well as whether he thinks Johnson will still hold the title by the fall and be able to hold his delayed wedding reception at Chequers, the countryside vacation location reserved for British prime ministers.
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“There’s no way he’s gonna make it. It’s game over for him,” predicts Dunt. “As we record, the 1922 Committee, which is a sort of party within a party within the Conservatives, are deciding what the leadership rules are and how quickly they’re gonna do it. And they want the new leadership election to be done very, very fast, namely, because they’re sort of dimly aware that they’ve got this absolute sort of circus of dimwits and reactionaries and blithering fools who are shouting off all kinds of deeply atrocious nonsense and that it’s doing them damage with the public. So they probably want that to be done I think probably by September, certainly by the start of October.”
Dunt also points out a big difference between former President Donald Trump’s exit from power and Johnson’s, which was quite “Trumpian” in nature.
“I think the real distinction here isn’t malevolence. It’s not strategy. It’s not even how Tory the policies themselves are. It’s just the fact that Johnson lost his support base and Donald Trump didn’t,” Dunt says.
Then, CNBC Fast Money contributor Dan Nathan explains why a recession might actually be a good thing, and that it’s what the federal government likely wants.
“Sadly, they need the economy almost to go in a recession for inflation to come down meaningfully,” he says.
Plus! Molly and co-host Andy Levy shoot the shit about Elon Musk hurting Trump’s feelings, Biden’s dumb move to swing “left,” and the one thing that’ll actually maybe get Steve Bannon to testify in front of the Jan. 6 committee.
“If there’s one thing these people are good at, it’s saving their own asses,” says Andy.
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