House of Horrors

Week 3

[648/10]

On Tuesday, Fani Willis, the DIstrict Attorney out of Fulton County, Georgia, told Judge Robert McBurney that decisions regarding whether charges would be brought and against whom were imminent. Tuesday was three days ago. I understand that legal time runs differently from normal time and that COVID has destroyed the linearity of time but the meaning of “imminent” is pretty clear and straightforward. If I am in a kayak and somebody standing on shore tells me I’m in imminent danger of going over a waterfall I’ll start paddling upriver with some urgency.

It’s possible Willis said “eminent” or “immanent” and we’re dealing with a typo but neither of those words makes any sense in this context. So we wait—for one indictment—as we have been waiting. But, for me at least, patience has long since run out.

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I had a great time with fellow Nerd Avenger Wajahat Ali on today’s episode of House of Horrors. Between the evergreen horrors of Kevin McCarthy and George Santos, Committee assignments, and the looming debt ceiling crisis, for starters, it appears the 118th Congress will never leave us at a loss for things to talk about. (By the way, the paperback of War’s excellent, moving, and extremely funny memoir, Go Back to Where You Came From, And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American, was released this week. I highly recommend it.)

[Below the video, I’ve provided the transcript, edited for clarity and flow, if you prefer reading.]

Mary

It is day 23 of the 118th House of Horrors, led by the egregious Kevin McCarthy. And Waj, I'm thinking that we might have to change our graphic soon because we have a little George Santos peeking over the edge, but I'm not so sure he's going to be here to kick around anymore.

Waj

That was an amazing intro. I just want to see that movie. I love horror movies, and it's one of those things where I'm like repulsed, but at the same time, so enticed by that promo.

Mary

Yeah, they did a great job. I love it. This is your first time on House of Horror, so thank you so much for being here. But before we jump in, you had big news this week. Can you tell us what happened and what people need to do?

Waj

The paperback version of my book, Go Back to Where You Came From, And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American dropped, and you were kind enough to give it a plug and a very lovely review blurb. It came out a year ago, and over the past year, it's had really nice word of mouth, book clubs. My initial book tour, like so many others, was cut short due to the Covid variant, and it's really nice to see it get another lease at life. So, if you have a couple of bucks, give it a spin. My mom says it's pretty good.

Mary

High priaise

Waj

Very high praise. Pakistani immigrant mother.

Mary

But, honestly, everybody, it is a phenomenal book. It's an excellent read. It's very, very funny, which should surprise absolutely no one. And as you know, I completely empathize about the whole book tour thing or not having a book tour thing twice.

Waj

Oh, it happened to you twice? I knew the second one.

Mary

Yeah. Yeah, the first one came out in July 2020, which was a very bad time.

Waj

Not the best time. Not the best time to release a book, Mary.

Mary

The second one came out in August 2021, so.

Waj

Oh, exquisite timing.

Mary

Yeah. So I'll just have to write another book and you'll have to write another book and we'll just keep writing books. And hopefully someday we will get our day in the sun that is known as book tour.

Waj

Yeah, one day. One day, inshallah, maybe.

Mary

Okay. So, since it's your first time here, I’ll lay down the ground rules. We start by listing our top three horrors of the week.

Waj

I love it.

Mary

There might be some overlap, there might not. And then we'll just discuss the two or three or four, however much we have time for, that are the most interesting to us. So what are your top three for this week?

Waj

All right. In no specific order:

One, the fact that Kevin McCarthy, the spineless amoeba of a man or the replicant resembling a man. . . . Actually, I don't want to disrespect replicants because they were actually very humane in Blade Runner.

Mary

Exactly.

Waj:

Yeah. This thing, representing a man without a spine, the fact that he just rewarded Chip Roy, Thomas Massey, and Ralph Norman, three of the most extreme Republicans who were not just obstructionists, Mary, but want to destroy the government, they're on the House Rules Committee. And by the way, folks, the three of the 21 who basically kept him through the 15 round masochistic gauntlet, and he's like, "I'll reward you." So that's one.

Two, The New York Times report that quoted a friend of Kevin McCarthy under anonymity that Kevin McCarthy said, "I will never leave that woman." Who is that woman? Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Mary

Ah, so sweet.

Waj

Who is also apparently, according to reports, gunning to be Donald's Vice Presidential candidate in 2024 and now sits on the House Oversight Committee.

And the third horror—Oh, there are so many. Okay, wait, I have to do this just because we have to talk about it. George Federico Anthony Santos III, otherwise known as Spartacus, otherwise known as Batman, the first man on the moon in drag. The fact that there's so many lies. I mean, we could just do 30 minutes on Santos.

Mary

Well, I forgot to tell you, but that's okay, because there's always something to talk about. He is sort of an evergreen presence on the list. Because there was one week Charlotte had him at every single one of her slots and everybody had him on their list. So, he's always on the list unless and until he is no longer in Congress.

Waj

Okay. With that, then, I'll say the debt ceiling crisis. The fact that all the four people that I mentioned, especially the first three,  I think there's something different here with this debt ceiling crisis. Because when it last happened, Mitch McConnell at least was the head who was able to come in and keep the government running without any concessions. But I think these guys, if you actually know their record, they want to destroy the government. So that debt ceiling crisis is the third thing that scares me with the evergreen being Jorge Santos.

Mary

Exactly. He probably doesn't even know what Jorge means. Okay. So there is overlap. I also have debt ceiling brinksmanship on my list, but part of the reason it's on the list is the way it's being talked about in the media, which we'll get to. Second is similar to yours. It's related to the refusal to seat Schiff, Swalwell, and Omar. But I want to dig deeper into why it's not just a tit for tat, how it's qualitatively different from what Democrats did to Greene and Gosar. And I know we've talked about it before, but it's so important to me, and I think it's so important we keep in mind what's going on here, that it's on my list again.

And third, I just read before we came on that McCarthy had said that if the ethics committee finds that Santos had broken the law, he would kick him out of Congress. I'm not holding my breath. But in doing so, he not surprisingly proves himself once again to be such a fluent and obvious liar, that third on my list is Kevin McCarthy's existence. Now I know that can also be evergreen, but he makes his debut.

Waj

I think he'll be evergreen. Him and Santos are just like—it's like herpes. They're conservative herpes. It will just stay forever.

Mary

And also, I forgot that you're a Californian. So when you said horror, the way you say it, I was very confused because—

Waj

Oh, well, how do I say it? How do you say it?

Mary

Horror.

Waj

And I said horror?

Mary

Hoarer, which sounds like a different word if you're from the Northeast. It's a little confusing. Anyway, all right, so let's dive in. Where do you want to start? How about we start with the debt ceiling? Because the media, so many outlets in the media are portraying it as a partisan standoff—there's something the Democrats should be doing to fix this problem. Well, there is, but that's a different issue entirely. But the problem with that, besides the fact that it's absurd and wrong, is that the debt ceiling’s like the electoral college. It's unique to America, and it's so absurd and unnecessary that most Americans don't even understand what it means. So it makes it possible for Republicans to play these extremely dangerous games.

Waj

And this is the failure of framing because the initial framing, especially The New York Times, it was like Congress nears debt ceiling crisis, and you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. It's not Congress. You have to inform people why we are reaching this crisis, this manufactured crisis. It's because a handful of Republicans yet again have decided to hijack the government. It's the Republicans who are doing it, and they want massive spending cuts to some of the most popular programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

And oh, by the way, the last time they did this successfully, S&P downgraded our credit rating for the first time and it caused havoc on the economy for six months, which increased costs and hurt our country. And Republicans are perfectly fine being economic terrorists and hijacking the country for their authoritarian ends. That's kind of how you have to explain it to people, Mary. But the way it's been going on is, well, Congress is at a brinkmanship again, and they can't figure it out. And like you said, the average Jose or Jorge sits there and goes, these Democrats and Republicans, they don't work for us. And you could criticize the Democrats all you want but it's these extremist Republicans who are perfectly fine pushing our country off the cliff.

Mary

Yeah. And again, it should be so simple to convey to the American people that essentially what the Republicans are doing is saying, “If you don't let us destroy the American economy in this way, we're going to destroy the American economy and the global economy.”

Waj

That's right.

Mary

It's like literally what they're saying. If we don't let them cut Social security and Medicare—by the way, people pay for their social security.

Waj

We pay into it.

Mary

There's no entitlement here. These are programs that keep a lot of Americans out of poverty, for God's sake. So, if we don't allow millions of Americans to slip back into poverty, they're going to destroy the world.

Waj

And also shut down the government, which will also seize federal benefits, which will also causes gridlock and chaos in addition to a global recession, like you mentioned.

Mary

Yeah. And the way McCarthy is putting it, kind of makes me crazy. It's like we won't pay our debts that we already accrued unless we make future cuts. I don't think American Express would be cool with my making that deal with them. It's like, “I'll pay you guys eventually, but maybe. But I have to work on my budget first.”

Waj

Yeah. And also you have to make sure that you lower your interest rates for my cousins and my friends. And speaking about cousins and friends, the other reason, again, if you have to give context, which is what the US Press doesn't do, is the reason for this in particular is because they want to take away money from two of the most popular public programs that lift people out of poverty, and they want to cut taxes for the rich. And they're doing it nakedly and openly to the point where Kevin McCarthy also has introduced this new Republican plan that won't pass in the Senate. But the fact that they're even openly saying it is like, I want to increase taxes on the middle class. I want to propose a national 30% tax. Why? Just so the rich can get their tax cuts. That's the only thing that Donald did in his four years. The major legislative thing he did was cut taxes for the rich. That's why they want to do it.

Mary

And a couple things before we move on to the next horror, is McCarthy, first of all, never mentions the fact that of the national debt, 25% of it was taken on during the four years of Donald's administration. Twenty-five percent of debt that's been accumulating for over 250 years or whatever it is. I mean, the hypocrisy is insane. And he very seriously wants to look for places to cut. Well, you know what? Stop paying your salary because you don't deserve it.

Waj

Well, that's the hypocrisy also, Mary. I'm glad you mentioned real quick, the fact that Republicans with the straight face call themselves deficit hawks, but each time a Republican becomes president, debt goes up, deficit goes up, and the Democrat always has to come clean up the crap and they never get the credit. And again, press in their failure to frame it, in their failure to communicate, makes it seem like a both sides problem. It's infuriating.

Mary

It is incredibly infuriating. And I'm not entirely sure why the American voter is not savvy to this yet. Because you're right, it's a long standing pattern and it's deeply frustrating. Okay, let's move on to committee assignments. Keeping in mind that while Waj is talking about the horrific nature of some of these, that these are people who will have access to some of the most highly classified sensitive information in the American security community, which should send a chill down everybody's spine. Okay, Waj, especially considering they want to destroy America.

Waj

Well, bringing together our mutual horrors, the fact that Kevin McCarthy has rewarded some of the most extreme and violent members of Congress with these committee assignments. So just to name a few, in the oversight committee, now you have Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is a former 9/11 truther, who is anti-vaccine and who sympathizes with violent insurrectionists who, she believes, are being victimized. You have Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and you have Paul Gosar. Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene, as you all know, met with Nick Fuentes. And Gosar, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, promoted violence against his colleagues. Who's on the oversight committee? Those people. All right.

Then you’ve got Massey, Norman, and Roy, people who want to destroy the government on the House Rules Committee. Now it doesn't sound sexy, but that's one of the most important committees because it pretty much sets the agenda for what the House will focus on.

So what do you think they're going to focus on, Mary? Are they going to focus on, I don't know, Social Security, reducing inflation, healthcare? Nope. It's going to be about attacking all of their perceived enemies. And by the way, I made this point, and am I wrong? I said MAGA violence works because they'd intimidated Kevin McCarthy, they terrorized him, and he turned around and rewarded them with these seats. So who's out? Adam Schiff. Who's out? Eric Swalwell. Who's out? Ilhan Omar. And then Kevin McCarthy has the gall to say, “I am not going to be working with people who are liars or this or that. But by the way, here's Marjorie Taylor Greene.” What was Adam Schiff doing? Adam Schiff said, “Hey, I think a violent insurrection is a problem. Let's investigate it.” And Ilhan Omar was like, “Oh, I'm a black Muslim woman. Apparently that makes me undesirable to be in the House Foreign Affairs Committee.”

Mary

It's disqualifying, don't you know?

Waj

And also, “This anti-Semitic tweet I did years ago that I have apologized for because I was criticizing AIPAC.”  But then Kevin McCarthy's like, “I'll show you anti-Semitism. You're not anti-Semitic enough. I'll give you Marjorie Taylor Greene.”

Mary

Yeah, I think it is to all of our benefits if we stop being stressed out by Republican hypocrisy and we should just expect it. I think that would make all of our lives a little better because they don't care about anything. And you actually summed it up nicely—the difference is between not seating Schiff et al. and stripping Gosar and Greene of their assignments. And it's a little weird to me that there's no way around this but I guess the Speaker of the House is a very powerful person, which I knew but Democrats can't choose their own members. And I would think that there would have to be some process to show why Schiff et cetera are unfit. But I guess McCarthy could just bang his Fischer Price gavel, as Danielle calls it, and do whatever he wants.

So, the next thing I wanted to talk about was our evergreen fellow, Jorge. Oh wait, sorry. One other thing quickly before we move on. We are finding out that an FBI agent McGonigal out of the New York Bureau has been arrested and charged with taking payments from a foreign entity. I guess he was being bribed by Oleg Deripaska.

Waj

Russian oligarch, right.

Mary

Russian oligarch. And I didn't need anybody to convince me that the 2016 election was stolen. I absolutely think it was stolen. And this might just be more proof towards that end, not that anybody's going to do anything about it, although this guy will probably go to prison for a very long time. But it just underscores that McCarthy's refusal to seat Schiff on the Judiciary Committee. Wait, not the Judiciary Committee.

Waj

Intelligence.

Mary

Thank you, the Intelligence Committee. It just looks worse because Schiff has been on this Russian interference stuff from the beginning. It's an expertise of his and now he's not allowed to investigate or be on a committee that theoretically would be investigating.

Waj

What's even worse, Mary, is according to The New York Times article that came out this week where Kevin McCarthy said about Margorie Taylor Greene, “I'll never leave that woman.” She has so much sway and power now, not just her, but the extremists, have so much sway and power over McCarthy that she told them that you have to look into these violent insurrectionists who are jailed because they're being victimized. And he apparently said, “Okay, well I'm open to doing a new inquiry investigation, not on the violent insurrectionists or those who conspired with them, but on the House Select Committee that investigated them.” So, it's almost like this parody. If this is a House of Horrors and this is a horror movie, it's almost like a kangaroo court where the judge and jury is filled with criminals who then are supposed to preside over a neutral hearing on trial and their criminal friends are sitting there winking at them. It's just absurd. And we sit there and we just take it.

Mary

Yeah, it is the House of Horrors with fun house mirrors or something. Okay, let's go to our buddy Anthony Devolder or Kitarra or whatever. What is up this week? I mean, he's in more trouble, although that should go without saying at this point.

Waj

Okay, so two of the big ones, and I think we should focus on them because I don't think people are focusing on them enough. The first one that hasn't gotten that much attention is that drag queens in Brazil said that Kitarra Anthony Devolder Spartacus George Jorge Santos left Brazil in 2006, came back in 2008 allegedly with money to compete in Ms. Gay Rio De Janeiro. And we have also found out that George Jorge Santos first said that he didn't do drag. Then all the video came out and he said, “Okay, I did do drag,” but this is important. He said, "I wasn't doing drag. What I did, even though by definition was actually drag and everyone who sees me sees that I'm doing drag, was me just having fun."

The reason why I'm spending a little bit of time on this, and when it comes to the hypocritical arguments of the Republican party, it's not just hypocrisy, which is appalling. Because as this is happening, the Republican party and the conservative movement is unleashing as we've said on your show before stochastic terrorism against drag queens in the LGBT+ and the rest of us for being groomers.

So, as they have a drag queen in Congress with the name of George Santos, these people without shame are attacking and unleashing violence and intimidation against actual drag queens. That's one. And the second one I'll say is George Santos just two days ago said "You know that $500,000 personal loan that I gave to my campaign? Guess what? That wasn't a personal loan. And I won't tell you where the money came from, and I won't tell you why I lied about it." Which means he has, again, opened himself up to potential criminal charges for campaign finance violation, which I think will be coming.

Mary

Yeah. He's lied one way or the other. Whether originally or now, he lied on his FEC forms. You can't do that. That is illegal. You can't say, “Oh, I'm giving my campaign $700,000 on somebody else's behalf, but pretending that it's from me.” It's crazy. And now he's lying about who his campaign treasurer is or was. The whole thing is a mess. However, for some bizarre reason, I'm skeptical that even if the ethics committee finds something that McCarthy's going to do anything about it. I think that even if he's dragged out of Congress in handcuffs, he will serve from prison.

Waj

Mary, I agree with you. I mean, I'm the one who's been saying for two weeks—I wrote this piece---said that George Santos is right where he belongs. Why should he resign? And let me tell you why I say that. People might say, “Oh, that's being too cynical.” If I'm George Santos, if that is my name, the first man on the moon in drag, I'll look around me and I'll say, “Who am I surrounded by? There's Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar who were stripped of their assignments from Democrats for inciting violence. Now they have power and sit in the House Oversight committee. There's Lauren Boebert who's never met a gun that she doesn't want to make love to. There is Matt Gaetz, who no one cared that he had groomer allegations against him. And the leader of MAGA is still Donald, who is a twice-impeached vulgarian who incited a violent insurrection. None of them have resigned. In fact, they're more popular than ever. So what I've done isn't that bad. Why should I resign? I'm right where I belong.” And Kevin McCarthy has refused to criticize him and says, “Hey, innocent until proven guilty,” because Kevin McCarthy desperately needs Jorge Santos’ vote. He only has a slim four vote majority in the house.

Mary

And two things. One is that McCarthy keeps saying he has to respect the will of the voters. The voters of Nassau County and Queens voted for Santos. And he needs to stay there unless and until he's found to have committed some crime. Even the people who voted for Santos are saying, “We didn't vote for this guy. We don't know who this guy is.” So, that's just an absolutely absurd argument to make because he committed so much fraud that there was no way for the voters to know exactly who they were voting for. And the other great irony that, especially as a New Yorker, just kills me every time, is that the only reason Santos got elected in the first place is because of the gerrymandering debacle that I lay at the feet of Andrew Cuomo.

Waj

Yeah, as you should.

Mary

But a lot of people are spreading blame around to the Democratic Party in New York state. I don't know enough about it, but it is pretty upsetting.

Waj

We knock Republicans but let me give them a rare compliment—the Nassau County Republicans have actually gone out publicly last week and said that George Santos has to resign. So, his fellow colleagues from his district, his constituents have, and what we found out again, since we're talking about Santos, another big piece of news is that kind of popped, but then people forgot about, because this is the world we live in, is that key Republican influencers knew about his lies and kept quiet. And Elise Stefanik vouched for him. And now there's pressure on Stefanik, the number four in the house. Well, excuse me, the number four Republican. Why did you vouch for a man who lies about his mother dying in 9/11, being Jewish? That's the egregious thing, Mary. We kind of laugh about it but it takes a specific, shameless skillset to with a straight face lie about your family surviving the Holocaust and your mother dying in 9/11. Even Donald, I don't think, would go that far.

Mary

This guy's a straight-up sociopath. I had the great misfortune of living in Nassau County for 25 years. And it's trending more right. Has been for a long time, although the last congressperson was a Democrat. So. I think that I don't want to give Nassau County Republicans too much credit. The Republican Party in Nassau County definitely understands that if they don't take this stand, they will suffer electorally in 2024. So, it's just pragmatic. And we are just being reminded that Donald did lie about losing hundreds of close friends, as if he has any, on September 11th. But there's something particularly unnerving about Santos’ level of sociopathy. Because it's so unattached to any reality whatsoever.

Waj

Also, if we're talking about Santos, the evergreen, because he is evergreen—more stuff came out this week. With a straight face in an interview that he did in Portuguese, I don't know why this makes me laugh, I rarely laugh out loud, but he said with a straight face he was robbed in broad daylight in a busy New York intersection where the thief, who was not white or black, took his shoes and his suitcase and no one helped him. And in addition to that, he said he survived an assassination attempt.

Mary

Wow. Well, and why? What purposes does that—First of all, you're just insulting New Yorkers because as a New Yorker, I know that would never happen. Never ever, ever. A million people would be attacking the mugger. So he's just absurd. We're at the end. But, Waj, I'm going to break a rule because I'm so on the edge of my seat about Georgia, but I just want to ask a very simple vocabulary question, because it might help set my mind at ease. Fani Willis said, on Tuesday, I believe, that indictments or a decision would be imminent. What in your view does imminent mean? Because I know what imminent means and [taps watch].

Waj

Clock is ticking? Imminent to me is when I asked my father when I was a kid, "Hey, Abu, are we going to Toys R Us?" And he said, "Yeah, inshallah." The imminent is the inshallah. Inshala is the Muslim equivalent of “forget about it.” Based on the tone and circumstance, it can mean anything. It literally means God willing. But in this case it means, “It ain't happening.” So to me, this imminent is inshallah.

Mary

Stop. because imminent really means very, very soon.

Waj

Yeah, like this week. Look, even if he gets indicted, we've talked about this before—even if he gets indicted, I don't think he's going to prison. But the fact that he hasn't even been indicted yet--

Mary

That's all I'm saying, Waj. He needs to be indicted.

Waj

He got on Facebook quicker than he got indicted. He got back on Facebook.

Mary

Which is another horror all of its own. Waj Ali, thank you so much for hanging out with me today and spending some time in the House of Horrors. I know it's not easy. And congratulations again on the publication of the paperback of your phenomenal book Go Back To Where You Came From. Everybody, please go check it out. It's an excellent, excellent read. It is a quintessentially American story and it will make you laugh out loud as well. Waj, thanks so much and I will hopefully see you next week with the Nerds.

Waj

Call me Jorge.

Mary

Bye Jorge.