Nelson Rockefeller Fan #USNavySeapowerEnjoyer

My favorite moment of the Biden presidency was the downfall and utter defenestration of Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy began the Biden era, which I define as November 2020 through January 2025, by joining in on the efforts to overturn the election results. His Senate counterpart, Mitch McConnell, was far from perfect regarding the 2020 election results, having initially remained neutral instead of congratulating Biden, but he immediately accepted the results following the Electoral College vote, and he immediately told his caucus not to engage in any tomfoolery regarding the congressional certification on January 6; in the end, he managed to keep defections to a bare minimum. McConnell did all this because despite his flaws, he’s at least a *leader*. McCarthy, on the other hand, is and always was a mere *follower*. He did not display *any* leadership qualities during the lame duck period following the 2020 election; instead, he followed the whims of his caucus. He told his caucus to, essentially, “do their own research” and “make their own decision” regarding the electoral college vote count. And when he saw that his hands-off approach was leading the majority of his caucus to object to the election results, he joined them, voting to object as well, and utterly disgraced himself before Biden’s presidency had even begun. Immediately after the vote count concluded at about 3:45 AM eastern time on January 7, he released a pissy statement defending his vote to overturn the election results, and ended it with, “Joe Biden will be the next president,” without a congratulations. To his bare minimal credit, he later that day called Donald Trump and encouraged him to reach out to President-elect Joe Biden and invite him to the White House for the traditional meeting of the outgoing president and his successor; Donald Trump declined. Then on January 13, McCarthy spoke on the House floor, where he formally congratulated Joe Biden for the first time, while also advocating that Congress abandon the second impeachment in the interest of “lowering the temperature”; the Democratic House was, correctly, not swayed by this. On January 19, McCarthy met with President-elect Biden for a morning church service. The two could be seen smiling. Just a couple of Irishmen. But when Biden gave his inauguration speech the next day, he publicly thanked every congressional party leader for assisting with the transition… except McCarthy. Because McCarthy didn’t do *shit*. Biden said, specifically, “I want to thank Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, and Leader McConnell,” and then just continued talking with no mention whatsoever of the House GOP leader. In early February, the Senate failed to convict Trump in the second impeachment trial, coming up short by ten votes. Trump, however, still seemed to be rather dead in the water. But that all changed in late February, when Kevin McCarthy paid a visit to Mar-a-Lago, and was photographed smiling with Donald Trump. That visit and that photograph represented the re-normalization of Donald Trump, allowing him to sink back in to polite society, and into GOP politics and, eventually, the entire country’s. McCarthy was the one who resuscitated Donald Trump when Trump was dead in the water. McCarthy was the one who gave Trump a way back in, ultimately kickstarting the path for his return to the presidency in 2024. But before McCarthy could witness the fruits of his labor in the form of Trump’s return to power, karma came calling and McCarthy was booted from his speakership in late September 2023. It turns out that when you possess no leadership qualities whatsoever, you’re not so good at being a… leader, and at keeping your caucus in line. McCarthy suffered a brutal and humiliating downfall mere months after ascending to the speakership, with no real accomplishments to speak of from his short-lived tenure at the top. A fitting end for such a wretched man.