NY Mag’s Olivia Nuzzi: One Republican Told Me Party Establishment Frustrated With Hawley Because ‘He’s Not Some Moron Like Louie Gohmert’
The road to January 6, 2021 is being paved with increasingly desperate attempts by Republicans to try and overturn the election to hand it to President Donald Trump. There are some who may genuinely believe they will succeed, but others are being derided for engaging in showmanship for purely cynical, political purposes.
Senator Josh Hawley — widely viewed as having 2020 ambitions — surprised a lot of people when he said this week he’s going to object to the results when Congress takes them up.
Separately, Congressman Louie Gohmert is part of an objectively crazy lawsuit attempting to put the onus on Vice President Mike Pence to save the day, even though he absolutely cannot do that. (Not that it’s stopped the president from grousing about it in private.)
On CNN Friday, New York Magazine correspondent Olivia Nuzzi reported on how people in Trump’s orbit have described him as isolated and surrounding himself by “the worst yes-men” egging on “destructive” nonsense.
John Avlon asked about the Gohmert lawsuit and how seriously we should be taking this whole thing.
“I think the general answer is not very,” Nuzzi said with a laugh.
She added:
“I was talking to a Republican official a few minutes ago about Josh Hawley and what he’s doing and how establishment Republicans view what he’s doing right now. And this person said, I’m quoting, ‘He’s not some moron like Louie Gohmert.’ And the reason why people are being harsher in how they’re assessing what Josh Hawley is doing is because it seems so much more cynical, whereas in Washington, at least among establishment Republicans, Louie Gohmert has always been viewed and continues to be viewed as pretty much a joke.”
As I just reported on @cnn with @JohnAvlon, a Republican official tells me that part of why establishment types are so angry with Josh Hawley is because they think he knows better. As the official put it: “He’s not some moron like Louie Gohmert.”
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) January 1, 2021
You can watch above, via CNN.
