A Republican member of the house turned the Sunday shows into a megaphone for ousting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Email not displaying correctly?
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** OPINION
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** Sunday morning drama sets up an intriguing week in Washington
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, meeting with reporters in Washington on Saturday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

A government shutdown seemed all but certain as we headed into the weekend. But in what The New York Times called a “stunning turnabout,” ([link removed]) the House approved a stopgap measure to keep the federal government open until mid-November.

That, however, sets up another showdown.

The Washington Post’s Marianna Sotomayor, Leigh Ann Caldwell and Mariana Alfaro report ([link removed]) that this is a short-term win for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, but it “may come with a price: his job. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said Sunday that he is determined to try to oust McCarthy from his leadership position after McCarthy passed a stopgap measure to fund the government with Democratic support.”

Gaetz turned the Sunday morning news show into his megaphone for this week’s plans. That was the big theme of the Sunday shows: the government shutdown story and the future leader of the House.

Appearing on Sunday’s “State of the Union” on CNN, Gaetz told host Jake Tapper that he will file a motion this week to vacate McCarthy from leadership.

Gaetz said, “I think we need to rip off the Band-Aid. I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy. Look, the one thing everybody has in common is that nobody trusts Kevin McCarthy. He lied to Biden. He lied to House conservatives. He had appropriators marking to a different number altogether. And the reason we were backed up against the shutdown politics is not a bug of the system. It's a feature. Kevin McCarthy's goal was to make multiple contradictory promises, to delay everything, back us up against shutdown politics, and, at the end of the day, blow past the spending guardrails he had agreed to.”

Just a day earlier, on Saturday, McCarthy told reporters, “If somebody wants to make a motion against me, bring it.”

Gaetz told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on “This Week,” ([link removed]) “Kevin McCarthy’s gonna get his wish.”

Meanwhile, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also appeared on “State of the Union” and said, “I believe that it’s up to the Republican conference to determine their own leadership and deal with their own problems. But it’s not up to Democrats to save Republicans, from themselves, especially.”

However, she added, “Would I cast that vote? Absolutely. Absolutely. I think Kevin McCarthy is a very weak speaker. He clearly has lost control of his caucus. He has brought the United States and millions of Americans to the brink, waiting until the final hour to keep the government open, and, even then, only issuing a 45-day extension. So, we're going to be right back in this place in November. And I think that our main priority has to be the American people and what's going to keep our governance in a cohesive and strong place. But, unless Kevin McCarthy asks for a vote, again, I don’t think we give something away for free.”

McCarthy appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation” ([link removed]) and told moderator Margaret Brennan, “I’ll survive. This is personal with Matt. If he’s upset because he tried to push us into a shutdown, and I made sure the government didn’t shut down, then let’s have that fight.”

So can this actually happen? Might Gaetz be successful in ousting McCarthy?

Politico’s Ryan Lizza writes ([link removed]) , “Let’s assume Gaetz starts with only a handful of Republicans — perhaps just five, maybe as many as 10 — and that McCarthy has no chance of turning this group around. It’s not much, and that means Gaetz needs Democrats — perhaps as many as 200 — to oust McCarthy. (Ironic considering that his line today was that McCarthy is the Democrats’ speaker.)”

So maybe Gaetz can’t pull this off. But Lizza writes, “If McCarthy survives with the help of Democratic votes, Gaetz will no doubt relentlessly attack him, as he has already, as ‘the Democrats’ speaker.’ The overall effort will have done a lot of damage. What if Gaetz offers a second MTV (move to vacate), as anyone who knows him realizes he surely would, and McCarthy again has to survive with Democratic help? What happens on the second or third vote? Does Gaetz garner more Republican support? Does McCarthy need to find more Democratic support? There’s no limit to how many times Gaetz could do this. Eventually, this would become untenable for McCarthy.”

Ultimately, Lizza points out, Democrats have to determine whether it’s better for them to have McCarthy as speaker. On one hand, they know McCarthy — or, as Lizza writes, he’s the devil they know. On the other hand, McCarthy is one of the GOP’s best fundraisers and the Democrats might like to have him out as speaker.

Lizza writes, “One thing is clear: For the (House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries), this is an unprecedented situation, one that no minority leader has ever faced. He suddenly has enormous leverage, but will have to weigh carefully how aggressively to use it.”

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** Kansas police chief suspended
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The police chief in Kansas whose department raided the offices of the local newspaper in August has been suspended by the town’s mayor.

Back on Aug. 11, the police in Marion, Kansas, raided the Marion County Record, seizing its computers, cellphones and other data. They also raided the home of the paper’s co-owners — Eric Meyer and his 98-year-old mother, Joan. Joan Meyer died a day after the raid and Eric has said he believes the stress of the raid led to her death.

At the time, police said they were looking into how the paper obtained documents and records pertaining to a local business owner. (Here’s a recap ([link removed]) of what happened.)

A week after the raid, Marion County Attorney Joel Ensey said there was “insufficient evidence” to justify the raid and all the seized materials were returned. The incident is being reviewed by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

Late last week, Marion Mayor David Mayfield suspended police chief Gideon Cody. Here’s the latest ([link removed]) from Marion County Record’s Phyllis Zorn.


** Recused from the story
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Alicia Menendez is a weekend anchor for MSNBC. Her father is Bob Menendez, the Democratic senator from New Jersey who finds himself in the middle of controversy. The senator and his wife, Nadine, were indicted last month on federal bribery charges.

Alicia made her first TV appearance on Saturday since her parents were indicted and this is what she said on air:

“Last week, a grand jury indicted U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez. This past week, dozens of members of his own party have demanded his resignation. I have been watching along with all of you, as a citizen and also as his daughter. I will not be reporting on the legal case. That said, my colleagues across MSNBC and NBC News … they have aggressively covered this story, and they’ll continue to do so, as they should.”

MSNBC and NBC News have covered the story comprehensively.


** He said what?
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Robert Griffin lll, shown here in September. (AP Photo/Daniel Kucin Jr.)

Robert Griffin III — also known as RG3 and a former Heisman Trophy winner — has turned into an energetic broadcaster for ESPN. Maybe a little too enthusiastic. He loves his one-liners. Sometimes they land well, other times they land with crickets. And on Saturday night, one landed with a, “Uh, what did he just say?”

Calling Saturday night’s wild game between Ole Miss and LSU, Griffin made a bizarre analogy while analyzing a replay of LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels getting held up while the whistle blew for a sack.

Griffin said, “They lifted that man up to the sky like he was Jesus letting him know they were going to put him on the cross.”

What?!

That was my reaction when I heard it live. It was one of bewilderment. That was the reaction on social media with folks saying you just can’t compare a quarterback being sacked in a college football game to Jesus being crucified.

Griffin hasn’t commented since his remark. He is very public about his Christian faith, so we can assume he didn’t mean to offend anyone. He was just being his usual quirky self. And you have to love his energy in calling games.

But perhaps this can be a valuable lesson for Griffin to be more mindful when letting fly some of his more exuberant takes.


** Media tidbits
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* “CBS Sunday Morning” and correspondent Robert Costa had a feature on former Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron ([link removed]) , who has a new book coming out this week: “Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post.” ([link removed])
* Speaking of Baron, Sewell Chan, editor-in-chief of The Texas Tribune, wrote a review of Baron’s book for The New York Times ([link removed]) .
* And here’s another review from Tampa Bay Times books critic Colette Bancroft ([link removed]) , who writes, “Baron is neither laconic nor humorless in this compelling, detail-rich book, but that resolute character comes through clearly. ‘Collision of Power’ isn’t a memoir, although it’s told from Baron’s point of view. It’s an insider’s history of one of the most tumultuous periods our nation has experienced, and of how one national newspaper reported those events.”
* Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah with “The world has always wanted to move on from Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.” ([link removed])
* The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch has a Q&A with Fox NFL broadcaster Pam Oliver ([link removed]) .


** Hot type
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* ProPublica’s John Harwood interviews President Joe Biden ([link removed]) .
* For The New York Times, Eli Saslow (with photographs by Erin Schaff) with a piece about a private security guard in “He’s a Dab of Glue in a Broken City. Can He Hold It Together?” ([link removed])
* For Esquire, in partnership with The Marshall Project, Stephanie Clifford writes about her boarding school classmate who ended up in prison for hiring a hitman in “My Friend Leon.” ([link removed])


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