Former Republican Representative from Florida, David Jolly, dropped the bluntest of truths on Deadline White House yesterday. After back-to-back mass shootings over the weekend, the third mass shooting in the span of a week, Jolly had the most emotional and brutal assessments of his former political party. Nicolle Wallace expressed appreciation for Beto O'Rourke's response to a reporter's inane, predictable question about the domestic terrorist slaughtering 22 now in El Paso, and his calling out the media for asking questions to which they already knew the answer. But Jolly's evaluation went further.
Jolly acknowledged this was a chance for the candidates to be authentic and show what kind of leader they'd be. But he does not want us to forget the REPUBLICANS' role in this. Their inaction. Their silence.
Well, YEAH. We need to beat these mother f*ckers at the ballot box all the way down to the school board and city council level. And HELL, YEAH, Republicans will never, ever do anything about guns. Jolly was dropping truth bombs absolutely everywhere. But it was just something different hearing it from a just recently-defected member of the GOP. Wallace couldn't help but agree, noting, "You take my breath away with your bluntness. But you're not wrong. No Republican has ever been moved by any of those tragedies."
Jolly then issued the directive so many of us have been begging of at least ten of the 20-ish Democratic candidates running for president.
Then he ended with a warning for Republicans that is already coming true.
Their time is coming, indeed. The twelfth House Republican just announced his retirement. Rep. Kenny Marchant of Texas will not run again in 2020, and Texas is fast becoming the biggest swing state in the nation. Marchant is the third Texas Republican to step down.
As much as Nicolle Wallace loves O'Rourke's authenticity, and his challenge to the media, David Jolly may have been sending him a very different message about what his next steps should be. Remember. Nothing gets done without the Senate.