'They live in their own political bubble': Why House Republicans seem to be 'divorcing from reality'

On Sunday's edition of Meet the Press, Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman expounded on why Republicans in the United States House of Representatives are acting as if they came out of the November 2022 midterm elections with a broad mandate from the American people.

Historically speaking, the GOP's performance was abysmal, having failed to retake control of the Senate and only managing to secure a narrow five-seat majority in the House. The four-day-long, 15-ballot vote-o-rama that finally resulted in California Congressman Kevin McCarthy's election to the speakership further highlighted the schisms within the conservative conference.

NBC moderator Chuck Todd was curious about what could be fueling the right-wing lawmakers' apparent clash with what is obvious to outside observers.

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"Why, Jake, is there so much divorcing from the reality of the midterms?" Todd asked Sherman.

"I mean, the irony here is that we don't have, you know – the faction that held McCarthy hostage is the faction that prevented them from getting control of the Senate and more House seats," Todd pointed out, referring to the "red tsunami" that conservatives foresaw but that failed to materialize in the November contests.

Sherman agreed and explained that the roots of the GOP's problems are its voting base's unflinching fondness of former President Donald Trump, who endorsed McCarthy's campaign for speaker. And although it had little effect on McCarthy's detractors, Sherman would nonetheless note that the localized loyalty to Trump creates echo chambers that are impervious to objective facts such as Trump's landslide loss to President Joe Biden in 2020.

"Yeah. This is a long – long been a problem in House Republican circles. They oftentimes take the wrong or no message from political fallout, from political elections. Listen, most ninety percent – or I'm making that number up – but a huge chunk of House Republicans go home to districts in which Donald Trump still retains ninety-five percent approval rating and they live in their own political bubble," Sherman said. "And now, I guess, a little bit less because you have Republicans from New York and from kind of the Northeast that have been, that are in Biden districts, but that's – they just go home to their own bubble and the leadership doesn't do anything to talk truth to them. And this has kind of been going on forever."

Watch below or at this link.

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