Nancy Mace has come to McCarthy’s office to talk strategy.
MACE: Help me out, Kevin. I’m a little confused about something.
MCCARTHY: Sure. Whatever I can do to help.
MACE: Our ultimate objective is to keep control of the House next year, right?
MCCARTHY: Of course.
MACE: And to do that, we need to hold the Biden districts we managed to win last year, right?
MCCARTHY: Right again.
MACE: And a logical way to do that is to look moderate, constructive, and reasonable to the average swing voter, right?
MCCARTHY: Can’t argue with that.
MACE: Then why are we threatening to pass federal abortion legislation, holding up the defense bill, talking about budget cuts that weren’t in your Biden deal, and openly looking at impeachments that are going nowhere?
MCCARTHY: I have to keep the party united. That means appeasing the crazoids and the base.
MACE: But we can’t win doing that. We’ve shown that over and over again. As they say about Twitter, the base isn’t America.
MCCARTHY: No, but it’s a huge part of the Republican Party, and it demands red meat. It’s very hungry. I have to keep it happy.
MACE: So we’re going down the same path as before. Most of America thinks the base is nuts. How is that going to lead to a better result?
MCCARTHY: Something will turn up. We’ll be OK.
MACE: Like what?
MCCARTHY: I don’t know. Maybe Putin will win in Ukraine. Maybe we’ll have a big recession. Something good will happen. Trust me.
MACE: So our plan is to wait for a miracle?
MCCARTHY: They happen more often than you think. Remember, God is on our side. We’re Republicans, after all.
Mace leaves, not looking very happy.