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The unauthorized history of the House Freedom Caucus
Playbook Deep Dive
English - January 06, 2023 10:17 - 53 minutes - 49.1 MB - ★★★★ - 1.1K ratingsNews news commentary news government politicians politico politics news analysis washington playbook politico playbook Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
In late 2014, Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) was traveling back to Louisiana with his wife when he had an idea: a plan to empower arch-conservatives to push back against their Leadership, led by then-Speaker of the House John Boehner. Soon after, he and eight Republican colleagues founded the House Freedom Caucus – the same group that is determined to deny Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.) the speaker’s gavel.
If you want to understand the roots of this week’s far-right rebellion, then you have to understand the roots of the House Freedom Caucus. And while not every member of the HFC opposes McCarthy – and not every opponent is a member of the HFC – most of them are.
On this episode of Playbook Deep Dive, former Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), a Freedom Caucus Founder, unspools something that we could all use right now to understand the current crisis and what it portends for the future of Republican politics: an unauthorized history of the House Freedom Caucus.