{"id":2447,"date":"2026-06-29T21:09:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2447"},"modified":"2026-06-29T21:09:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T21:09:56","slug":"republican-draws-on-air-laughs-over-absurd-defense-of-trump-calling-housing-bill-a-yawn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2447","title":{"rendered":"Republican draws on-air laughs over absurd defense of Trump calling housing bill ‘a yawn’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A surrogate for President Donald Trump was met with laughter when he tried to defend the Republican leader\u2019s recent statement that an affordable housing bill is a \u201cbig yawn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Ken Burns: Trump\u2019s \u2018deep and abiding insecurity\u2019 cheapens US history<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cLook, just for perspective: does it take a while to count ballots in certain places? Yes,\u201d Jamie Gangel, a journalist appearing on MS NOW with Georgetown Law Professor Michele Goodwin and host Kasie Hunt, said on Monday. Gangel was describing how Trump said he does not care about the housing bill, and considers it a \u201cbig yawn,\u201d because he wants to pass the SAVE Act to give him more control over elections.<\/p>\n

Gangel added, \u201cAnd let’s remember the degree to which the president is focused on this. There is a massive bipartisan bill aimed at driving down housing costs \u2014 or at least limiting how fast housing costs are going up. It has been sent to his desk, and we still do not know if he’s going to sign it, because he so wants the elections overhaul bill, called the SAVE Act, that he’s been pushing.”<\/p>\n

After playing a clip of the president speaking with reporters, Hunt then turned to Hogan Gidley, a former White House deputy press secretary for Trump, who defended the president\u2019s dismissive remarks about affordable housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a political win, and I think he is going to take the victory lap in some form or fashion,\u201d Gidley said of the housing bill. \u201cI do think, though, he is focused on making sure that our elections have some semblance of faith, trust and confidence, which they have been losing in this country for decades. You’ll remember around 65 percent of Republicans did not believe that Joe Biden won the election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Supreme Court declares war on democracy: Krugman<\/a><\/p>\n

When Hunt asked Gidley if that was Trump\u2019s fault, he pivoted away from the question, prompting laughter from his fellow panelists. Later when Gidley insisted Trump is \u201cnot obsessed\u201d with voter regulation, further laughs were heard.<\/p>\n

Gidley\u2019s comments, and the subsequent laughter, came after the Supreme Court ruled against Trump\u2019s efforts to regulate mail-in ballots on Monday. Speaking with AlterNet earlier this month, Dan Vicu\u00f1a, the Senior Policy Director for Voting and Fair Representation at the good government nonprofit Common Cause, argued that Trump\u2019s attempt to regulate mail-in voting is part of a larger pattern to try to suppress voting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they all add up to is a desire to avoid any accountability to the voters in the midterm elections \u2014 to ensure, to preordain the outcome of a midterm that he thinks is going to go badly for him,\u201d Vicu\u00f1a explained to AlterNet. \u201cWe know, from the Big Lie of the 2020 election to spurring on a violent revolt to overthrow a free and fair election, that he has no respect for democratic norms, for the voice of the people. This is entirely about his own power and his own ego. He will even invest in protecting that ego and protecting his power at the expense of the needs of the public. People are suffering with high gas prices and affordability issues, and he does not care. All that matters is protecting his power, and he has no interest in whether he does that through democratic means.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that Trump\u2019s attempts to federalize elections could also be illegal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think some of these attempts to federalize, to nationalize elections are clearly illegal,\u201d Vicu\u00f1a explained. \u201cYou’ve seen some of that overreach already struck down \u2014 attempts to order independent agencies to force a strict voter ID requirement on people. That has been rejected. Common Cause is in court challenging the latest executive order to turn the United States Postal Service into some election administration agency and to create a further bureaucratic layer to make it more difficult to vote by mail. In terms of the president’s authority to order around USPS, it’s illegal. In terms of USPS’s authority to become some sort of national election administration agency, it far exceeds the legal authority that Congress gave to the postal service. The statute describing what kind of work the postal service would do is about postal service work \u2014 processing mail and selling stamps. It has nothing to do with election administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Supreme Court just handed Trump a huge loss in his election scheme: GOP impeachment lawyer<\/a><\/p>\n