The Insurgents
Ep. 289: Why Jamaal Bowman Lost ft. Bryan Metzger
It was funny. I read an article from notice this morning that actually framed this really well, which was two Saturdays that really kind of changed the directory of Bowman's electoral prospects and his sort of political career. One of them was September 30th, the day that he pulled the fire alarm on Capitol Hill. And then I think we can all one was now that that was cool. Like let's I mean, let's just get it out there. Yeah, actually, it was cool and it was fine to do that, I think. Will you get into that though? Like, do you sure was that really a big deal? Like you're somebody who's familiar with the inner workings of the Hill and you know, customs. Do you see that as something that is just so sacrosanct that he shouldn't have done that? And like all the outrage was justified. Or was this an opportunity where somebody slipped up and Republicans pounced on it, the narrative emerged, and that just became a defining moment for him? I think it's not a good look. Okay, you know, I mean, I mean, the the question of whether it's the worst thing ever, I think is different, right? Because all sorts of bad things have happened up on Capitol Hill up to and including January 6th, right? But there's kind of two different ways that you can look at that moment, right? One is the explanation that Bowman put forward and that to his credit, he stuck to in basically every possible form in which he was asked about it, whether it was in public by the media or, you know, I went through his like transcripts with the House Ethics Committee, like when they interviewed him about this, he claims it was an accident. He said he was confused. And you know, he was rushing to go vote and he was the made an impulsive decision and pulled the fire alarm. And that was what happened. That's not a very flattering, like, portrait of who, you know, if you're living in his district of like who your congressman is, right, as someone who's, you know, kind of impulsive and who's easily sort of flustered and confused when he has to like rush to an important vote. But that is the explanation he put forward. The moral kind of sinister explanation that I think a lot of folks believe about what happened. This was what his opponent, Westchester County executive George Latimer argued was that he did it intentionally in order to delay the vote that was going on at that point. The context of that was that the House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who would be deposed as House Speaker, you know, roughly four days later, had put out a clean bill to fund the government for another two months and Democrats, and he like basically immediately called a vote on it. And Democrats needed more time to look at the bill, to study its text, to make sure there weren't poison bills in it before they voted for it. And so there were other delay tactics that were actually going on at the time on the House floor. I'm actually, I'm a little bit fuzzy now on the details of it. But like Hakeem Jeffries was like speaking, like there was like Democrats were already doing things that were like normal that were designed to sort of buy more time for them to look at this at this legislation. And then that was the window in which Bowen pulled the fire alarm. And so I think, you know, people can make their own conclusions about why he did that. But I think either explanation is not particularly flattering, especially given that, you know, he's a former middle school principal and has theoretically dealt with fire alarms before. So he's guilty of being a team player is what you're saying. I mean, it's called thinking inside the box. And thanks for checking out the insurgents. What you just heard was a free preview. To get access to the rest of this episode, head on over to insurgentspod.com, where you can subscribe for as little as five bucks a month. Your support goes a long way to keeping the show going. And I said, thank you. You get an extra episode every week. Insurgentspod.com to learn more. [Music]