BROADCASTS.com

The Washington Roundtable: Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced his resignation from Congress this week, not long after a coup by several of his Republican colleagues cost him the leadership. The lawmaker who had temporarily filled the Speaker position\u2014Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina\u2014also announced his departure from the lower chamber. But it\u2019s not just former House Speakers who are leaving their positions. Dozens of members of the 118th Congress are not running for re\xeblection. Some are leaving to run for higher office, others are retiring, yet others have simply had enough\u2014and one, Representative George Santos, was expelled. Former Representative Jim Cooper, Democrat of Tennessee, joins the New Yorker staff writers Susan B. Glasser, Jane Mayer, and Evan Osnos on this week\u2019s episode to analyze this phenomenon. \u201cIt\u2019s really become a clown show, and elections are like clown swapping,\u201d he tells them. \u201cI don\u2019t think there is a Republican Party anymore, and, if there is one, it\u2019s ungovernable because they eat their own.\u201d Cooper and the hosts discuss what it is like to be in Congress, the state of the Republican Party, and the forces driving the recent exodus of members.\xa0

Have thoughts on The Political Scene? Send us an email at themail@newyorker.com, including \u201cThe Political Scene\u201d in the subject line.