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CNN analysts outraged by near-brawl on House floor, invoke Jan 6 and Civil War for good measure

January 7, 2023 | | Print Article

CNN’s left-wing hosts were deeply upset that a brawl barely almost erupted late Friday on the House floor between several congressional Republicans.

As previously reported, after since-confirmed Speaker Kevin McCarthy failed to secure enough votes for his speakership during the 14th round of voting Friday, he approached lead holdout Rep. Matt Gaetz to speak with him.

What ensued was a tense discussion that nearly devolved into a fight when Rep. Mike Rogers angrily decided to pull up and confront Gaetz himself.

In the process of confronting Gaetz, Rogers had to be physically restrained and held back by his colleagues.

“Mike D. Rogers of Alabama, who expects to become chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, on which Gaetz serves, stormed toward the huddle [Gaetz and McCarthy], enraged. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), a member of the leadership, walked with Rogers, aware of how angry he was,” The Washington Post reported.

Watch:

To be clear, no fists were thrown, and everything eventually calmed down — and in fact, Gaetz even eventually bent the knee and voted “present,” allowing McCarthy to score the speakership.

Nevertheless, CNN’s hosts were abundantly outraged by the brief hostilities between Rogers and Gaetz. Leading the outrage mob was CNN correspondent Jamie Gangel.

“This is despicable. This is a despicable display of a failure of leadership of exactly what the American people believe they voted against … as John King has mentioned, two years to the day, in some of the same hours, quite frankly, when some of these very extremists were trying to hold our country hostage,” she said.

“And every single time, we talk about back to the Civil War. Let’s think about where our country was during the Civil War in terms of the divisiveness. Do you want to talk about treachery? Guys, this is just despicable,” she added.

To be clear, not a single Republican held this country “hostage” in 2020. Some Republicans did challenge the 2020 presidential election votes, but that was fully legal.

Continuing the outrage fest, David Axelrod spoke next.

“Can we go back two years, because Kevin McCarthy stood on the floor of this House at this time and denounced the president of the United States for provoking an insurrection at the Capitol. Weeks later, he went down and bended his knee to Donald Trump. And that was reflection of weakness,” he said.

“And what we have seen all this week is weakness. The reason people feel they can be treacherous is because they don’t believe he is a strong leader. This would not have happened to Nancy Pelosi or any respected legislator,” he added.

Actually, this almost did happen to Nancy Pelosi in early 2019, when a contingent of radical Democrats threatened to withhold their votes.

“Sixteen Democrats said Monday that they will oppose Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s bid for House speaker, an act of defiance that puts the dissidents on the cusp of forcing a seismic leadership shake-up as the party prepares to take the majority,” The Washington Post reported at the time.

“Their pledge to oppose Pelosi, delivered in a letter to Democratic colleagues, comes as the California congresswoman has marshaled a legion of supporters to make her case. She is courting members in one-on-one conversations while securing the backing of allies on and off Capitol Hill,” according to the Post.”

Only at the last minute did dissidents like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez finally bend the knee:

Speaking last on CNN was Margaret Hoover.

“I got to say another thing about Kevin McCarthy’s leadership to piggyback on what’s been said here already. Kevin McCarthy, to a certain extent, owns the shape of this conference, because two years ago, he knew that 147 of his members did not vote to certify the election. He had an opportunity in those two years to go out and do what he did,” she said.

“He took a victory lap around the loss of Madison Cawthorn, North Carolina. If you guys remember, North Carolina 11, Madison Cawthorn, was primaried by an absolutely reasonable, respectable conservative, Chuck Edwards, who knocked Madison Cawthorn off in the primary. And now, you got Chuck Edwards, a reliable vote for McCarthy, not an election denier, not a conspiracy theorist,” she added.

Madison Cawthorn was not a conspiracy theorist. Nor was he an “election denier,” though he did have valid concerns about the way the 2020 presidential was handled.

“If Kevin McCarthy had actually really focused on Republican primaries and had tried to prevent the Boeberts and the Gaetz and the Biggs from getting those nominations, I know that is unorthodox, but that is what a real leader should have done. He should have worked to shape the party so it was responsible, full of responsible Republicans, not conspiracy theorists,” Hoover concluded.

So according to this left-wing CNN commenter, McCarthy should have actively campaigned against his own side …

Vivek Saxena
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