Ousted House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) found blame with Democrats for their part in sowing “chaos” during a heated exchange with reporters amidst the ongoing effort to elect his successor.
(Video: CNN)
Corporate media’s attempt to find a throughline for their narrative against House Republicans was bucked yet again following a secret ballot case by the conference that selected Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan (R) as “speaker designee.”
While many outlets had reported Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise’s (R) victory of 113 to 99 votes earlier in the week as though the GOP had cemented their decision, only to have the congressman bow out for lack of support, they took the vote for Jordan with a grain of salt, only to have that notion equally smacked down by McCarthy.
CNN’s Manu Raju confronted the former speaker in a swarm of press Friday and questioned the viability of a potential Jordan speakership with his secret ballot success of 152 to 55. While the reporter attempted to cast doubt with a focus on the votes against, McCarthy turned the argument on its head and argued that the problem was, in part, with the eight responsible for his ousting.
“I don’t know so much of it is Jim Jordan as it is maybe with the eight who, four percent, caused this whole problem, and all the Democrats,” he charged. “I think that’s more the reservation.”
Raju then turned the discussion to acting House Speaker Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and the potential of permitting him more power to allow Congress to take action prior to electing the next speaker. But McCarthy again turned to Democrats working with Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz-led eight Republicans for working with the parliamentarians to assert no such authority existed.
“So, they’ve really stymied — they brought chaos to the Congress and now they’ve tried to stymie our ability to have continuity of Congress, which I think is a real problem, what the Democrats have done,” contended McCarthy before he chided Raju on the notion of a “consensus candidate” and how it reflects on the party.
“If you think from a GOP perspective, eight Republicans, led by Gaetz, worked with every single Democrat — that’s [California Rep. Eric] Swalwell; that’s [California Rep. Adam] Schiff; that’s [Minnesota Rep. Ilhan] Omar; that’s [Michigan Rep. Rashida] Tlaib — to bring chaos,” said McCarthy.
The reporter then tried to push the idea the Republicans “can’t govern,” earning a rebuke from the former speaker who indicated the “Democrats are over there fighting about whether they can even stand for Israel.”
“You have a leader of the Democratic Party, Hakeem Jeffries, who still says no comment when it comes to the questions of what Tlaib says. Can you believe that?” the California congressman asked of Tlaib’s vocal favor toward the people of Gaza after Israel was attacked by Hamas.
“If they cannot stand with Israel, if they can’t publicly say that it is wrong that they think that Israel is apartheid nation or that us providing money to Israel is wrong, I don’t understand how somebody runs on that ticket,” McCarthy added before walking off.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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