Tag: Speaker of the House

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Congress GOP

Anti-McCarthy Republicans Are ‘In For A Rude Awakening’ Now That He’s Speaker: Report

Now that Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has finally been elected Speaker of the House, what will become of the breakaway faction of Republicans who refused to support him and made the entire GOP caucus look like a clown car for 96 hours?

According to a former Republican strategist, members of Congress such as Reps. Lauren Boebert (CO) and Matt Gaetz (FL) can expect to pay a heavy price that may contribute to them not getting reelected in 2024.

Conservative campaign consultant Alice Stewart said Saturday on CNN that the first punishment for renegade members who wouldn’t support McCarthy will be less prestigious committee assignments.

“I don’t think there’s going to be as much under the Christmas tree for them in that regard as they seem to think. Speaking with a lot of members of the rational Republican group throughout the weekend, specifically late into the night last night, they were frustrated. They were angry. They felt this was completely unnecessary given the fact that every concession they had requested had been met and this was not a matter of policy, this was just about personality conflicts with Kevin McCarthy.”

She added:

“Here these people have gone in day-in and day-out for all the right reasons for the party and for policies, and you have people like [Rep. Matt] Gaetz and [Rep. Lauren] Boebert who are in a vanity project to raise money for the future. They do have the opportunity to decide who gets on which committee and where and, I can guarantee you, Alex, that they’re going to be quite selective in who gets on which committee.

“Certainly Matt Gaetz has his eye on the prize for a key committee assignment, but they’re going to be in for a rude awakening because their colleagues are frustrated with the fact that they have a job to do.”

If indeed Boebert and Gaetz do lose in the next election, all of the chaos they’ve cause might just have been worthwhile. And the fewer Republicans there are in Congress, the better off the country will be.

Here’s the video from CNN:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rsZacN04no

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Congress GOP Viral Video

WATCH: GOP Rep. Has To Be Restrained While Confronting Matt Gaetz During House Speaker Debate

On Friday evening, minutes after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) had again denied House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA) the votes he needed in order to be elected Speaker of the House, another GOP congressman confronted Gaetz and had to be physically restrained, according to Mediaite.

With one vote to decide McCarthy’s fate, Gaetz could not bring himself to vote for the GOP leader after having spent all of two months campaigning for someone else to lead the 118th Congress.

Gaetz left the room when his name was called the first time around, and when he had a chance to vote for McCarthy when his name was called again, he shouted, “Present!”

The vote denied the California Republican the gavel and the GOP side of the House floor devolved into chaos. McCarthy charged up an aisle where he confronted Gaetz. The two exchanged words for several moments before McCarthy walked away.

McCarthy was finally elected Speaker on the 15th ballot, which suggests he will be the weakest House leader since the Civil War.

After video of Rogers confronting Gaetz hit social media, comments proliferated regarding what had just transpired.

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Congress GOP Social Media

Twitter Brings Down The House With Hilarious Kevin McCarthy Jokes: ‘Best Season Of C-SPAN…Ever’

It’s been an abysmal week for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who is trying to become the next Speaker of the House.

By extension, it’s also been a bad week for all House Republicans because they’re making the Keystone Cops look competent.

At last count, McCarthy had lost 10 straight ballots for the Speaker’s chair, with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) getting the most votes, which is humiliating for the GOP when you consider they have the majority of the votes in the chamber.

According to The Hill, here’s the latest update on the search for a Speaker:

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) appears to have lost the 10th vote for Speaker of the House.

The preliminary results were largely unchanged from all three of Wednesday’s and Thursday’s first three votes, with McCarthy garnering 200 votes, 20 Republicans voting for another candidate and one voting “present.”

Lawmakers are still in negotiations but are touting progress.

This will send the Speakership fight to a 11th ballot for the first time since before the Civil War. It’s unclear if that vote will happen tonight.

Long story short: It’s a clusterfuck.

However, despite all the chaos, one good thing has come out of this: Humor. Specifically, internet humor. Take a look:

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Congress GOP The Karma Is Gonna Get Ya

Jamie Raskin Mocks McCarthy: Karma From Jan. 6 Led To Your ‘Once-In-A-Century Humiliation’ Today

In what may well go down as one of the most humiliating days for any member of Congress in the history of the American republic, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) failed to win the 218 votes needed from the House Republican caucus that would have made him the next Speaker of the House.

According to NPR, McCarthy now holds a dubious honor.

Tuesday’s vote was the first time in a century that the election of a House speaker took multiple ballots to complete. The longest vote in U.S. history took place in 1855, lasting 133 rounds over two months, from December 1855 to February 1856.

McCarthy faces a Republican bloc of critics who want changes to the way the House operates. Although he’s given in to many of their demands, he remains short of the votes needed.

Instead of celebrating their return to the majority on the first day, McCarthy and other GOP leaders were sorting out how to respond to an open rebellion that showcased division and cast doubt on their ability to govern.

Right-wing members of the GOP caucus vowed Monday they would not budge and will never support McCarthy.

For his part, McCarthy suggested he would not withdraw his name from consideration, even though that might be the only way he can prevent further humiliation, telling reporters:

“They can go through whoever they want to go through, and they’ll come to the conclusion that they don’t, they can’t get there.”

But according to Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the only person to blame for McCarthy’s predicament is McCarthy himself.

Raskin, who served on the January 6 House Select Committee, mocked McCarthy via Twitter, reminding him that the reason for his failure lies with the person he sees whenever he looks in the mirror.

“This once-in-a-century humiliation of a party’s nominee for Speaker is chickens coming home to roost for McCarthy, who whitewashed right-wing insurrectionism on the House floor. Nobody’s getting killed now, but the House GOP now sleeps in the bed they made with Trump and Bannon.”

Exactly. Perfectly stated. Thank you, Congressman Raskin, for saying what we were all thinking.

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Congress GOP

Former RNC Chair Warns: ‘Marjorie Taylor Greene Will Be The Most Powerful Speaker Of The House’

For almost a month now, as it became clear that Republicans would indeed win a narrow majority giving them control of the House of Representatives, there’s been endless chatter about who might be the next Speaker of the House.

The name most frequently mentioned is that of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), but many conservatives say they cannot support him because he’s not right-wing enough or willing to bend to their extremist will.

Surprisingly, Georgia GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she supports McCarthy, which has confounded some pundits since she’s also a hardcore right-wing nutjob.

But according to former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, whoever winds up as Speaker will have to give a great deal of their power to Greene.

Appearing on MSNBC Friday, Steele noted:

“The media and others still want to focus on the man and, you know, what he’s trying to do, what he’s trying to say — we’re past that. I’m now looking at where the party leadership is trying to move itself, and the more telling thing for me was not the dinner that Donald Trump had with [Nick] Fuentes and Kanye [West]. It was the lack of response from political wannabes, who want to be president, the governor of Florida, which I still don’t think he’s put a statement out on that. The leadership of the party, ‘Oh, we don’t like antisemitism,’ without saying that the anti-Semitic former president is the case to be made against, and to draw that very bright line and say this is not who we are, nor is it who we want to be.”

Then came the warning about Greene:

“That small fraction of the party still has political, financial and other sway and control over the leadership. Marjorie Taylor Greene will be the most powerful Speaker of the House because she will have the opportunity to control what comes out of Kevin’s mouth around the things that matter to that small cadre.”

A panelist asked Steele if he thought Greene might actually wind up being Speaker, to which he responded:

“I just call the thing what it is.You call it shadow, I call it the thing. It’s the job, because what you can’t make that separation, when she is — you’re dragging her to your events and propping her up, telling her we’re going to put you back in committee, we’re going to give you a powerful leadership role. Come on.”