Leave It To The GOP To Commit An Unforced Error In A Deep Red State
'Republicans could lose a representative in 2024'
'I'll be candid': GOP lawmaker reveals what might have happened behind closed doors if House hadn't recessed after McCarthy ouster
Republican Rep. Garret Graves (La.) revealed Wednesday that House Republicans almost fought one another over Rep. Matt Gaetz's campaign to oust Kevin McCarthy from the House speakership.
After eight Republicans joined House Democrats to remove McCarthy, Gaetz criticized House Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R) for sending lawmakers on recess until next week.
"We should be here tomorrow, working to elect a new speaker, getting onto our appropriations bills and engaging in a negotiation with the Senate to get the government funded. But instead these people have got to go home and cry for a week. They've got to go do a week of hand-wringing and bed-wetting over the fact that Kevin McCarthy isn't speaker any more," Gaetz said Tuesday on Newsmax.
Taking days off to cool down and ease tensions is, according to Graves, necessary after what almost went down privately among House Republicans.
"I'll be candid," Graves told CNN anchor Jake Tapper. "If we had stayed together in the meeting last night, I think that you would have seen fists thrown, and I'm not being dramatic when I say that.
"There is a lot of raw emotions right now," he explained. "I think it was best to let folks go back home and decompress a little bit and then come back together."
Tapper pushes back on GOP Rep. who says Dems share blame for ousting McCarthy www.youtube.com
Since McCarthy's ouster, many Republican lawmakers have said that Gaetz should be punished, perhaps even voted out of the House Republican Conference.
Graves did not endorse banishing Gaetz but said there should be "some type of penalty or punishment for what he did."
"Let's be really clear, you had eight Republicans that came together yesterday with 208 Democrats," Graves said.
When lawmakers return for business next week, electing a new speaker will likely be the top agenda item. So far, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan have announced their campaigns for the speakership.
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The story gets even better: GOP lawmaker reveals who is moving into Nancy Pelosi's hideaway office in Capitol
The story of senior House Democrats losing their hideaway offices near the House floor keeps getting better.
Shortly after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) lost the House speakership, the office of House Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R) sent Rep. Nancy Pelosi a notification about her hideaway office. "The room will be re-keyed," the message said, advising Pelosi to remove her belongings immediately. Afterward, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the other senior Democrat to maintain an office in the Capitol, received a similar message.
On Wednesday, Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) revealed that McCarthy will be assigned the hideaway office spaces.
"Look, the deal is that the office that Pelosi is in right now is the office of the preceding speaker. Speaker Pelosi and other Democrats determined that they wanted a new ... speaker, and it's Kevin McCarthy. So, he's getting the office," Graves told reporters, according to CNN.
After losing her office space, Pelosi released a statement complaining that her "eviction is a sharp departure from tradition." But Graves said Democrats have no one to blame but themselves.
"I don't know what they're complaining about," Graves said. "They created this situation."
CNN special correspondent Jamie Gangel, meanwhile, reported that McCarthy, not McHenry, was the mastermind behind the "real-estate revenge."
"Patrick McHenry gave the public order. But according to multiple sources who have told me ... in fact, it will not surprise you to know that Kevin McCarthy was responsible for Pelosi and Steny Hoyer losing their hideaways, and guess who is moving into Pelosi's office," Gangel said on CNN. "Kevin McCarthy."
"One Republican source said to me, 'Kevin is on a revenge tour. Patrick would never do that on his own. This was Kevin's call,'" Gangel reported.
Republicans are indeed upset. Not only at the eight GOP lawmakers who voted to oust McCarthy, but with the entire Democratic caucus for voting with them.
House Minoriry Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D) is even using the turmoil to fundraise, telling supporters Republicans are responsible for sending the "People's House into chaos, crisis, and confusion." What Jeffries failed to disclose is that the "chaos, crisis, and confusion" would not have been possible if Democrats had not endorsed it.
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GOP congressman reveals the 'disgusting' action Rep. Gaetz took during McCarthy ouster — then he whips out the receipts
Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) unloaded on Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) Tuesday for immediately fundraising off of his campaign to oust now-former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R).
Gaetz claims he initiated a motion to vacate the chair because, in his view, McCarthy made promises to the Republican conference that he failed to keep. In the end, only seven of Gaetz's Republican colleagues agreed with him, but that did not stop him from gloating about the ouster and using it to raise money.
During the chaos on the House floor Tuesday afternoon, Graves singled out Gaetz and spotlighted the Florida congressman's fundraising push.
"I keep wondering what is going on? Are we redefining what 'conservative' is? What's going on in this country today? What's going on in this body?" Graves asked in a floor speech. "We have Freedom Works, Heritage, Chip Roy, and Jim Jordan say something is conservative, and [yet these eight Republicans] say it's not, and they're right?"
"And all of a sudden, my phone keeps sending text messages. Text messages saying, 'Hey, give me money.' Oh, look at that. 'Give me money, I filed a motion to vacate.' Using official actions to raise money," Graves revealed.
"It's disgusting. It's what's disgusting about Washington," he declared.
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Gaetz responded that he is not bothered by his Republican critics, claiming his decision to oust McCarthy was not self-serving.
"I take no lecture on asking patriotic Americans to weigh in and contribute to this fight from those who would grovel and bend knee for the lobbyists and special interests who own our leadership, who have hollowed out this town and have borrowed against the future of our future generations," Gaetz said.
The irony of Gaetz leading the campaign against McCarthy is that five years ago, Gaetz resisted removing then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R) over concerns that it would fracture the House Republican caucus.
"Here's the problem: If we take Paul Ryan off the field right now, instead of being able to finish strong in 115th Congress, we will shatter into a bunch of factions fighting against each other for power," Gaetz said in 2018. "We’ve got enough of that in Washington already. Paul Ryan can be a caretaker of the speakership. We can have a leadership election. We could go into the midterms strong. And I don't think that pushing him out early if he doesn't want to go is in any way advantageous."
That same lawmaker is now being booed by his own colleagues for doing exactly what he once condemned.
JUST IN: Garrett Graves Calls Out Matt Gaetz For Fundraising Off Of Move To Oust Kevin McCarthy www.youtube.com
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