Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich ripped into the eight Republicans who voted to remove former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, saying they “unleashed furies” in the GOP conference.
WATCH: Former House Speaker @newtgingrich breaks down the race for the GOP’s top spot in the House. pic.twitter.com/OSg5GttYfR
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Even though I’m not a fan of his, Gingrich has a point because it has been almost three weeks since McCarthy was ousted and the GOP has been unable to elect his replacement.
It would have made more sense if they already had a candidate that had the needed 217 votes before they made their move to remove him.
From The Hill:
“Well right now, they [the House] can’t govern and I think that the eight people, who betrayed the conference and joined the Democrats to defeat the 96 percent of the conference, unleashed furies that I don’t think they’d even dreamed of, because it gave every person the right to be equally destructive and equally angry,” Gingrich, also a Fox News contributor, told “Fox News Sunday,” anchor Shannon Bream.
Those eight Republicans included Rep. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), who led the motion to oust McCarthy, along with Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Ken Buck (Colo.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Eli Crane (Ariz.), Bob Good (Va.), Nancy Mace (S.C.), and Matt Rosendale (Mont.).
Calling the House’s situation a “mess” Gingrich argued the House GOP should’ve stayed in the conference last week after voting to no longer back Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) as the party’s Speaker-designate.
“When they get back here, they should stay, [they] should go into a conference, not come out,” Gingrich said. “Bring food in and stay there. Again, very simple test — can you get the 217 votes? They shouldn’t bring anybody out until they have 217. And second, that 217 has to be committed not just to elect a Speaker, but to stick together for the next five or six months.”
“They’ve [House Republicans] tried the other technique, which is to find a personality, have them get a majority of the conference, walk onto the floor of the House and get beat,” Gingrich continued.
Shortly after McCarthy’s ouster, Gingrich called on House Republicans to expel Gaetz and defeat the motion to oust McCarthy, calling the Florida Republican an “anti-Republican,” who engaged in “childish behavior.”
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