NEWT:
Well, first, I think it’s a very sad day because I think Kevin McCarthy is one of the most talented leaders I’ve ever worked with. I think that he accomplished an amazing amount for having a small majority and being having to take on both the Senate and the White House. And I think this is really a tragic outcome. This was a leader who both gained seats in 2020, gained seats in 2022, increased the number of women members, increased the number of veterans, increased the number of minority members. And he had a vision for a better future. And let’s be clear here, Sean. You know, if if the University of Georgia Bulldogs were the number one team in the country right now, if you started a game and four of the members of the offensive squad decided they were actually on the Alabama side and began tackling your own people, you probably get them off the field. Well, think about what we saw today. 4% percent decided they were so morally superior, so intellectually pure, so patriotically better that they would side with the Democrat. That’s that’s what they did In order to defeat the entire Republican House caucus. 96% of the Republicans voted for McCarthy. 4% voted against him. From my position as a longtime Republican activist, they’re traitors. All eight of them should, in fact, be primaried. They should all be driven out of public life. What they did was to go to the other team to cause total chaos. We ought to be focusing on Biden. We ought to be focusing on the economy. We ought to be focusing on the border. Instead, you’re going to get a week or ten days of the media focusing on Republican disarray. It’s an astonishingly destructive behavior by a handful of egocentric people who think they’re superior to 96% of the conference.
NEWT:
Look, let me answer two very different levels. First of all, the house through regular order has passed 70% of the government in appropriations. The Senate has passed zero. So Kevin actually was on a track. And in the next two weeks, assuming they can get around to it, they will actually finish all of the appropriations. I think that was just baloney. Second, all of these 18 Republicans and the Biden districts, they actually voted for the two conservative continuing resolutions you described earlier. They voted for them even though they were very conservative. Who killed them? The hard right. Why did the hard right kill them? Because they were against any continuing resolution. Well, if you didn’t want the government closed, if you didn’t want the military not to be paid, if you didn’t want the Border Patrol not to be paid, and the hard right says to you, I ain’t doing nothing. What are you going to do? And Kevin did what you had to do. What I would have done, frankly, in his case. But it wasn’t the 18 Biden districts that was a problem. It was the core hard right people. And those hard right people want to go back home and explain why did they think this was better. Now what they need to be held their feet to the fire. Why did they think it was better to be two solid conservative continuing resolutions that, as you pointed out, includes the border, includes deep spending cuts. Did everything they claim there for, you know why they did it? Because ultimately, Matt Gaetz, who hates, let’s be clear, he hates Kevin McCarthy, was determined to find a way to get to today. I think it’s disgraceful and I hope they expel him from the conference.
NEWT:
But consider. While you do know why, consider the moderates you described all voted for these very tough, very conservative bills. It was the hard right that voted against them. And people back home want to take a look at how their member voted and ask, are you just terminally stupid? Do you do you prefer to have everything screwed up? And in terms of the eight people who voted today with the Democrats and let’s be clear, they’re not Republicans. They shouldn’t. Frankly, they should. I wouldn’t if I were speaker, they wouldn’t be in the conference. I’d say to them, you proved to me that you’re a loyal Republican because the conference ought to be for Republicans.
NEWT:
Well, listen, Hakeem will take the speakership If you give up the investigation of Biden, if you give up the effort to cut spending, if you give up the effort to stop regulations, if you give up the fight against woke policy. I mean, he’s available and maybe these eight guys would be more comfortable being with Hakeem Jeffries and that totally insane policy rather than pretending that they’re Republicans.
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