Sparks flew between Congressmen Charlie Dent and Dave Brat Sunday on “Meet the Press” when Dent accused Brat, who’s a member of the Freedom Caucus, of not wanting to govern.
Brat claimed, “I follow the American people. Charlie here wants us to follow like a caucus or whatever. He wants to kick us out of our conference for voting our conscience.”
Dent retorted, “I don’t want to do that.”
Brat then insisted, “you’re on record last week saying that.”
Dent called what Brat was saying “outrageous,” and argued, “I said we should marginalize people who don’t want to govern. Who don’t want to govern. I believe members of Congress have a responsibility to govern. And that means, Hugh raised the issue of the world being on fire.”
Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt started the confrontation when he said, “A pox on both your wings… How dare you with the American people waiting for leadership, paralyze the House. You both have to, Charlie you have to stop going on CNN and blasting David. And David, there are like 15 of you people. The Freedom Caucus is like 15 people. Paul Ryan is like by 225 Republicans. Get with the program guys.”
Turmoil among the House Republicans has been brewing for a long time. In 2014, David Brat defeated Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
Speaker of the House John Boehner announced that he is going to resign at the end of October. This past week, current Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy dropped out of the Speaker’s race. (RELATED: Kevin McCarthy Shocks Republicans by Dropping Out Of Speaker’s Race)