Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly characterized House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ remarks regarding Democrats’ conditions to support Kevin McCarthy as House Speaker. The story has since been updated.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham pressed Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida over the lack of votes to pass legislation after Gaetz successfully instigated the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California.
Gaetz and seven other Republicans voted to remove McCarthy as speaker along with 208 Democrats in a 216-210 vote Tuesday, with Gaetz citing concerns over how McCarthy partnered with Democrats to pass a continuing resolution and avoid a government shutdown. Ingraham questioned whether Gaetz’s solution, in which lawmakers vote on individual bills rather than large spending packages. (RELATED: ‘Tyranny Of Anarchists’: Mark Levin Unloads On Matt Gaetz Over Motion To Remove Kevin McCarthy As Speaker)
“Congressman, we already established tonight that I have been doing this with all due respect decades longer than you, okay? You are a young guy,” Ingraham told Gaetz. And so I agree… continuing resolutions, the budget, the spending, it’s a total nightmare, but the fact of the matter is y’all don’t have the votes. You don’t have the margin to get from A to B to C.”
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“I categorically reject we don’t have the votes,” Gaetz said.
“How do you get closer to all these things that are legitimate concerns when you still have a Senate that says no can do?” Ingraham asked. “I mean, you have got several senators who are actually completely on the other side on a lot of these issues. You still have that to contend with. How do you get to your nirvana points which are the conservative holy grail points of governance the way we are going?”
Gaetz was not able to respond before Fox News cut away to Kevin McCarthy speaking and announcing he would not run to regain the speakership.
“Kevin McCarthy believes we have to utilize continuing resolutions and if the continuing resolution is conservative enough, if you hang some bells and whistles on it, that really ought to pacify people who are right-leaning throughout the country,” Gaetz said after McCarthy’s remarks. “I believe that the only way to achieve programmatic reform and put downward pressure on spending is to do what was done back in the 1990s where every individual bill is conferenced and debated and subject to amendment.”
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