As the leaderless House of Representatives drifts toward another vote in its quest to elect a speaker palatable to enough Republicans to win a majority of the House, Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida showed that humor is not dead in Congress.
Gaetz was among those members of the House who reacted violently against the idea of ending the two weeks of indecision and inaction that have followed the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy by giving Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry the power to serve as stopgap leader until Jan. 3.
“Speaker Light is a bad idea, just like Bud Light,” Gaetz quipped during an interview, drawing a smile from the MSNBC reporter interviewing him.
Gaetz: I was there to make the substantiative argument that speaker light is a bad idea, just like bud light pic.twitter.com/i6aKOuinRA
— Acyn (@Acyn) October 19, 2023
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“I far prefer for us to continue having votes going forward,” he said.
“I think a reasonable question to those who are holding out and not voting for Jordan is ‘What are you fighting for? What are your goals? What are your objectives?’” he said, speaking of the House Republicans who are adamantly opposed to electing House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio as speaker.
Gaetz invoked the Constitution as ammunition against the idea of letting McHenry oversee the fractious House.
“I’m against Speaker-light. I’m against Bud Light. I believe it is a constitutional desecration to not elect a speaker of the House,” Gaetz said, according to the Daily Caller.
Should the House elect a new Speaker?
Yes: 95% (41 Votes)
No: 5% (2 Votes)
“We need to stay here until we elect a speaker, and if someone can’t get the votes, we need to move on to the next person. But, twisting and torturing the constitution to empower a temporary speaker is having a speaker-light. That is not constitutionally contemplated, it is deeply infirm, and I will do everything possible to stop it,” he said.
Jordan isn’t backing down!
After an open discussion in the GOP conference, Jordan says we shouldn’t bring a resolution to the floor to endow Speaker Pro-Tem McHenry with power to run the House.
Our job is to elect a real speaker, Speaker Jim Jordan.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 19, 2023
Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona noted that the House Republican Conference is in the grip of the spirit of faction.
“I have been told by a good number of people that their objection isn’t personal to Jim. It is that voting in Jordan is perceived to be rewarding Matt Gaetz and the rest of the eight. Others have indicated that some of Jim’s supporters wouldn’t support Scalise, and so the holdouts won’t support Jordan,” he said.
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina lashed out at the personality-based motives of some of Jordan’s opponents.
“The American people want a speaker who will be honest and represent them, not business as usual in Washington. It is disgraceful for a number of elected officials, many of them in safe GOP districts, to oppose Jim Jordan purely to spite Matt Gaetz,” she said.
This isn’t about Jim Jordan.
This isn’t about Matt Gaetz.
It’s about getting our country back from the people who hate us.
— Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) October 19, 2023
After losing his second vote to become speaker, Jordan said he was done trying to win Republicans to his cause, but later in the day — as the idea to end the drama and shunt McHenry into the post went down in flames — he said perhaps the third time would be the charm.
“We made the pitch to members on the resolution as a way to lower the temperature and get back to work. We decided that wasn’t where we’re going to go,” he said, according to CBS.
Jordan said, “I’m still running for speaker, and I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race.”
He said he wanted to “talk with a few of my colleagues, particularly I want to talk with the 20 individuals who voted against me, so that we can move forward and begin to work for the American people.”
