Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Republican “chaos” over choosing a speaker was “embarrassing.”
Anchor Kristen Welker said, “The House of Representatives has been without a speaker for nearly three weeks now. What do you say to Americans who look at this chaos and believe it’s a sign that Republicans cannot govern?”
McCarthy said, “It’s embarrassing. You’ve got to understand why we are here. Eight Republicans led by Gaetz have created this chaos by joining every single Democrat in voting to shut down one branch of government. Look, I would do the exact same thing again. Could you imagine if we were having this discussion rate now with the American government shutdown, with our troops in the Middle East wondering when they’ll ever get paid again? Keeping the government open was the right decision to make, and I’d make it again each and every day.”
He continued, “Now, the two men, Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan, they could have done the job as speaker. Unfortunately, the chaos has continued. We need to solve this problem, and we have a wide open southern border ask crushing inflation, and we’ve got war in the Middle East. This is not a moment in time to play around with learning on the job.”
McCarthy added, “What Matt Gaetz has done here, think about this, he has chosen with no plan concerned about an ethics complaint that was against him in the last Congress to try to go and move and shut it down. This is the wrong approach. It’s brought chaos.”
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