House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s week got awful before it even started. Just 12 days from a government shutdown, McCarthy had hopes that a deal being brokered between members of two House Republican factions—the Freedom Caucus and the “establishment” Main Street Caucus—would solve his looming government shutdown problems with a continuing resolution chock-full of extremist measures.
That plan fell through shortly after it was introduced, with at least a half-dozen Republican members rejecting it. Here’s a hint of the vehemence with which the hard-liners hate the idea of avoiding a government shutdown.
The hate wasn’t restricted to this potential stopgap funding bill. No, it’s a lot more personal for some, like Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana, who accused McCarthy of being in this “for power and a picture on a wall” instead of a “willingness to fight for the country.” Ouch.
Meanwhile, Rep. Matt Gaetz is still threatening to force a vote to oust McCarthy if he moves forward on government funding via a continuing resolution. Last week, Gaetz’s office republished an article from the Washington Examiner quoting Gaetz. “We're either going to get compliance, or we're going to start having votes on motions to vacate and we're gonna have it regularly,” Gaetz said. “I don't anticipate them passing immediately. But if we have to begin every single day in Congress with the prayer, the pledge, and the motion to vacate, then so be it.” Nothing has changed with Gaetz so far.
As of Monday afternoon, McCarthy remained committed to trying to force onto the floor the deal cobbled together by the Freedom Caucus and the Main Street Caucus, getting an outside group, the Heritage Foundation, to help. And now he has one less vote to lose.
Sign and send the petition: Pass a clean funding bill. No GOP hostage taking.
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What do you do if you're associated with one of the biggest election fraud scandals in recent memory? If you're Republican Mark Harris, you try running for office again! On this week's episode of "The Downballot," we revisit the absolutely wild story of Harris' 2018 campaign for Congress, when one of his consultants orchestrated a conspiracy to illegally collect blank absentee ballots from voters and then had his team fill them out before "casting" them. Officials wound up tossing the results of this almost-stolen election, but now Harris is back with a new bid for the House—and he won't shut up about his last race, even blaming Democrats for the debacle.
