Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida on Sunday maintained that it would be worth getting kicked out of Congress if his fellow Republicans move to expel him because he led the charge to dump former Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
“Absolutely,” the Fort Walton Beach Republican said during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when asked if he was willing to lose his job over the McCarthy controversy.
Gaetz also noted that 70% of voters in Florida’s Panhandle who returned him to Congress last year might have a “bone to pick” with those who want him out.
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Gaetz said the battle for McCarthy’s post was a fight for average American families who are about to be financially “crushed” because Congress won’t follow its own laws and get spending and debt under control.
“To me, people who are willing to drive $2 trillion annual deficits are the agents of chaos. The people who want budgets are the agents of regular order,” said Gaetz.
Gaetz also repeatedly rebutted left-wing anchor Kristen Welker’s arguments about McCarthy’s absence undermining the work of Congress, especially as war just broke out in the Gaza Strip.
Responding to Welker’s claim that the House is rudderless and that there was no plan to replace McCarthy, Gaetz noted that the new speaker will likely be elected within a week, and it will be an easier choice with just two candidates — Reps. Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise — than if there were multiple options.
“You are watching the (replacement) plan play out,” Gaetz told Welker. “And by the way, if we have a Speaker Jim Jordan or a Speaker Steve Scalise at the end of the coming week, there won’t be a single Republican, sans Kevin McCarthy, who won’t believe we have upgraded the position.”
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“With Jim Jordan or Steve Scalise, we will undeniably have an upgrade,” he added. “I think that you’re really going to see an invigorated Republican Party. We were in the doldrums with Kevin McCarthy.”
He also pointed out that the House would still be working if Rep. Patrick McHenry, the temporary speaker, had kept lawmakers in Washington instead of sending them home.
He also pushed back on Welker’s contention that the controversial, previously unprecedented move of axing McCarthy is hurting Israel right now as it defends itself from terrorist attacks by Hamas.
Gaetz noted that current U.S. military aid to Israel is appropriated for the long term, and that Israel has not asked for anything at this point.
Gaetz also rejected Welker’s assertion that the budget won’t come together as the lawmaker hopes under a new speaker, saying the next House leader will end the approach by McCarthy and other leaders of both parties to govern by continuing resolutions and all-in-one spending bills.
The new speaker will ensure an orderly, legal budget process that has not been in use since 1996.
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