The gloves are off
When the most rabid fringe of the GOP decided to oust Kevin McCarthy for the cardinal sin of compromising with Democrats, the media managed to bungle the story yet again in embarrassing fashion.
Not only did they portray Matt Gaetz as the power player here that masterminded the whole thing and has the GOP under his spell (the overwhelming number of Republicans voted against Gaetz’s motion), but they also tried to put this as being on the Democrats for not voting to save McCarthy – even if McCarthy already reneged on his agreements with the president and offered absolutely nothing in return for keeping the speakership.
Now, however, Democrats are fighting back. Not only did House Democrats have leader Hakeem Jeffries’ blessing to vote against McCarthy for speaker, President Biden is making clear that he won’t back down – and that McCarthy, who has already gone back on his word, is not to be trusted: “We had two agreements. We shook hands on. And I assume he was working with — I knew he was working with the Democrats in the House and Senate. It wasn’t for me to do anything. If he wanted to talk to me, I was available. I’m available to whoever wants to talk to me. But the idea that I was going to somehow convince McCarthy to change his view was not reasonable.”
The gloves are officially off – and it’s clear that the GOP is way in over its head, with their refusal to actually govern or care about people finally catching up to them.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making