House Republican confronts Matt Gaetz, has to be held back, after Kevin McCarthy loses Speaker vote for 14th time
Late on Friday night, House Republicans appeared to finally be reluctantly coalescing behind Kevin McCarthy’s bid for Speaker of the House on the fourteenth ballot. But after Matt Gaetz passed and made it look like he was going to cast the deciding vote for McCarthy, Gaetz ended up voting “present” which sunk McCarthy’s prospects. At this point all hell broke loose.
McCarthy walked over to where Gaetz and fellow holdout Lauren Boebert were sitting, and began speaking to them in exasperated fashion. Gaetz began arguing back and pointing his finger. At that point another House member, which MSNBC and the AP have identified as House Republican Mike Rogers, attempted to confront Gaetz and had to be physically pulled back from him.
If you thought House Republicans were in complete disarray before, they’ve now found a way to make things even uglier for themselves. Kevin McCarthy is now crippled on an almost indescribable level. Matt Gaetz, who is under federal criminal investigation for alleged underage sex trafficking, is playing deranged games for no constructive reason. House Republicans are having to be physically restrained from taking out their frustrations on each other. And now House Republicans can’t even agree on whether to adjourn for the night.
