Since House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) election and Representative Matt Gaetz's (R-FL) recent threat to file a motion to vacate against SpeakerMcCarthy, Democrats have been able to (literally and figuratively) grab their popcorn and enjoy the show as the GOP looks more divided than ever. Questioned by Charles Coleman (filling in Ali Velshi) on MSNBC, Freshman Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) gave her insight regarding the Democratic playbook to this fiasco.
Rep. Crockett responded by saying that Rep. Gaetz just “likes the attention” and that “if you’re going to do it (file a motion to vacate), do it.”
“Matt Gaetz just likes to talk. He likes y’all to cover him. Every time he threatens them, the media says ‘Oh, let’s see if he’s really going to do it’ and he gets more and more attention. My deal is this: if you’re going to do it, do it, but he loses all of his leverage. At the end of the day, there’s no one else that has the votes. So, if he can find somebody, great, but it’s not going to be somebody further to the right, and honestly, it’s probably not going to be anybody further to the left of them either,” stated Rep. Crockett.
Answering how she would vote in a hypothetical Speakership election of someone else other than McCarthy, Crockett provided a bold answer.
“At the end of the day for me and my vote, right now I’m looking at the soon-to-be Speaker of the House, and that is [House Minority Leader] Jeffries.”
Moreover, Coleman inquired about the Democratic Party’s efforts in the House to “come Speaker McCarthy’s aid” most recently during the continuing resolution proceedings.
The Texas congresswoman answered, “He’s not governing. And honestly, we’ve not really come to his aid. We’ve come to the aid of the American people. We put the people over politics every single day. And so when it came down to this shutdown, we absolutely were not going to allow the American people to feel the pain simply because you’ve had this MAGA regime that is trying to tear us apart as a country, so we weren’t going to allow that to happen.”
In the same regard, Representative Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) called out Gaetz for not being a team player and negatively affecting what “the majority wants,” after Speaker McCarthy had to cross the aisle to get the CR passed to avoid another government shutdown.
"Somebody who now has to make a deal with the Democrats is going to soften some of the things that we want, the majority wants. And so Matt Gaetz is actually working against Republican principles. And so, in that sense, I think he is Joe Biden's favorite Republican. I am sure that the Democrats, behind closed doors, when they hear ‘Matt Gaetz,’ a big smile comes on their face,” said Rep. Gimenez.
Gaetz said on Sunday that he will move forward with a motion to vacate. After a concession made by McCarthy in January to obtain the Speakership, only one Congressman is needed to file this motion.
