House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and his right-wing colleague Rep. Matt Gaetz on Thursday traded f-bombs as Republican infighting intensifies over the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and a looming government shutdown. #KevinMcCarthy #MattGaetz #impeachment #politics #trump #joebiden
McCarthy lost his cool at a closed-doors Republican caucus meeting when he unleashed profanity at Gaetz and others who have threatened to introduce a so-called motion to that would force a vote on stripping him of the speaker’s gavel.
“If you want to file a motion to vacate, then file the f‑‑‑ing motion,” McCarthy told fellow lawmakers, GOP Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., according to The Hill.
Gaetz hit back Thursday, taunting McCarthy about his hopes to keep the government open by cutting a spending deal with the White House.
“Pull yourself together, Kevin!” the MAGA lawmaker tweeted.
The Freedom Caucus firebrands want McCarthy to renege on a deal he cut with Biden in the spring to enact only small spending increases in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.
The conservatives are willing to risk a government shutdown to win their goal of major spending cuts and historic changes in the way Congress enacts budgets.
Gaetz has also floated a grab bag of other seemingly unrelated Republican priorities, including scrapping aid to Ukraine, a crackdown at the southern border and turning up the heat on presidential son Hunter Biden.
Gaetz started the week by taking to the House floor to threaten action against McCarthy, a highly unusual action even for the fractious GOP in the Trump era.
The Florida lawmaker says McCarthy is “out of compliance” with a shadowy January deal that installed him as speaker.
Despite Gaetz’s claims, that deal has never been made public and it’s unclear if it was more than a series of verbal promises by McCarthy.
Democrats, meanwhile, are hitting back hard at Republicans over the impeachment push, which they believe will spark a backlash among Democratic and independent voters.
“Republicans spent the morning talking about their illegitimate impeachment inquiry … and shutting down the government which will hurt everyday Americans,” Democratic Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said.
Biden on Wednesday night told a fund-raiser that he will seek to keep the focus on his so-called “Bidenomics” plan to boost the economy and ignore the impeachment effort.
Democratic congressional candidates are launching attacks on endangered Republican lawmakers who have gone along with the impeachment push even though they say they are pushing the GOP to take more moderate stands.
“Don’t call them moderates if they’ve never done anything to justify that label,” tweeted Mondaire Jones, who is making a bid to oust Rep. Mike Lawler in a Westchester County-based district.
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