House Freedom Caucus Members Talk About Moving Against McCarthy

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

As we reported earlier, a lot of Congressional Republicans are mad about the debt ceiling deal that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has struck with President Biden.

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It’s not clear if McCarthy has the votes for the deal based upon the people sounding off and it also puts his speakership in question, potentially, if he doesn’t have support from people like the House Freedom Caucus. He also went a little too far in what he was trying to sell, claiming there wasn’t anything for Democrats in the bill.

When reporters queried members of the Freedom Caucus about whether they would make a “motion to vacate” to essentially remove McCarthy as speaker, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) declined to take it off the table.

Perry said, “I’ll let each member speak for themselves…I am focused on defeating this bill.”

North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop’s office confirmed that the motion was on the table and he said he would support it.

Some members called the deal “insanity” and a “turd sandwich.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) made it clear that if the majority wasn’t there, that would likely trigger the motion.

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Gaetz stated: “If a majority of Republicans are against a piece of legislation, and you use Democrats to pass it, that would immediately be a black letter violation of the deal we had with McCarthy, and it would likely trigger an immediate motion to vacate.” He argued that many of the changes were “cosmetic in nature” and that Joe Biden was going to be able to waive “certain requirements and certain conditions” that were in the bill that sound like “great talking points.” Gaetz said, however, they “don’t save the country from the ruin that the Biden administration is bringing us to.”

McCarthy said he didn’t know what they were concerned about.

He claimed it was the “largest savings of 2.1 trillion” that they’d ever had. He said it was the “largest rescissions” — that they were pulling money back for the taxpayers that would have gone to China. He asked if those criticizing the deal were opposed to work requirements for welfare. “If people are against saving all that money, our work reforms and welfare reform, I can’t do anything about that!”

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said about McCarthy:

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I don’t think he even has a majority of his own conference at this point. ‘Don’t tell me you are gonna put me over a barrel for four trillion dollars because you refuse to do your job,’ that’s what McCarthy should have told the President.

He also warned of a “reckoning” for Republican leaders “unless we stop this bill by tomorrow.”

From NBC:

[A]s one former Republican White House official told NBC News over the weekend after the deal was announced: “McCarthy is now on a clock.”

A spokesperson for Buck declined to comment on the congressman’s comments but said the Republican is looking to yield a solution to the debt ceiling “that doesn’t give Democrats a blank check.”

So a lot is up in the air right now and McCarthy has a near-mutiny on his hands. The question is does he listen to what they are saying, and try to work it out? Or does he try to push this through, and suffer a potential defeat to the bill and to his speakership?

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