'Let’s be honest': Gaetz struggles to explain how he’d successfully oust McCarthy

During Sunday's episode of CNN's State of the Union, United States Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) told host Jake Tapper that he will move to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) this week, but not how he's going to do it successfully.

"I do intend to file a motion to vacate the speaker McCarthy this week," McCarthy said. "I think we need to rip off the band-aid. The one thing everybody has in common is no one trusts McCarthy. He lied to Biden, he lied to house conservators. He had appropriators marking to another number altogether. and the reason we were backed up against this shutdown politics is not a bug of system, it's a future. Kevin McCarthy's goal was to make multiple contradictory problems, delay everything, back us up against shutdown politics, and at the end of the day blow past the spending guardrails he'd agreed to."

Tapper asked, "So how many House Republicans do you think will be with you in your motion to vacate? Obviously, you need 218 votes to get him out of the speakership. You don't have 218 Republican votes. You'll need Democrats. Let's start with the Republicans. How many Republicans do you have?"

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Gaetz replied, "Well, enough so that when you host this show next week, if Kevin McCarthy is still the speaker of the House, he will be serving at the pleasure of the Democrats. He will be working for the Democrats. The only way Kevin McCarthy is speaker of the House at the end of this coming week is if Democrats bail him out. Now, they probably will. I actually think that when you believe in nothing, as Kevin McCarthy does, everything's negotiable."

Tapper then said, "But let's be honest here, though, because if you succeed in vacating him, you also will have to make a deal with the Democrats. You also will have to get Democratic votes to kick him out."

Gaetz said, "Absolutely, I will make no deal with the Democrats and concede no terms to them. I actually think that Democrats should vote against Speaker McCarthy for free. I don't think i should have to—"

Tapper interrupted asking, "So you're not going to cut any deals with them?"

Gaetz emphasized, "Absolutely not. And I don't think that any Republicans that share my view on Speaker McCarthy would cut deals with Democrats, but here's the thing. I'm done owning Kevin McCarthy. We made a deal at the end of January to allow him to assume the speakership, and I'm not owning him anymore because he doesn't tell the truth. If the Democrats want to own Kevin McCarthy by bailing him out, I can't stop them, but then he'll be their speaker, not mine."

Watch the video below or at this link.

'Let's be honest': Gaetz struggles to explain how he'll oust McCarthyyoutu.be

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