'Grow up': Top House Republican blasts his far-right colleagues over 'lack of respect'

20 April 2024

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma) has been in the House of Representatives for more than 20 years. In a recent interview with Politico, he unleashed on newer members of the House Republican Conference over behavior he views as counterproductive.

Cole was particularly candid about his feelings for the House majority's far-right fringe. He lamented that a small handful of extremists among his conference has so far been able to oust a sitting House speaker and assert their will over the rest of the party despite not holding any leadership positions.

The Oklahoma Republican, who chairs the House Rules Committee, specifically referred to the hijacking of the rules process — in which the majority shapes legislation in a way that gives it the best chance of passage before it's actually brought to the floor — as a primary concern. He noted that while members of the majority voting down rules to make a political point was done sparingly when Reps. John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) were speaker, "we just finally saw the dam break" after former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) was forced out.

"I would argue it’s a lack of respect for the institution and the wisdom of the institution. These things have evolved over not decades, but centuries. This is a 234-year-old institution," Cole said. "So it’s, you know, you’ve got to grow up."

Cole was especially sore about the eight Republicans who sided with all Democrats to oust McCarthy last fall. He noted that even though the motion to vacate McCarthy came about after he worked with Democrats to keep the U.S. current on its debt service obligations, House Democrats were eager to use the opportunity to strip McCarthy of the speaker's gavel.

"I think it’s on both sides of the aisle. They see the turmoil. I think Democrats kind of enjoyed it in McCarthy’s case because they weren’t particularly fond of him. He was our most effective political player, largest fundraiser, best candidate recruiter, best strategist, so I get why they wanted to take our Tom Brady off the field," Cole said. "He kept the government open on a Saturday, and he was fired on Tuesday."

Currently, House rules allow for just one member to bring a motion to vacate a sitting speaker to the floor. Cole told Politico he thought that threshold should be raised in order to avoid the chaos that engulfed the House of Representatives for nearly a month in 2023 while the majority bickered among itself about who should become the next speaker.

"Frankly, I think you should have a majority of your own caucus that wants to do this. We had eight people that put ourselves at the mercy of the Democratic minority leader — and there wasn’t any mercy in that case," Cole said. "And quite frankly, they had no alternative candidate. They had no exit strategy. It was just, 'I’m mad and I have the ability to do it.'"

Cole noted that while "every caucus can have a few of those members," Republicans' narrow majority empowers the most extreme portion of the GOP as every member's vote is critical to pass legislation.

"You should never be in such a weak position structurally, process-wise, rules-wise, that a group that small can do something as significant as bringing down a speaker," he said.

McCarthy may not be the only Republican speaker to be brought down by his own party in the 118th Congress. On Friday, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Arizona) announced that he would back Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-Georgia) motion to vacate House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana). Gosar's announcement comes on the heels of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) joining the motion, meaning Johnson could lose his job if all Democrats vote with Gosar, Greene and Massie to remove Johnson from his position.

Click here to read Cole's full interview in Politico.

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