'A lot of anger': Report details 'bad blood' between Kevin McCarthy and Majority Leader Scalise

08 June 2023

As conservative and pro-Donald Trump as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) has been, some far-right MAGA Republicans believe that he isn't conservative enough. And those Republicans resent McCarthy for reaching a bipartisan budget/debt ceiling agreement with President Joe Biden.

The United States was dangerously close to defaulting on its debt obligations, which, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned, would have set off a "financial and economic catastrophe." And the Biden/McCarthy deal averted that.

Some MAGA Republicans, however, believed the budget cuts Biden and McCarthy agreed on didn't go far enough. When the bill came up for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, it passed 314-117. Then, it was sent to the U.S. Senate for consideration; after it passed in the Senate, Biden signed it into law.

In an article published on June 8, Punchbowl News describes the "bad blood" between McCarthy and the ultra-MAGA members of his caucus. One of the Republicans who is being critical of McCarthy is House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana).

Punchbowl asked Scalise if McCarthy had broken promises to conservative House Republicans, and Scalise responded, "I don't know what the promises were. I wasn't part of that.… So, I still don't know what those agreements were. Whatever they are, (conservatives) feel that the agreements were broken. That's got to get resolved. Hopefully, it does."

Punchbowl notes that while McCarthy "wrestles with conservatives over the lingering anger from the debt-limit vote," Scalise "clearly feels as if he has been on the outside looking in." And Scalise told Punchbowl that there is "a lot of anger on a lot of sides of our conference."

Scalise said, "(McCarthy has) got to resolve those issues with those members who have those feelings."

Read Punchbowl News' entire report at this link.

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