Republican lawmaker asks 'why the hell' colleagues are pushing extremist bills: report
An exasperated, high-profile House Republican from South Carolina on Thursday questioned the wisdom of anti-abortion legislation the GOP conference is pursuing next week, asking her colleagues, and more importantly, GOP leadership, “Why the hell are we doing this?” as the Democratic Minority Leader declares he wants to find “common ground” apart from the GOP’s extremists.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) (photo) posed the damning question of House GOP Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), Politico reports, highlighting the rifts “McCarthy’s fractured leadership team” is facing.
“Behind closed doors on Wednesday, McCarthy’s No. 2 and No. 3 briefed about a dozen Republicans,” Politico explains, “mostly battleground-seat members — on their plan to take up two bills next week: Rep. Andrew Clyde’s (R-Ga.) bid to nix a Biden administration gun regulation and a separate proposal bill to strengthen limits on taxpayer funding for abortion.”
The meeting, Politico says, did not go well. It reportedly got even worse.
“Things got more heated from there, the two Republicans added: Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) confronted Mace for taking to TV and blasting other Republicans for their positions on abortion. Mace responded that the party is losing the battle for public opinion on the issue, arguing that tacking further to the right would hurt the centrists who handed the GOP the majority.”
Around the same time as this was happening Thursday, U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, during his news conference, told reporters Democrats “stand ready to find common ground with the other side of the aisle if they can break from their extremists. The problem that seems to exist is the House Republican conference is captive to the most extreme wing of their party.”
\u201c.@RepJeffries: "The extremists and the House Republican Conference has once again taken control of the House floor and stopped us from doing the business of the American people. This is extraordinary."\u201d— CSPAN (@CSPAN) 1686239747
Watch the video above or at this link.
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