House Democrats on Tuesday said they do not plan to save Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) when a vote on ousting him from the top spot hits the floor later in the day.
Emerging from a more than two-hour meeting in the Capitol, House Democrats said they will vote to oust McCarthy from the Speakership.
“We are following our leader and we are not saving Kevin McCarthy,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters.
Asked if a decision was made as a caucus not to support McCarthy, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) responded, “yes.”
This news follows McCarthy’s statement that he won’t give Dems anything to save his Speakership.
Don’t read his quote. Don’t give him any attention. Just act.
Any amount of time you spend on things that are not your priority is a victory for the other side. Don’t spend a minute talking about him.
Democrats: “We are here in the House today to vote on…”
McCarthy/GOP (interrupts): “This is not fair. Republicans were not consulted on…”
Democrat speaker (interrupts): “Our government’s designed to have compromise, but look, we are in the majority. You don’t surrender. As I was saying, we are here in the house today to…”
That’s it. No time wasted. Shut him down before he finishes his first sentence.
No, just gavel them out of order. You can’t legitimately interrupt the person speaking for any reason. That’s the purpose of speaking time.
Everyone who cares will know who McCarthy was and what he said. Anyone who doesn’t know doesn’t care.
Republicans respect the use of power. They don’t respect words. If you have the gavel, just use it.
I get the sentiment, but this would probably put off some people who aren’t aware of the context. This might even be a trap where they hope those words are thrown back at them because they can use the optics to make it look oppressive rather than it being their own words sent back to them.
Any opportunity that makes them look like a victim, they will grab on to.