'Took out our best player': GOPer says party's future bleak as dust settles on McCarthy's firing

Now that the dust has settled after Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s ousting as Speaker, some Republican members are beginning to panic, according to a report in The Atlantic Saturday.

The actions by a renegade group of right-wingers have cost the GOP its best fundraiser and communicator, and they've put in doubt the party’s razor-thin five-seat majority in the House, according to a party member the magazine spoke to.

“I think these guys materially hurt our chances to hold the majority,” Rep, Tom Cole of Oklahoma said. “That’s just the reality.”

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He added, “We put sharp knives in the hands of children, and they used them.

“...They just took out our best player.”

Cole told the Atlantic that the actions of the eight renegade members of Congress are considered among many in the party to have been knee-jerk, without any thought of their effect.

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“They just messed up the House. They had no exit plan, no alternative strategy, no alternative candidate," he said.