Kevin McCarthy 'chaos' proves 'Republicans just don't have their stuff together': Morning Joe
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough called on Republicans to get their own house in order hours before they retake majority control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Kevin McCarthy remains short of the 218 votes he needs from his own conference to become House speaker, and the "Morning Joe" host agreed with Newt Gingrich's assessment that some right-wing Republicans were running a "kamikaze" attack on party moderates.
"That's former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich criticizing Republican lawmakers who don't support Kevin McCarthy in his bid for speaker, and he knows of what he speaks because there were five, six of us back in 1998 that told Newt that we weren't going to support him," said Scarborough, who was a GOP congressman at the time. "I think there are a lot of other people that also have a lot of concerns with him, so we were the five that were willing to go forward and say something, but Newt has a really good point here."
"It's not like the Republican Party is coming off of a strong win," Scarborough added. "They underperformed badly, they're on their back heels. They're viewed as radicals, insurrectionists, weirdos and freaks. It's why they lost race after race after race, in swing districts and also in swing states for the Senate. So to have this chaos unfold on the floor today when you have it coming especially from, let's say the five or six members who are the most extreme, based on political views of most Americans who decide elections, well, Newt's got a great point, the timing here could not be worse for the Republican Party, and it just sends a godawful message that Republicans just don't have their stuff together -- still."
McCarthy's supporters have said he will keep Republicans on the floor to vote through multiple days, if necessary, in the hopes of wearing them down, and Scarborough urged him to do it.
"What Kevin McCarthy should do, not that Kevin McCarthy would ever take my advice, but Kevin McCarthy should go to the floor, like we're hearing he may do," Scarborough said. "He should fight it out. He should call their bluff, and I would have one Republican after another Republican after another Republican go to the floor and attack however few people there are and say you're a minority, you are outvoted, 200 and whatever, 215-5 and you're destroying the Republican Party, and because he's never going to be able to negotiate with them."
"He's going to have to run them over," he added. "He's just, and if he can't run it over, and if these five people are going to hold him hostage, his speakership hostage for the next two years, it's not a speakership worth having, and, by the way, they don't have anybody to replace McCarthy, so call their bluff. It's really his only good option at this point."
Watch the segment below or at this link.
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