Republican predicts GOP 'will have mud on our faces every week’ — with or without Matt Gaetz trying to remove McCarthy

WASHINGTON — Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) spoke with Raw Story about the possibility of one member being able to throw the Speakership post back into chaos after the 11th vote against making Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) the Speaker on Thursday.

Earlier, McCarthy agreed to allow Freedom Caucus members to call a vote to fire him at any time.

Scherman said that it begs the question, for example, if there was a motion to vacate from folks who want to default on the debt should he support it?

"I don't know," he said. "Check with my boss?"

"So, right now they've got him by the, uh, procedures," Sherman joked. "The question is, can they prevent him from bringing up bills? If he'll make concessions to let them bring up amendments, that's ok. He votes against a right-wing amendment, I'm voting against a right-wing amendment, and it's going nowhere. By the way, even if it did go somewhere, it would get blocked. I'm not worried about what they pass. I'm worried about what they don't."

When it comes to the debt ceiling, McCarthy will be in a position at the end of Aug. 2023 to increase it again. It's not going to go anywhere if he agrees to it while cutting Social Security, or something like that, Sherman explained.

"Their methodology will be a motion to vacate the chair," Sherman said. "But to vacate the chair — right now they can count to 212. They can't count on me to vacate the chair. I don't know if they can count on me next month to vacate the chair. They can count on me now. I'll vote for Hakeem. I've done it ten times so far."

He explained that every time the far right tries to vacate McCarthy, they're empowering Democrats. "You can't kick McCarthy out of the Speakership without 200 of us. Last I checked they've got 20. So every time they bring it up, I get to decide whether I want to vacate the chair or not."

He called it nothing more than a "protest vote."

"Would you like to vacate the chair? You've got 20 votes. Come and talk to the Democratic Caucus," Sherman said with a laugh.

Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) said simply, "Who cares? Who cares? I mean, the fact of the matter, the difference between five and one, meh. If I can't find four other friends, I'm in real trouble already. And in a weird way, if one makes people empowered... It's a free option, because truly, mechanically, around here, what's the difference between five and one? If I can't find four friends who are cranky in a single day I'm not trying. Because there's always half a dozen of us who are pissed off at any given time."

Schweikert thinks that it's entirely possible that even if McCarthy faces off against another vote to vacate the chair after winning the Speaker post, he'll likely hold it. Raw Story asked if it would potentially set up a near-daily or at least weekly vote like that, further humiliating the GOP. But Schweikert still said that wouldn't matter either.

"You don't think we're not going to have mud on our faces every week? I mean, come on," Schweikert said frankly.

Looking to the "pathologically optimistic side," he explained that the ability to force McCarthy from the leadership on a whim would mean forcing them to design a dramatically different leadership structure than what has been done in the past. The entire body is the Whip. Anyone who wants to show up to the meeting that day and hear what bills are moving and who's where — they get to be the Whip that day. It's hyper-communicative."

He explained that he spent most of his time in the Arizona state legislature walking around talking to members figuring out who was getting divorced or who had a Pepsi addiction, and that's how he could grab a few votes.

"That was back in the day when the Republican conference was one-third moderate, one-third conservative and one-third didn't give a damn," Schweikert recalled. "So my argument is, you can fixate on the motion to vacate, or accept the small majority. It isn't about more work on the front end, it's constant."

"It isn't like John Boehner, who had his ten cigar-smoking buddies and they collectively think they're the conference. This time, the conference is the conference. I want to devolve power from the Speaker and I want the conference to be the Speaker."

He also said that if the goal of the far right is to put a little more definition in the spending and mechanics in bills, it's a good thing. But he's not certain it's worth the misery.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) agreed that the decision to change the motion to vacate "guarantees that it will be exercised."

When asked about the same issue, a senior GOP committee chair quipped that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) would certainly utilize the option.

"Why don't y'all report on that trafficking" story, the chair said with a laugh. "The Justice Department only dismissed one of those charges."