With the prospect of yet another government shutdown in the near future, some House Republicans have taken to blaming former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for the drama.
McCarthy was unceremoniously ousted from his top perch in October for making a deal with the Democrats to prevent a government shutdown.
So while his replacement, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) forged a deal with his counterparts across the aisle to keep the federal government fully operating just as McCarthy had done, some House Republicans are still blaming McCarthy for the original sin of cutting a deal with Democrats.
During an interview with CNN's Abby Phillip, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) tried to explain why he's still blaming McCarthy while giving the current speaker a pass.
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"How is this Kevin McCarthy's fault?" she asked. "I mean, Speaker Mike Johnson, has been in the job for several months. He's now done this, what, three times, pass a short-term extension. How is that on Kevin McCarthy at this point?"
Good explained that the timing of Johnson taking over the speaker duties factored in.
"Well, literally by the time Speaker Johnson was elected Speaker at the end of October, he was a month after the deadline for all 12 spending bills to have been brought to the floor for a vote when only four had been brought to a vote before he became Speaker. So my point is that he inherited a difficult situation that we should not have been in when he became Speaker."
Good kept hammering McCarthy for putting the Republicans, who boast the majority in the House of Representatives, into a box when it comes to budgetary maneuvers.
"This is a reflection on the failures of the previous Speaker," the lawmaker insisted.
Good didn't leave Speaker Johnson unscathed, noting that the gig is "performance-based" and that "it's not personal."
And when it came to the stopgap measures agreed upon on Wednesday to stave off the shutdown, Good argued they shouldn't have passed.
"I voted against all of these," he said.
