House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) will face a motion to vacate this week and current math suggests that he will need at least some Democratic votes to hang onto his job.
Politico's Playbook reports that this is why some Democrats were furious over the weekend when McCarthy tried to pin the blame on them for almost causing a government shutdown despite the fact that they were instrumental in passing a resolution over the weekend that kept the government open.
“It was an astonishing show of bad faith,” a senior Democratic aide told Playbook. “The dumbest political move I’ve seen in a long time."
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A Democratic lawmaker, meanwhile, slammed McCarthy for attacking Democrats even after he relied on them to avoid a shutdown.
"You need us, you f---ing idiot!" they said.
Another top Democratic aide who spoke with Playbook argued that McCarthy does not deserve to be bailed out by Democrats given the way that he had spent months making impossible promises to hardline Republicans in a desperate bid to keep his position in leadership.
"He’s created this situation, entirely of his own making, where he doesn’t have the benefit of the doubt," they explained.
