Any chance that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had of swing-district Democrats riding to his rescue appears to be swirling down the drain.
Punchbowl News' Max Cohen reports that there is "lots of angst" among moderate Democrats toward McCarthy, while adding that these Democrats have "no appetite to bail Rs out" from the mess being created by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) in his quest to drive McCarthy from power.
To back up his reporting, Cohen posts a statement from Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), who has won a number of close elections in a swing district in the past three election cycles.
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"Kevin McCarthy... is a man without principle," said Spanberger. "He is a man who cannot be trusted. He's a man who has excused the inexcusable time and time and time again. He is in this circumstances because he was willing to give up and negotiate anything to become speaker."
As if her point wasn't clear enough, Spanberger emphasized afterward that McCarthy should expect no help from her.
"Anyone who thinks that it might be some sort of strategy... to try and help McCarthy is kind of fundamentally misunderstanding the fact that to us, nothing is more important than our principles," she said.
