Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) almost single-handedly took down former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), but MSNBC's John Heilemann said he may be in for a rude awakening.
The Florida Republican filed a seldom-used motion to vacate, which had hung over McCarthy's head since he barely won the speaker's gavel earlier this year, and House members voted 216-210 to replace the speaker – but Heilemann told "Morning Joe" that whoever replaces him must clip Gaetz's wings.
"Whoever the next speaker is cannot, if he expects to, he or she expects to, have a different fate than Kevin McCarthy, cannot allow, capitulate completely to Matt Gaetz on this point," Heilemann said. "This was the ultimate thing that showed that McCarthy would do whatever, anything, had no limits of what he would throw away, was the agreement that this was the thing Gaetz wants. Gaetz said to McCarthy, 'I want to have your political balls in my pocket, please hand them over.' McCarthy did. If you do that, you know that eventually you're going to get squeezed, right? That's what happened to McCarthy throughout."
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"The next speaker has to say no to that, and if that means that a succession of speakers have to stand up and defy Matt Gaetz, he has to be broken," Heilemann added. "Gaetz has to be broken if the Republican Party is going to be functional again. It's not going -- still going to be the MAGA party largely. [Rep.] Chip Roy literally was calling out Gaetz yesterday, challenged him to a fistfight. That's what the Republican Party needs. They have to break the hold of Matt Gaetz and these eight terrorists in their own caucus. If they don't do that, this cycle will play out again and again. That means for a period of time, they have to endure having no speaker in order to get that, the more normal order, they have to make that compromise and live with that pain and point the finger at Gaetz, but he is the person who is causing this and that caucus what's causing the chaos that unfolds. It's the only way back."
