Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) gave an impassioned speech on the House floor Tuesday afternoon in defense of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), warning that McCarthy has done the best he can given the narrow majority Republicans have and that if he is removed, no Republican will fight as hard moving forward.
“Mr. Speaker, as the only still serving co-author and co-sponsor of the motion to vacate Speaker Boehner, I can tell you this motion to vacate is a terrible idea,” Massie said. “As the only member who’s serving here who took every chance to vote against Speaker Boehner and to vote against Speaker Ryan, I can tell you that this chamber has been run better, more conservatively, and more transparently under Mr. McCarthy than any other speaker that I have served under.”
“As a member of the rules committee — one of three conservatives who were placed there out of trust, the speaker gave us a blocking position by putting three of us on there to keep an eye on the rules committee to make sure the process was fair and even — I can tell you, it’s been fair and even,” he continued. “None of us are voting against the speaker today.”
“Regular order is at odds with predetermined outcomes, yet the speaker is being accused of not holding to regular order and predetermined outcomes at the same time, it is not possible,” he continued. “You cannot be for both at the same time.”
Massie said that McCarthy has kept his promise to try to implement the conservative policies that he said he would, but that does not mean that President Joe Biden will sign them.
“We’ve been trying this since this summer,” he said. “And there’s enough blame to go around for why we don’t have 12 bills, but part of it was a re-litigation of the debt limit deal. By the way, there was no promise on the debt limit deal. No conditions on that in January, zero whatsoever. I was in the room for that.”
“So the 12 bills were delayed over what? $100 billion. That’s a lot of money,” he continued. “But it’s nothing compared to the $2 trillion that I came here to object to when Speaker Pelosi and President Trump pushed that bill through. We’ve had over 500 amendments. Listen, this is a referendum on this institution. We have tried regular order, Speaker McCarthy has tried regular order, if regular order fails today, if you vacate the speaker, nobody is going to try it again and this institution will fail. Please do not vacate the speaker.”
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