Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) engaged in a heated exchange with reporters, blaming the Democratic Party for bringing “chaos to Congress.”
After lawmakers convened over the weekend, CNN’s Manu Raju on Friday asked McCarthy’s acting Speaker, Patrick Henry (R-N.C.), to take on more responsibility as the vacant Speaker’s position stalled the congressional schedule.
“So they really obstructed, they brought chaos to the … Congress, and now they’ve tried to prevent us from maintaining the continuity of the Congress, which I think is the real problem, which is what the Democrats have done,” McCarthy responded.
Ten days ago, McCarthy was ousted as speaker by eight Republicans and all Democrats.
McCarthy alleged that the reason Democrats voted to remove him from his congressional seat, where he served for only nine months, was because his opposing party did not want to pay military members in the government if the government stopped functioning.
“That’s why they wanted to throw me out,” McCarthy said. “All Democrats voted for chaos.”
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH.) was nominated for House speaker after Republican Steve Scalise (R-LA) withdrew from the race behind schedule Thursday night due to lack of sufficient Republican support.
McCarthy announced his support for Jordan, expressing confidence that the Ohio congressman would receive enough votes to win a majority vote.
He also told reporters that a recent House Speaker would be elected “soon” and that things were “progressing well.”
“They tried to put in a motion to bring me back there and I just told them, ‘No, let’s not do it. Let’s get through this and have an election,” McCarthy said. “And I think Jim Jordan would do a great job.”
