It seems newly-appointed Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy is quickly learning the hard way that he actually has absolutely no control over the members of his party in the US House of Representatives.
Last night, House Republicans exceeded all expectations in making complete and utter asses out of themselves during President Joe Biden’s second State of the Union address before Congress, as they loudly and obnoxiously heckled the president pretty much throughout his entire speech.
Now, McCarthy has gone public with a scolding for his House party members, chastising them for taking Biden’s “bait,” as he called it, and warning them about the optics they’re portraying with such petulant, immature, and obnoxious behavior.
Kevin’s remarks came during an appearance on Fox News this morning, where the new Republican House Speaker was promptly questioned about his members’ contemptible behavior during last night’s SOTU address — namely, GA House Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s, who McCarthy has grown especially close to throughout his bid for the speakership, excessively abhorrent to literally scream the word “LIAR!” at the president over and over and over again throughout the speech.
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McCarthy made sure that everyone knew that he places the real blame on the president, accusing Biden of deliberately lying throughout his speech in a purposeful attempt to goad the Republican members of Congress who clearly can’t be trusted to control themselves like functioning adults. But, Kevin was rather pointed when he went on to further add that members of his party should be doing a far better job at resisting the temptation to lash out in such a publicly embarrassing manner.
“He tries to use that for a political ploy, but the one thing we need to be is — we need to be smart,” the GOP House Speaker said during this morning’s Fox appearance. “We need to be smart, don’t take the bait, stay with the American public about what we want to do.”
What’s worse for Kevin’s personal optics here, is the fact that he was seen attempting to shush, signal, and gain some control over his GOP House members in the midst of the address, to absolutely no avail.
It was a rather embarrassing ordeal for McCarthy as the leader of the House, given all he went through to actually secure that position. Kevin’s path to replacing Nancy Pelosi was a long, tumultuous, and extremely humiliating one, as it took the California Republican a record-breaking 15 ballots, that drug on for days, to finally pull in enough support to win the vote, by the skin of his teeth. Yet, now that he’s actually in the position, it couldn’t be more clear that his party members are severely lacking in any genuine respect for him.
You can watch the clip here:
“We need to be smart, don’t take the bait, stay with the American public about what we want to do, curb this runaway spending that the president has been spending so much …”
— Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who shushed members of his own party during Biden’s SOTU, to Fox & Friends pic.twitter.com/Cu3pvycNIO
— The Recount (@therecount) February 8, 2023
Featured image via screen capture
