McCarthy ally slams Rep. Gaetz for planning vote to oust the speaker
Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, who has been supportive of Speaker Kevin McCarthy throughout the contentious process of temporarily funding the government, slammed Rep. Matt Gaetz after he announced his intention to try to remove McCarthy from his leadership position.
“I think what I just heard was a diatribe of delusional thinking,” Lawler said of Gaetz’s appearance on ABC, where he announced the plan. “The only responsible thing to do was to keep the government open and funded while we complete our work,” he said, saying shutting down the government would "inflict pain on the American people" and "hurt an already fragile economy."
He placed blame on GOP hardliners who delayed the passage of a stopgap until Saturday, and said that Gaetz is "going to delay that work over the next 45 days, and just like he and some of my colleagues did during the past three weeks, they delayed the process by voting down the rules, violating our conference rules."
"They are the reason that we had to work together yesterday with House Democrats," he added.
Lawler called Gaetz "mealy mouthed and, frankly, duplicitous.”
“This is a guy who says one thing out of one side of his mouth and speaks another thing out of the other side," he said of Gaetz.
He added all Republican efforts will “be torpedoed by one person who wants to put a motion to vacate for personal, political reasons and undermine the will of the conference and the American people.”
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