Gaetz—a leading figure of the far right who has spearheaded a campaign to deny McCarthy the speakership—has sought to break hardliners’ blockade of the post by seeking to extract a number of concessions from McCarthy to become speaker.
Gaetz, in particular, reportedly wants to chair a House Armed Services subcommittee, while colleague Maryland Congressman Andy Harris—an ardent opponent of legalized abortion and marijuana—has sought a position that would give him the lead over the budget for health and human services.
McCarthy—who has already conceded numerous points to his party’s right wing over the last several years—reportedly refused, prompting hardliners like the House Freedom Caucus to drag the speakership vote into a several-day affair that has amounted to a significant humiliation for McCarthy and the new Republican-led Congress.
Tapper, however, says Gaetz is well within his right to do so.
In a Wednesday afternoon panel discussion following McCarthy’s fifth losing ballot for the speakership, Tapper—the longtime Beltway pundit—contradicted some of his colleagues who were criticizing Gaetz for the tactic, saying Gaetz’s efforts were quintessential D.C. politics.
He pointed to the example of the competitive 1994 race for Senate majority leader between Senators Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Chris Dodd of Connecticut, a highly contentious affair that ultimately came down to a single vote.
What won Daschle the victory—and the seat he would hold for a full decade—was his ability to swing just one vote, Carol Moseley Braun’s, by promising her his seat on the Senate Finance Committee, making her the first woman to ever serve on a committee long-defined by “arrogant, rich” white guys.
“Let me play devil’s advocate here,” Tapper began. “[…] This is not new. I’m sorry. Like I get that Matt Gaetz is outrageous in so many ways. But asking for an Armed Services subcommittee chairmanship does not outrage me.”
But there are other precedents Tapper didn’t mention that track closely with the McCarthy saga—particularly as he and other party leaders have faced scrutiny over their messaging in a disappointing 2022 midterm election cycle.
After Republicans saw their majority dwindle to single digits in another disappointing election year in 1998, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich—the charismatic leader of a new conservative movement—was all but forced to resign against a Republican conference that was revolting against him.
While McCarthy still holds the support of a majority of his conference, he has still failed to attract the numbers required to win. After his fifth defeat as of Wednesday night, members of Congress were reportedly meeting behind closed doors to broker a compromise over the speakership in an effort to break the gridlock.
Meanwhile, figures like Gaetz were reportedly willing to broker a deal with “anyone” other than McCarthy.
At the end of the day, the story is simply this: McCarthy could not win the speakership on his own.
“Another day, another lie from Kevin McCarthy,” Gaetz tweeted after reports McCarthy was apparently willing to broker a deal with Democrats to break the stalemate. “Just weeks ago, Kevin McCarthy promised me and the entire House Republican caucus that he wouldn’t seek Democrat votes to secure the Speakership. In fact his people said it was a ‘doomsday scenario’ if this were to happen.”
