the ousting of speaker Kevin McCarthy, is a historic event had never been done before. No speaker had ever had a motion to vacate the chair succeed. And in fact that only been offered one of the time in 1909. And Speaker cannons, forces won that vote. Although cannon wanted in part, by promising to reform the rules of the house. Now, it’s been offered by somebody who I think is an anti Republican Matt Gaetz. And it’s been offered against somebody who was the most effective House Republican leader we’ve seen in a long time. Kevin McCarthy, in McCarthy’s two cycles as leader. He took the House Republicans when they won seats, both in 2020 and 2022, the House Republicans were the only team of Republicans to be gaining ground. In those two elections. McCarthy went out and raised $480 million. In the last cycle, he recruited veterans, women, minorities, and was in the process of creating a much more ideal oriented, much more modern House Republican Party. He also had helped the House Republicans on the budget committee passed the first path to a balanced budget, since I left office, they would get to budget balance in 10 years. And it’s a remarkable project, given how deep the hole is that both COVID and Biden have driven into the American fiscal system. They’re now like 33, or $34 trillion in debt much worse than when I helped lead the only four consecutive balanced budgets in modern time, McCarthy had a personal enemy. And Matt Gates, who I regard as the most serious anti Republican in the Congress, Gates sided with the Democrats. Let’s be very clear. 24 out of every 25 Republicans voted with Speaker McCarthy. That’s right. 96% voted with McCarthy. Normally, the leader gets 96% support, they’re in pretty good shape. But because Gates was willing to work with the Democrats, he was able to fashion just enough votes to defeat his own party. So you ended up with 210 Republicans being defeated by eight Republicans, because they allied themselves with the Democrats. It was a remarkable moment, I think it’s very destructive of the house, I’m not quite sure how the next speaker is going to try to govern, because he’s going to face the same people. And they’re going to have the same attitude, which is do what they want or else. And the fact is, what they want to do is not possible, doesn’t fit reality, can’t be implemented. So we’re now on a wild ride. Think of it like being on a wild river, rather than a houseboat. It’s going to be interesting as a historian to watch. But as a Republican, it worries me a great deal, because we have a lot of good things going for us. The Gallup poll just came out and said that Republicans are trusted far more than Democrats on the economy, who trusted far more than Democrats on solving problems, we have an opportunity to develop a new, ideal oriented, solution oriented Republican Party. But instead, the news media, which does not want us to succeed, now has the excuse of taking all of its time not to focus on Biden corruption, not to focus on the price of goods, not to focus on the border, not to focus on drug addiction, but instead to focus on infighting among Republicans. It’s a tragically lost opportunity, I think for Kevin McCarthy. He will go on and have a great future. He’s only 55. And I think he has a tremendous talent, and will in fact, be a very effective leader at something around the country. It’s important remember, in 1962, Richard Nixon, who’d lost the presidency, to John F. Kennedy, in a very narrow election, and then lost the governorship to Pat Brown in California, had a press conference, he was tired. He was angry. And he said, Well, you won’t have Dec Nixon to kick around anymore. Six years later, he was president United States.
So keep your eye on Kevin McCarthy. He has a lot better future than Matt gates. He has a lot more to offer America. And I have a hunch in the long run. He’ll come out fine. And in the long run, House Republicans will figure all this out. But it is hard. It’s unnecessarily hard. And I think the idea of eight Republicans siding with the Democrats to defeat 210 Republicans is frankly pretty despicable.
