Rep Fitzpatrick Explains Real Reason for Holdout Against Jim Jordan
GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania was one of the 25 holdouts against the man who was designated as the Republican caucus’ official candidate for House speaker, Rep. Jim Jordan, on the third vote. He was one of the new votes against Jordan on the third ballot.
Those holdouts, as you probably know, are the reason why Jordan was nowhere near the 217 votes needed to make him speaker. Until a speaker is elected, Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina is the acting speaker pro tempore — with limited, marginal powers attached to the role he assumed after former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of the position.
McHenry is the man Fitzpatrick switched his vote to. That put Jordan even further away from the 217 votes he needed than he was at the beginning of Friday, although there are few GOP dissenters who are voting for McHenry. It’s also why Jordan is no longer the party’s official nominee for the position after the loss of support; at least six Republicans are running for the position as of Friday night.
The reason Fitzpatrick gave for his dissenting vote is that the House needs to be functional going forward — which is why he switched his vote away from Jordan, getting us further from having a functional House.
Perhaps I should let Fitzpatrick explain it in his own words:
Rep. Fitzpatrick (R-PA): “We had a speaker who put a two-party bill on the floor to avert a government shutdown & he was punished for it. That is the worst message you can send to America. And every single person that voted to punish bipartisanship ought to be held accountable.” pic.twitter.com/A8QPiQntE2
— CSPAN (@cspan) October 20, 2023
“Take the names out of it,” Fitzpatrick said to reporters after the vote Friday, referring to the designated GOP and Democratic candidates — Jordan and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, respectively.
“This is about opening our government. We have two wars raging. We have a government that runs out of money in 29 days. We have Ukraine running out of weapons in two weeks.
“We have 30 dead Americans in Gaza. We have 14 missing Americans in Gaza that we know of. And we have an entire branch of government that’s offline. That is unacceptable.”
Instead, Fitzpatrick said, the question should be posed “of the eight [Republicans] and the 208 [Democrats] that put us in this position” by voting against McCarthy.
“Because they are the reason we’re here. We’re going to try to figure out how to clean up that mess that they caused. But that’s why we’re here right now. And everyone needs to be abundantly clear that we had a speaker that put a two-party bill on the floor to avert a government shutdown, and he was punished for it.
“That is the worst message you can send to America — the worst. And every single person that voted to punish bipartisanship ought to be held accountable.”
And there we have it. Buried under a whole lot of talk about how the House of Representatives needs to be functional is the fact that 1) Kevin McCarthy voted for a “bipartisan” bill to keep the government open along with House Democrats and 2) those House Democrats were then not willing to further enable him by voting for him for speaker when he faced a motion to vacate from disgruntled Republicans on the party’s conservative wing.
On the first count, one social media commenter summed up why this “bipartisanship” was nothing of the sort:
It wasn’t a bipartisan bill
It was a Democratic bill that McCarthy agreed to.— Officer Bill 🏖️🩴🍹 (@officerbill) October 20, 2023
The decision to acquiesce to a continuing resolution was mostly an idea shaped along Democratic lines that a cadre of Republicans, who view the beau ideal of conservatism as something like a version of Mitt Romney that maybe grumbles a bit more, agreed to, as well.
Then, those Republicans were shocked — shocked! — that those same Democrats didn’t come to McCarthy’s rescue when the motion to vacate came up for a vote. It’s almost as if they haven’t realized that bloat in the federal budget is the football, congressional Democrats are Lucy Van Pelt, and the Republicans are Charlie Brown. If only we’d all work together to pull the ball away at the last second and have meaningful budgetary continence fall flat its back like good ol’ Charlie did, things would be a lot better.
However, all those who prefer the grumbling-Romney version of conservatism forgot one thing: McCarthy was elected by the slimmest of margins on a promise from the party’s right flank to check the White House and Senate Democrats. He didn’t do that, and the eight Republicans who voted to remove him were done with playing “Peanuts” football.
And, lest Fitzpatrick have issues with letting eight Republicans who already had issues with McCarthy have him toppled as speaker, it’s worth noting seven of eight of them — including Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, generally considered the instigator of the affair — have offered to be censured, suspended, and/or removed from the Republican House Caucus if those Republican members voting against Jordan, the party’s consensus choice, were to back him:
BREAKING: All 8 Republicans Who Voted to Remove McCarthy From Speakership Are Willing to Accept “Censure, Suspension, or Removal From the Conference” In Order to Elect @Jim_Jordan as Speaker
“If the holdouts who refuse to vote for Speaker-Designate Jim Jordan would be willing to… pic.twitter.com/FKBKrzgwvc
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) October 20, 2023
He said he reviewed the letter and told Rep. Andy Biggs it was a good letter in terms of “the structure and phrasing of the letter.”
And so Biggs “assumed,” per Buck, that he was supportive of it. But said he said he told Biggs “no” when asked if he could put him on the letter.
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) October 20, 2023
But, no: Fitzpatrick wants a functional House, which is why he’s voting against the best option for functionality. Because, bipartisanship. Or something.
Confused? Don’t be. He just wants the House to go back to when it was being run by Democrats and Democrats Lite, not with an actual conservative at the helm. That doesn’t bode well for whoever the House GOP picks next.
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