House Republican Blames ‘Matt Gaetz and Seven Useful Idiots’ for Congressional Chaos: ‘You See What Happened in the Aftermath’

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) traced the current dysfunction in the House of Representatives to last October when Matt Gaetz (R-FL) succeeded in removing a speaker of the House for the first time in U.S. history.

Then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted when Gaetz and seven other Republicans joined Democrats in voting to remove McCarthy. The vote was triggered when Gaetz filed a motion to vacate the chair.

Current Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is facing a similar backlash from some members of his conference. Several GOP lawmakers are displeased with Johnson’s decision to move forward with a vote on an aid package to Ukraine. That includes Gaetz, who on Wednesday called it a “surrender.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has filed a motion to oust Johnson, was similarly critical.

“I don’t know how long people are going to tolerate this because he’s doing nothing but serving the Democrats,” she said.

Johnson is also moving forward with separate votes on aid to Israel and Taiwan.

“Do you believe this foreign aid bill will pass in the next few days?” Anderson Cooper asked Lawler on Thursday’s AC360 on CNN. “And if so, do you think Speaker Johnson will be speaker for much longer?”

“Yes,” Lawler replied. “The foreign aid bill will pass. It must pass. The United States has an obligation as leader of the free world to support our allies at this most critical juncture and to make it clear to our adversaries that we will not tolerate their actions and what they have done to undermine and destabilize the free world.”

The lawmaker said that Johnson, who is dealing with the slimmest of majorities, has a weak hand in large part because of what transpired last fall.

“I look at this very simply,” he continued. “In October, the House was thrown into chaos by Matt Gaetz and seven useful idiots that teamed up with him within the Republican Conference and 208 Democrats. And at this moment, when you see what happened in the aftermath of vacating the chair and Israel attacked in a terrorist attack a week later, to do that again would be detrimental to the country and global security.”

Watch above via CNN.

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