Source: (Photo by Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Republicans cannot agree on a new Speaker of the House, and that includes Indiana’s own representatives.
“Well, I think it’s foolish and embarrassing,” says Indiana Congresswoman Victoria Spartz on Tony Katz Today, “that’s why I didn’t want us to go to the floor until we have someone with 217 (votes) or whatever we need.”
Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan is trying for House Speaker but failed two days in a row. Kevin McCarthy was ousted two weeks ago, and Spartz says that happened because McCarthy made the mistake of not settling bad blood with other Republicans behind closed doors first.
“When you want to intimidate and curse people in voting for you, they will get rid of you. That’s what happened to Kevin,” Spartz explains.
Spartz did not vote for Jordan Tuesday. She missed her name the first time and later voted for Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky. It wasn’t a vote she wanted to make, but she feels like her colleagues are completely missing the point of the divide.
“I said Jim, before you put it on the floor where people will be attacked – you couldn’t even imagine the amount of hate messages and everything anyone who didn’t vote for Jim got, and it’s because people are stressed out, I get it – let’s reconcile differences as a group.”
Those differences are between your traditional House Republicans and members of the Freedom Caucus. Spartz says she doesn’t understand why they can’t pull together their support behind one candidate and then present themselves before the American people. At this point, Spartz believes Republicans need a quieter candidate who hasn’t stirred too many pots and gotten into fights with other Republicans.
She says the ultimate goal should be to convince any moderates to join their side, “we have people in Trump plus thirty districts, and we have people in Biden plus ten districts. You have to be able to win all of these seats, or even more, to hold the majority.”
Indiana’s Congressman Greg Pence also called the failed votes embarrassing when talking to WISH-TV. Congressman Jim Banks says the Republican Party is doing a good job of looking stupid.
