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Maxine Waters Appears To Get In Shouting Match With Republicans On House Floor

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OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.


California Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters appeared to get into a shouting match with Republican lawmakers on the U.S. House floor on Thursday night.

“This is my 9th vote for Hakeem Jefferies,” said Waters, who stood up when it was her turn to vote before she turned and appeared to point to a group of Republicans behind her. “Matt Rosendale, get it together.”

Waters continued speaking but was drowned out by Republicans shouting, “Order!”

Before Waters’ comments, Montana GOP Rep. Matt Rosendale went after Waters directly while speaking on the floor.

“Last summer we began to negotiate, a group of us in good faith, a list of changes, amendments, to the rules of this body. Not to empower ourselves, not to bring personal benefit to ourselves, but to empower you and you and you, Maxine, and you, and you, and everyone sitting in this chamber equally,” Rosendale said.

“There’s no rules, I did not use anyone’s name… Excuse me, Maxine.”

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“Rosendale is one of 20 Republicans who have voted against GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy for House speaker through 11 rounds of balloting over three days. With the GOP’s slim majority, McCarthy can only lose four members of his caucus. Republicans cannot pass a rules package, consider legislation, or begin oversight of the Biden administration until they agree on a speaker. Democrats have voted in lockstep for Rep.-elect Hakeem Jefferies, D-N.Y., to be the next House speaker. The House voted to adjourn until noon on Friday,” Fox News reported.

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Rep. Chip Roy of Texas made a historic move on the floor of the House on Wednesday as he and other Republicans sparred over Leader Kevin McCarthy’s bid for Speaker, who has failed to win the gavel after five votes, which is unprecedented in modern times.

Roy, during a floor speech, offered Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), as a candidate for speaker, though Donalds was just reelected to his second term in November. But that’s not what made the nomination historic. As Roy pointed out, it was “the first time in history, there have been two black Americans placed into the nomination for speaker of the House,” noting that Democrats had nominated the leader of their party, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

The Texas Republican went on to clarify, however, that his nomination wasn’t about the Donalds’ skin color but rather about injecting new blood in GOP leadership after the party underwhelmed during the midterm elections when most political analysts — even many Democrats — were expecting a “red wave.”

“We do not seek to judge people by the color of their skin, but rather the content of their character,” Roy said. “But there’s an important reason for nominating Byron, and that is this country needs a change. This country needs leadership that does not reflect this city, this town, that is badly broken.”

Initially, the 20 conservative Republicans nominated Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, but he turned down the nomination and has publicly supported McCarthy for the position.

But after five ballots — three on Monday and another two on Tuesday — McCarthy has yet to secure the speakership, which has led to no small amount of criticism from within the party’s ranks

That includes conservative pundits such as former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), now a Fox News host and contributor, who blasted the holdouts during an appearance on the network Tuesday evening.

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“Look, I got bad news for Kevin’s opponents. He’s got a lot more than 20 friends. So, there are more than 20 people that are going to say, you know what? We are not ever voting for anyone else. Bret, you got a guy who’s got 200 votes and the next leading vote-getter for very good reasons doesn’t want to be the speaker of the House,” Gowdy told anchor Bret Baier.

“And, yet, this kamikaze wing within the Republican Party knows better than 85 percent of the rest of the conference. Jimmy doesn’t want the job for a very good reason. I don’t know what happens. I will say this. They didn’t want a secure border. That is not what the negotiation was over, Bret. It was — there are a handful of people who want gavels and want things that they can’t get based on merit, and they can’t get it based on intelligence, but they want it given to them by the speaker of the House, and Kevin said no,” Gowdy added.

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McCarthy revealed on Tuesday night that he had spoken to former President Donald Trump — who has called on the GOP to support McCarthy — and that the 45th president still supported him to be the speaker of the House.

“Trump has already reiterated his support; I talked to him tonight,” McCarthy told reporters.

Asked if Trump wanted him to keep pursuing the speaker’s gavel, McCarthy said, “Oh, yeah.”

“He thinks it’s better that all the Republicans get together and solve this, it doesn’t look good for Republicans, but we want to be able to solve it where we’re stronger in the long run,” ​he said. “Where what we went through today, in the end, becomes a positive that we’re actually focused, united.”

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