So the 14th vote in Congress has yet to give us a House Speaker. Normally, I would file this under, "Schadenfreude," but this time, we had Representative Mike Rogers having to be physically restrained from throwing a punch at Matt Gaetz.
Well, this went from zero to, "What the Fucking Fuck?" awfully fast.
This is not a surprise really, Matt Gaetz has the most extreme case of Backpfeifengesicht this side of Martin Shkreli.
Seeing as how Gaetz was the margin of Kevin McCarthy's loss, and Gaetz's antipathy to McCarthy is personal, Gaetz though that the Speaker wannabee was not being sufficiently supportive of him when allegations of human trafficking emerged, this has created a volatile situation.
It would be interesting to see fisticuffs break out amongst the Republicans,
because, on the House Floor while conducting business at least, none of this
would be a crime because of Congressional immunity.†
This is un-fucking-real:
Also, because there is no speaker, and CSPAN is not constrained the way it normally is, they got this all on tape:
The US House of Representatives devolved into chaos Friday night after Rep. Kevin McCarthy failed to garner enough votes to be elected speaker for the fourteenth time this week.
A hardline faction of about 20 Republicans repeatedly voted against McCarthy on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, but the representative from California made some progress on Friday morning, flipping 14 votes in his favor.
It still wasn't enough to be elected speaker, which led to a round of voting late Friday night that resulted in the most disorderly scene in the House yet.
The vote was coming down to the wire when Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who led the charge against McCarthy all week, finally voted "present" — which would again leave McCarthy short, by one vote, of being elected speaker.
McCarthy got up from his seat to approach Gaetz and the two had a tense confrontation captured on C-SPAN, thanks to the fact that there are technically no House rules yet, which usually limit what the network can film.This is television pic.twitter.com/wa0Zr4zdNZ
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 7, 2023………
Towards the end of the exchange, which lasted about a minute and a half, Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama could be seen confronting Gaetz as McCarthy walked away. CNN reporter Annie Grayer reported Rogers lunged at Gaetz, and the C-SPAN feed showed Rogers appearing to be held back by Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina.
It does appear that the shit is hitting the fan on the floor.
*This is a reference to the caning of Senator Charles Sumner by Representative Preston Brooks in 1856 in 1856 during a debate over slavery. Sumner was nearly beaten to death.
†It is from the Speech and Debate Clause of the Constitution, Article 1, Section 6, Clause 1, which states, "The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place."
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