Congress is without a speaker, and Congressman Alex Mooney has a blunt assessment.
“It was a rough day.”
For the first time in history, the House of Representatives voted to oust the speaker, Kevin McCarthy. Eight Republicans joined all the congressional Democrats in the 216-210 vote to vacate.
Mooney and Congresswoman Carol Miller, both Republicans, voted against the motion to expel McCarthy from his House Speaker role.
The effort was led by a Republican, Matt Gaetz of Florida. He had longstanding criticism of McCarthy that came to a head after McCarthy led the effort to pass a stopgap measure to fund the government with Democratic support.
Mooney voted against the 45-day continuing resolution on Saturday, saying he wants Congress to consider longer-term allocation bills with steeper cuts to the federal government.
But in a statement and then again on MetroNews’ “Talkline,” Mooney said voting to vacate the speaker’s chair was a step too far. He said the number of votes needed to be selected to the speakers position in the narrowly-divided House has already been challenging to achieve and will likely be again.
“The thing is, someone has to get 218 votes. This is why I voted for Kevin McCarthy to begin with and I did not vote to vacate yesterday because someone has to get the majority, 218 votes, and that doesn’t leave a lot of room for error,” Mooney said.
“So everyone has to get behind the person and then frankly the person should do what the speaker should do. I just want a speaker who will yield the power of the purse. The continuing resolutions and stuff like that. It’s just no way to run government. The third most powerful person in the country, the speaker of the House, who runs a coequal chamber, should make sure that the taxpayer dollars of American citizens are spent properly.”
Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry, now the acting speaker, declared the House in recess until both parties can decide on a path forward.
“We shouldn’t leave. We were adjourned until next week. We should stay here and vote for a new speaker and get back to work right away,” Mooney said.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., spoke with West Virginia reporters this morning and said she is worried about divisions in her own party, the stability of the House of Representatives and the ability to avoid a shutdown when the current continuing resolution expires next month.
“Well, I’m very concerned about what can be accomplished when I see what’s happened over on the House side,” Capito said today. “Kevin McCarthy is a very good friend of mine and was, I think, dealt a difficult hand and served well as speaker. The voice of the conference — only eight people was enough to combine with all the Democrats to throw him out, so it is chaotic over there.
“They have no Plan B. It’s very disheartening to me because I think it’s difficult when you’re handed the gavel and you’re supposed to lead and you can’t lead. So I’m hoping when they come back, saner heads will prevail and they will come to a consensus candidate to be speaker because they can do no business under this circumstance until they have an elected leader, which means they can’t pass anything.”