A powerful Republican House lawmaker, who backs Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s stalled bid for speaker, says if a group of 20 arch-conservative holdouts don’t agree within days, common Republicans will strike a deal with Democrats.
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), who is set to chair the House Armed Services Committee if Republicans manage to rally behind a leader, accused a rump faction, which he described as “20 belligerents,” of “legislative of being “terrorists” who engage in “narcissistic behavior” by making demands McCarthy cannot possibly fulfill.
If there’s no agreement by the end of the week, he raised the possibility raised by some base Democrats to try and secure some of their votes for the speaker in exchange for concessions to the minority.
“And that’s why I’m saying I hope that next week we come back – you’ll find that a lot of us will – we’ll either see there’s a way or we’ll have to cross the aisle,” Rogers told the DailyMail . com while other Republicans fought in the House of Representatives chamber.
Rep. Mike Rogers, a senior GOP lawmaker, called a group of 20 Republican holdouts “legislative terrorists” who “have a gun to the head” of Rep. Kevin McCarthy. He said Republicans would turn to Democrats if the “belligerents” didn’t line up. Here, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) supports a rival as Speaker of the House while McCarthy looks on
He said rank and file members would start working with Democrats to see how they could accommodate them on rules or policy issues and that the Group of 202 lawmakers had “hardened” their support for McCarthy.
“We 200 are becoming more and more annoyed and hardened. And then you’ll see how we move in a different direction when we realize that’s not an option,” he said.
“You get to a point and say, Kevin, we love you, but you’re not — we’re not dealing with it [them] more. Because it’s not about McCarthy. This is about the conference. They want to go around the conference and get the things they want by dealing with a person – they have a gun to his head. You don’t negotiate with terrorists, whether it’s Islamic terrorists who put a sword to someone’s head or these people who basically have a political gun to Kevin’s head,” he said.
“They don’t deal with terrorists, whether it’s Islamic terrorists with a sword to someone’s head or these people with basically a political gun to Kevin’s head,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.)
“You don’t negotiate with people like that. These are legislative terrorists who have no problem killing the hostage and you can quote me on that,” he added for emphasis.
Rogers was speaking after some Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), held informal talks with Republicans while the longtime Rep. Marcy Kaptur (Ohio) floated the idea of a Unity Caucus.
Rogers did not speak of going so far as to lure Democrats into such a creation, but instead suggested buying off enough votes with rules or even political gestures to establish GOP control.
“Oh, we’ll give you something. One thing voices in the minority have: they can always be rented. Sometimes they’re expensive, but they’re always rentable,” he joked.
He brushed aside the unity government move in an institution where the majority wields near-total power.
“It wouldn’t be. Trust me, there are things they would like in return,” he said.
“I mean there’s a whole host of things that would be beneficial for them in the minority that a lot of us would find more palatable than dealing with the GOP holdouts,” he said. “It’s very malleable, the universe of things that are negotiable,” he said.
Rogers, whose staff is on hiatus on the committee until a speaker is elected, serves on one of the few bodies in the House of Representatives that tends to be bipartisan.
“I run the Armed Services Committee with Adam Smith. We come out with a completely bipartisan bill every year. It’s very doable. If you are not an asshole you can get a deal here. Democrats don’t have all the horns out of their heads. That’s why I say time is on our side. We’ll work with these people for as long as we can, but once we realize we can’t, we’ll look at the other options. And they are there.”
He said McCarthy “told a few people this morning that he’s had some productive meetings with the 20 belligerents and that he believes progress is being made and that things could be at a ‘good point’ for tomorrow.”
But the Californian, who has long dreamed of becoming a speaker, lost again on several floors on Wednesday.
Rogers said of the holdouts, “They love the attention. This is all narcissistic behavior. It is everything it is. They love it. You won’t love it as much if it goes on like this for a while. People back home are starting to realize what they are doing to this country.”
During an irate GOP conference meeting on Tuesday, he proposed kicking Republicans who refuse to get McCarthy out of committees. Rogers serves on the steering committee, which makes panel assignments and is influenced, but not fully controlled, by the speaker. “I promised,” he said of the threat.
Whether the Democrats are actually open to a deal that would save McCarthy remains to be seen.
“I haven’t heard of any offers or anything. And I just don’t know what they can offer to make Kevin McCarthy the speaker,” MP Joaquin Castro told .
Trying to uplift a moderate Republican like former Michigan GOP Rep. Fred Upton might be even more far-fetched.
The uproar on the ground is no incentive for Democrats to come to the GOP’s rescue.
“The chaos you see weighs on the American people. The Republican Party is currently an almost non-functioning party. And Americans see that,” Castro said.
“I mean, there’s always a possibility,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), whose Jan. 6 committee has already been dissolved and Republicans have vowed to search his records and archives.
“I’m just not sure what has already been offered to the people who didn’t take it that would be tolerable for our side. More importantly, getting elected is one thing. But to be able to govern once you’re elected… I think that goes to show that that’s a missing equation right now.
“I think what the three voices saw yesterday, what the public saw, was exactly what’s going on: chaos.”