Senator Mitt Romney said he was convinced the House Republicans were headed toward turmoil after eight Republicans voted with House Democrats to remove former Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his leadership role. The result of these eight Republicans’ votes led to this.
After McCarthy brought a bill to the floor of the House of Representatives on Saturday that would have extended financing for the government for an extra 45 days, he found himself in the crosshairs of the tiny but disgruntled group of Republicans that toppled him.
Without McCarthy, Republicans are less likely to be able to pass all of the required budget bills before the mid-November deadline, increasing the risk of a government shutdown. He called the posting a “pathway to chaos.”
Romney, a Utah Republican congressman, discussed the power vacuum in the House and how it will hinder legislation in an interview with the Huffington Post.
He also expressed to Punchbowl his worry that Congress has become less effective after McCarthy’s ousting.
There is, he claims, a faction in both parties that cares more about public perception than about doing the hard work of legislating and governing. And it’s because of that decision the GOP is in this mess.
Mitt Romney has had high praise for Kevin McCarthy for his work toward a debt ceiling compromise. According to Romney, McCarthy was widely underappreciated in the nation’s capital.
In June, Romney said that the opposition party will not give everything the right wants, but Speaker McCarthy accomplished a great deal. He told Speaker McCarthy may be the most underappreciated man in all of Washington, D.C.
He doubted McCarthy could convince enough Republican lawmakers to back the deal, but he gave McCarthy high marks for pushing the agreement through the House.
Last month, Romney announced he will not seek reelection in 2024, giving him greater freedom to express his dissatisfaction with his party and the current state of affairs in Washington.
