McCarthy ‘Willing to Let Congress Burn to Be King of the Ashes’
Democrats, observers worry about what the long battle for speaker will mean for the country
Although Republican Kevin McCarthy capped off a dramatic and chaotic week on Capitol Hill finally winning the post of speaker of the House, Democrats, political commentators and others worry about what effects his protracted battle will leave for the country.
After days of sustained drubbings in his fight for the speaker's gavel, McCarthy finally won his prize late into Friday night on an astounding 15th ballot.
Although McCarthy, of course, was ebullient others expressed profound concern over what impact Republican disarray — and the very many promises the new speaker had to offer to turn, finally, so many far-right Republican votes his way — will have on Congress and the nation.
“‘Littlefinger’ McCarthy has showed that he was willing to let Congress burn to be king of the ashes. And now we have for the next two years are those ashes that we have to sift through and see if we can find any functioning government amongst the ruin that McCarthy has wrecked with his own, sweaty, desperate ambition,” Elie Mystal, justice correspondent for The Nation, said in an on-camera appearance on MSNBC.
And California Democratic congressman, Adam Schiff, thinks that this week's chaos only portends more of the same in the future.
“And so, I’m worried what it means for the country’s future that there is such disarray within the Republican Party,” he said in a separate appearance on MSNBC. “But you’re exactly right, Kevin McCarthy is reaping what he sowed when he voted against certifying the last election when he resurrected Donald Trump when he really catered to this extreme element in the GOP.”
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