House Freedom Caucus members oppose McCarthy, showing anger over debt ceiling deal: NPR

Rep. Dan Bishop spoke alongside members of the Freedom Caucus to announce they would oppose the deal to raise the debt ceiling on May 30.

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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Rep. Dan Bishop spoke alongside members of the Freedom Caucus to announce they would oppose the deal to raise the debt ceiling on May 30.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Nearly a dozen members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus rioted against House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday, overturning a procedural vote that was expected to pass easily with Republican support.

In a vote of 206 to 220, rebel Republicans joined Democrats in blocking debate on a pair of GOP bills that would strengthen protections for gas stoves.

The publicly humiliating blow to McCarthy and House Republican leaders follows intra-party discord over the debt ceiling agreement brokered by the president and President Biden.

“There’s a lot of discussion going on within the group which is very healthy, and I look forward to meeting up with us later,” House Republican Whip Tom Emmer said, putting a positive spin on the fallout.

Republicans rushed and began meeting on the House floor after a so-called vote on the rule failed to allow debate on the gas stove bills.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., could be seen in intense conversations with several Republicans who voted no on the floor.

Later, a group of Freedom Caucus members met with President McCarthy on Tuesday evening.

“We have other conversations to have,” Texas Rep. Chip Roy told reporters as he left the meeting. Roy, who was part of the GOP group that voted no, declined to comment on details of the meeting.

“We had a breakdown in the process last week,” he said. “We think we need to restore the process that was working.”

Rep. Patrick McHenry, a key negotiator on the speaker’s team for the debt limit deal, told reporters the speaker was working to resolve “internal tensions within House Republicans.” .

“Once in a while you have to have a broadcast within your family,” he said. “I think that’s part of what happened today.”

Republican says he was threatened over vote on debt limit

South Carolina GOP Rep. Ralph Norman, a member of the Freedom Caucus who also voted against the Republican measure, told reporters that members’ rejection of the rule was about “a lot of things.” He said that included frustration over the debt ceiling agreement and an apparent slowness in Rep. Andrew Clyde’s gun stabilizer device bill.

“It’s about moving the bill – the braces rule – keeping it up and not putting it on the floor,” he said. “That’s part of it.”

Last week, Clyde said on provocateur Steve Bannon’s controversial podcast that House leaders had threatened to block his gun suspenders bill if he voted against the debt ceiling legislation. Clyde is the sponsor of a gun strap bill.

“Management told me that if I didn’t vote for the rule [for the debt ceiling debate]that it would be very difficult to get my bill to the floor,” Clyde said.

McHenry told reporters that neither he nor the speaker was part of the conversations that insinuating members would be punished for not voting yes on the debt ceiling legislation rule.

As he left the House chamber on Tuesday afternoon, Democratic Representative Steny Hoyer told reporters, “We have a very strong-willed little group of people who unfortunately have a lot more influence than they should.”

What does this mean for McCarthy?

Members of the House Freedom Caucus expressed disappointment with McCarthy over recent debt ceiling legislation, saying the speaker had not done enough to force through deep spending cuts.

But it was unclear whether members would move a vacancy motion, a rule McCarthy agreed to in January as he battled to become speaker, which would allow any member of the House to move a resolution. to remove the president.

On Monday night, Norman said it was “not the right time” to have a conversation about McCarthy’s ousting – yet he was quick to add that there was palpable frustration within his huddle.

“We think he gave the farm away,” he told NPR of the debt deal, adding that McCarthy had other ways to “show his conservatism” going forward.

“Fighting another day means you look at appropriations, look at military budget reallocations, look at the farm bill,” he said. “There are other things he can do that will hopefully get this country back on its feet.”

Virginia Republican Bob Good, also a member of the Freedom Caucus, told NPR the group would continue to push for “meaningful spending cuts and reductions.” Good also joined the Republicans who scuttled Tuesday’s vote.

“I think we need to look at all the spending bills and see what are the areas where we can cut, wasteful spending, unwarranted spending, or real spending that hurts the American people,” he said. he declares.