“It’s an absolute honor to be in Congress, but I serve with some real bastards,” Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Tex.) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” calling out two GOP colleagues – Reps Matt Gaetz. (Florida) and Bob Good (Virginia) – who broke with Johnson and voted against other bills proposed by the Republican majority.
Gaetz and Good also supported Gonzales’ primary challenger, something Johnson warned members against. Gonzales’ CNN comments prompted a third hardline Republican colleague, Rep. Elijah Crane (Ariz.), to announce support for Gonzales’ opponent, Brandon Herrera, a gun enthusiast with a huge following on YouTube.
Most House Republicans are tired of colleagues who systematically vote against laws that need to be considered rather than seeking compromise within the party. Since eight Republicans voted with all Democrats to oust then-President Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), more pragmatic Republicans have become furious with the conference’s “no” bloc and have encouraged GOP leaders to punish these members.
Hardliners argue that as the majority party, Republicans should promote ideological purity and take a tough stance in negotiations to win concessions from a Republican-led Senate and White House. Democrats. But by voting against conservative measures that they say don’t go far enough, other Republicans say, hard-liners are weakening Johnson’s hand in negotiations because the conference is not united around a set of demands.
The hard-line bloc has long opposed the idea of considering additional aid to Ukraine without legislation to secure U.S. borders. In a nod to such demands, Johnson offered to vote Saturday on a border security bill that largely mirrors a hardline conservative proposal that House Republicans passed last year. But protesting Johnson’s foreign aid proposal, three hardliners on the House Rules Committee — Republican Party Reps. Chip Roy (Tex.), Ralph Norman (SC) and Thomas Massie (Ky. ) – prevented the bill from being examined according to the rules. it would only require a simple majority to pass.
Other Republicans urged Johnson to bring the bill to a vote under rules that would require passage by two-thirds of the House. The measure was not up to par.
“Those who voted to fund Ukraine’s borders instead of America knew for sure that separate (non-Ukrainian) border security was going to die in the Senate, and are now dying to hide – so they shift the blame,” Roy said after the vote on X. “Own it.”
Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.) replied to Roy on Xsaying “isolationist Republicans” were standing in the way of at least forcing Senate Democrats to take a politically difficult vote. on border security.
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) came to Roy’s defense.
“After every betrayal, once the fury of Republican voters sets in, the self-serving lies begin,” Bishop said in his own message to Barr.
Massie said to Barra fellow Republican from Kentucky, to “stop blaming conservatives for your votes.”
Infighting within the party spilled over into the election campaign, where Gaetz took it upon himself to ignore Johnson’s warnings and campaign against his Republican Party colleagues. Gaetz traveled to San Antonio last month to hold a rally with Herrera in which he criticized Gonzales and pushed for a more aggressive GOP conference.
There’s no love lost with Gonzales.
“Matt Gaetz, he paid minors to have sex with him at anti-drug parties,” Gonzales alleged Sunday, referring to allegations against Gaetz that the Justice Department investigated. but declined to continue last year.
The House Ethics Committee is still investigating Gaetz, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said on X Sunday that Gonzales was “whitewashing lies on CNN.”
Gonzales also targeted Good for his support of Herrera, apparently referencing a Jewish Insider report that cited instances where Herrera posted videos “filled with images, music and jokes about the Nazi regime and the Holocaust.” .
“Bob Good supported my opponent, a known neo-Nazi,” Gonzales said. “These people walked around at night with white hoods; now they walk around in white hoods during the day.
After Gonzales’ CNN interview, Herrera objected to the congressman’s characterization of him as a “neo-Nazi.” write on: “It’s the death spiral ladies and gentlemen. He must be crying about me to his liberal friends, because the Republicans won’t listen to me anymore.”
For Johnson, the infighting weighs on his fate as president.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ge.) had promised to try to remove Johnson from the presidency if he shifted aid to Ukraine, but she held back in the hope that her colleagues would hear from voters in angry before returning to Washington.
Massie, who co-sponsored Greene’s resolution to oust Johnson, said he hoped Johnson would resign and predicted that if he didn’t, someone might initiate an “evacuate motion.” even if a large part of the Republican conference does not want to descend into chaos again.
In a tense meeting Tuesday night with Johnson and several rank-and-file Republicans, Gaetz told the speaker that if he pursued his foreign aid plan, his Republican Party colleagues would seek to oust him. He also threatened others in the room, saying the far-right bloc would target them on social media and wage a campaign against them.
Meanwhile, some GOP critics of the hardline faction have advocated for leaders to take tougher action against the bloc.
At a meeting last week with the chairman and lawmakers of the conservative Main Street Caucus, which puts government first, conversations revolved around how to punish members based on what might improve operations. from the room. Several members suggested removing the three hardliners – Roy, Massie and Norman – who sit on the House Rules Committee.
Johnson has not announced any decision on whether on whether to follow through on the proposed plan, which many at this meeting believe is easier said than done since far-right members are successfully fundraising by being targeted by “the establishment”.
washingtonpost
