Conservative commentator and Fox News host Laura Ingraham wasn’t buying any explanations for why Kevin McCarthy had to go. She might agree with the spirit of the criticisms, which most Republicans would probably agree. Still, there was no plan to address the concerns over the debt and spending because Democrats control the Senate.
McCarthy was ousted as House Speaker Tuesday after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) followed through on his motion to vacate. Ingraham had Gaetz on her show Tuesday night, where she pressed the Florida Republican on where things go from here because a Democratic Senate will kill any initiatives Gaetz and others want to pass to fix the ship of state. She flatly told the conservative firebrand that he doesn’t have the votes and never did (via Daily Caller):
“Congressman, we already established tonight that I have been doing this with all due respect decades longer than you, okay? You are a young guy,” Ingraham told Gaetz. And so I agree… continuing resolutions, the budget, the spending, it’s a total nightmare, but the fact of the matter is y’all don’t have the votes. You don’t have the margin to get from A to B to C.”
“I categorically reject we don’t have the votes,” Gaetz said after he questioned if Ingraham had started working in politics at the age of three as she was asking the question. Ingraham worked in the Reagan administration, according to CBS News Philadelphia.
“How do you get closer to all these things that are legitimate concerns when you still have a Senate that says no can do?” Ingraham asked. “I mean, you have got several senators who are actually completely on the other side on a lot of these issues. You still have that to contend with. How do you get to your nirvana points which are the conservative holy grail points of governance the way we are going?”
Even worse was Rep. Nancy Mace’s (R-SC) reasoning behind her decision to join Democrats in booting McCarthy: the former speaker wasn’t moving quickly enough on women’s issues. Ingraham, like most, was aghast:
Laura, If we want to win another election anytime soon then we need to include women in our party. The only way to get women to vote for our party is to fight for them, and that’s what I’m doing. pic.twitter.com/NYhbWcXVFF
— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) October 4, 2023
Regardless, Gaetz and his posse tossed the grenade into the tent. It went off, and McCarthy’s speakership went up in smoke. Mr. McCarthy announced he would not be seeking the gavel again, with Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Steve Scalise (R-LA) appear as the two frontrunners who could clinch 218 votes and not be subjected to the vote-o-rama we saw with McCarthy earlier this year.