House Democrats have begun internal discussions about how to deal with the prospects of a chaotic situation: The possibility that Speaker Kevin McCarthy could lose his job in an unprecedented vote on the floor.
While no decisions have been made, some of the party’s moderates are privately signaling they’d be willing to cut a deal to help McCarthy stave off a right-wing revolt – as long as the speaker meets their own demands.
Publicly, Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has not weighed in on how he’d want his members to manage a challenge to McCarthy’s speakership, saying it’s hypothetical at this point. But privately, Jeffries has counseled his members to keep their powder dry, according to multiple sources, a recognition it’s better for Democrats to keep their options open as the government funding fight plays outs.
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Democrats and moderate Republicans might eventually come to an agreement o the budget, but if they do it will come at the expense of McCarthy’s speakership. The Freedom Caucus has been quite clear that McCarthy has that job at their pleasure, and can eject him whenever they want. The only reason they haven’t is that they have no clue what comes after that. But if McCarthy passes something with the help of Democrats, the Freedom Caucus will have to do it anyway, and see what happens.
During the next Speaker vote, Jeffries might find a moderate Republican willing to take the job (and actually negotiate with Biden), and build up a small coalition of a few dozen Republicans who would support that guy, and then steer as many Democratic votes as he could toward that person. Once there are a majority of members backing a Speaker who is not on Matt Gaetz’s leash, the Freedom Caucus no longer has its outsized power and is relegated to the sideshow again.
Honestly, this is what’s going to happen.
The freedom caucus is going to piss away their leverage because they don’t have the votes to get one of their nutters up there, the dems aren’t going to help them, and “moderate” republicans are smart enough to realize that the freedom caucus is giving shit loads of power to the house minority party.
The worst part of this, for republicans, is that these nut jobs have either never learned that sometimes in brinksmanship ya gotta grab the other person and jump off the cliff, just to prove that you will. Or they’re perfectly okay with jumping. it’s like they took this as their script because, hey it worked!
The speculative deal would likely include 2 parts:
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Pass a bipartisan spending bill with concessions to the Democratic party.
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When the Freedom Caucus comes for McCarthy’s seat, Democrats vote to protect his speakership.
I don’t think there are any moderate Republicans who would actually want to be a bipartisan Speaker.
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If he negotiates with democrats, he’ll get primaries in the next election
In other words, a win for everyone in another way.
And the democrats think they can trust him because he always does what he says? WTF people, listen to them when they tell you who they are, and grow a goddamn backbone. Let the republicans flounder, let them destroy themselves, let them say all the fascist shit they want. But don’t give them a single fucking vote.
The republicans have the gavel, let them keep hitting themselves in the foot with it.
A lot of people suffer when the gov shuts down but why would anyone care about people who are probably poor right? I mean, this is a political golden opportunity, what’s a few hungry kids or missed medication when politics is on the line?
Ha hah! Fuck McCarthy and all who sail in him. The entire GOP needs to be burned to the ground and sanitised.
I don’t get it. Why don’t they just vote for a democrat and if the republicans want to split their vote then thats good, no?
Don’t you need over a certain threshold of votes? Otherwise, McCarthy wouldn’t have been speaker in the place.
I mean so what then. they run without a speaker?
I think Democrats should do it… after a week of the government being shut down. The GOP takes the blame for the shutdown, McCarthy looks like a traitor, and maybe one of the MAGA Republicans has a brain aneurysm from screaming about it on the House floor.
Well a lot of time was put into getting McCarthy confirmed shouldn’t we give him a chance now that we are a year into his term that he has done nothing with because he’s an incompetent leader with no friends?
America needs more incompetent leadership like McCarthy because that’s what we do here. We didn’t elect George W Bush for nothing. It was to ruin the country and we will keep doing it because it’s the American way for like 25% of the country.
Clearly both sides are different…right?
The fact they they even considered saving McCarthy says a lot about how spineless the Ds are. Fuck that…let the R’s burn the whole thing down and start over.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
House Democrats have begun internal discussions about how to deal with the prospects of a chaotic situation: The possibility that Speaker Kevin McCarthy could lose his job in an unprecedented vote on the floor.
While no decisions have been made, some of the party’s moderates are privately signaling they’d be willing to cut a deal to help McCarthy stave off a right-wing revolt – as long as the speaker meets their own demands.
But privately, Jeffries has counseled his members to keep their powder dry, according to multiple sources, a recognition it’s better for Democrats to keep their options open as the government funding fight plays outs.
And their asking price for saving his speakership, Democratic members say, is a bipartisan deal to avoid a shutdown – a route McCarthy is not yet prepared to take, as Republicans are still trying to find consensus on a GOP plan to fund the government.
It’s a complicated dance for Democrats, who don’t want to be seen as saving McCarthy – especially after he just launched an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden – and could open them up to backlash on the left.
But some Democrats also fear the potential alternative: a government shutdown and the prospect of an even more right-wing lawmaker ascending to the speakership if McCarthy is ousted – or the House being paralyzed with no candidate able to win 218 votes to be elected speaker.
The original article contains 1,674 words, the summary contains 237 words. Saved 86%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
