Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz held true to his word and voted against Rep. Kevin McCarthy for Speaker of the House. In the second round of voting, Gaetz nominated Rep. Jim Jordan for the position instead.
Gaetz said people have to do jobs they don’t really want to do sometimes and, at other times, they have to do jobs they are called to do. That’s why he got up to nominate the “most talented, hardest working member of the Republican Conference,” Rep. Jim Jordan.
Jordan gave a speech with more vision than they’ve heard McCarthy ever give, Gaetz said.
“Jim Jordan is humble, perhaps today, humble to a fault,” he said. “Maybe the right person for the job of Speaker of the House isn’t someone who wants it so bad. Maybe the right person for the job of Speaker of the House isn’t someone who has sold shares of themself for more than a decade to get it. Maybe Jim Jordan is the right person for Speaker of the House because he is not beholden to the lobbyists and special interests who have corrupted this place and corrupted this nation under the leadership of both Republicans and Democrats.”
Gaetz said Jordan would not fight Republicans when they tried to bring a bill for term limits to the floor, or a balanced budget. And, he added, Jordan would endorse the plan put forth by the Texas delegation to secure the border.
“Mr. Jordan said in his nomination (of McCarthy for Speaker) that there are certain bills that we have to pass to fix the problem,” Gaetz said. “The challenge is the alternative has been someone voting for the very bills that have caused these problems. Mr. Jordan says that we cannot accept legislation like the omnibus and I fully agree. If Jim Jordan were Speaker of the House, if he were the leader of the Republican team, we wouldn’t have that circumstance choking the economy of our country, increasing inflation and diminishing the prospects of a better life for our fellow Americans.”
Gaetz said every one of his Republican colleagues knows Jordan can lead the oversight efforts that Jordan referenced in his nomination of McCarthy.
“I’m nominating him and I’m voting for him,” Gaetz said.
Previously, during the first round of voting, Congressman Paul Gosar nominated Rep. Andy Biggs as the Republican alternative to McCarthy.
“The power doesn’t reside in the Speaker, it doesn’t in the Majority Leader nor the Minority Leader, nor the whip,” he said. “The power resides in we the people.”
The people have elected each member of the House to represent their district, their state and the federal government, he added.
“Washington’s broken. We’re the last ones to know,” Gosar said. “A wise person once told me good process builds good policy builds good politics. We have to return to that.”
