Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy agreed with those attacking Republicans who removed Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from the Speakership on Tuesday, but said the resulting chaos is actually a good outcome.
“The point of removing the House Speaker was to sow chaos. That’s what the critics of Matt Gaetz and everybody else is saying,” Ramaswamy said in a video message Tuesday. “And my advice to the people who voted to remove him is own it.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz led a group of eight Republicans in voting with Democrats to oust McCarthy from the Speaker job, the first time a Speaker has been voted out. The group has not floated an alternative candidate for the role.
“Admit it. There was no better plan of action of who’s going to fill that Speaker role. So was the point to sow chaos? Yes, it was,” Ramaswamy said. “But the real question to ask, to get to the bottom of it, is whether chaos is really such a bad thing?”
Ramaswamy, a political outsider who has run his campaign on going against the status quo, said Republicans have more important questions to ask than whom the next Speaker will be.
He said issues like border security, the national debt, and security against China — the same issues Gaetz and his allies said McCarthy was weak on — should be the focus of the House GOP.
The Republicans who went against McCarthy said the former speaker gave in to influence from Democrats during the appropriations process – specifically, when he passed a bipartisan budget continuing resolution over the weekend, avoiding a government shutdown.
Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.), who voted to remove McCarthy, argued that the continuing resolution is an endorsement of what he described as poor policy from the Biden administration on the border and the national debt.
“Our country is facing $33 trillion of debt. Our border is facing an unprecedented invasion. And instead of being energy dominant, we are now energy reliant,” Rosendale said in a statement before the vote. “The House of Representatives and the American people deserve a leader who can challenge the status quo and put an end to this ruin.”
Ramaswamy said Republicans should embrace the chaos.
“You know what, once in a while, a little chaos isn’t such a bad thing,” he said.
Late Tuesday, McCarthy announced that he would not attempt to become Speaker again. The GOP conference will have a candidate forum next Tuesday to select their pick for the role, with Speaker Pro Tem Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) presiding.