Gaetz knocks Speaker pro tem for sending lawmakers home to ‘cry for a week’

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is already taking aim at Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C), saying that he should not send lawmakers home for the next week. 

“I do have to offer some pretty sharp criticism of the new pro tem of the House, Patrick McHenry,” Gaetz said on Newsmax’s “The Balance” with host Eric Bolling on Tuesday. “We met tonight, and he sent us home until Tuesday of next week.”

“We should be here tomorrow, working to elect a new Speaker, getting onto our appropriations bills and engaging in a negotiation with the Senate to get the government funded, but instead these people got to go home and cry for a week,” he continued. “They’ve got to go do a week of hand-wringing and bedwetting over the fact that Kevin McCarthy isn’t Speaker anymore. This institution is about more than one man.”

Gaetz spearheaded the effort to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from his leadership role Tuesday afternoon after months of threatening to do so. The House voted to oust McCarthy as Speaker in a 216-210 vote, with all Democrats and eight Republicans joining forces to remove him.

After the vote, McHenry was declared Speaker pro tempore. He said the House would go into recess so that Democrats and Republicans could meet separately to “discuss the path forward.”

No additional votes are expected for the rest of the week, and Republicans said they will meet to select their pick for the top leadership role Tuesday. The House will not be able to resume normal operations until it elects a new Speaker.

Despite taking time to introduce the motion to vacate, Gaetz called on the House to pass the budget faster, again criticizing McHenry for sending people home.

“So McHenry has the power of the Speakership now, and literally his first act as the acting Speaker of the House was to send everyone home till Tuesday,” he said. “That’s moving in the wrong direction.”

“We got to get a new Speaker and we’ve got to get leadership to understand a sense of urgency that your viewers and the American people all feel,” Gaetz added.