Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) said he will do “everything possible” to prevent the empowering of Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.).
“I’m against ‘Speaker Light’,” Gaetz said in a clip posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Thursday. “I’m against Bud Light. I believe it is a constitutional desecration to not elect a Speaker of the House. We need to stay here until we elect a Speaker.”
“And if someone can’t get the votes, we need to go on to the next person,” Gaetz continued. “But, but twisting and torturing the Constitution to empower a temporary Speaker is having a ‘Speaker Light.’ That is not constitutionally contemplated, is deeply infirm, and I will do everything possible to stop it.”
Gaetz was one of the eight Republicans who sided with House Democrats to remove former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif) from his role earlier this month. Now, as the House has gone weeks without a Speaker amid multiple crises like the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict and a looming government shutdown, some in the lower chamber have considered a resolution to give McHenry more power.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who recently faced two failed attempts to gain the gavel this week, is also reportedly planning to back a resolution to empower McHenry. However, other Republicans, including Gaetz’s fellow hard-right colleague Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), have come out against the resolution.
“I will not sit back and watch a complete betrayal of the GOP base with this ‘plan’ that’s being discussed,” Boebert wrote on X. “I ran because I was sick and tired of politicians coming up here and cutting deals and releasing ‘holier than thou’ statements about why we just had to accept it.”