Our 2020 book is titled Divided We Stand: The 2020 Elections and American Politics. Among other things, it discusses the state of the parties. The state of the GOP is not good.
Yesterday, eight Repblicans voted for Matt Gaeta's motion to vacate:
- Andy Biggs of Arizona
- Ken Buck of Colorado
- Tim Burchett of Tennessee
- Eli Crane of Arizona
- Matt Gaetz of Florida
- Bob Good of Virginia
- Nancy Mace of South Carolina
- Matt Rosendale of Montana
I don't think it says about the Republican Party. I think it says something about some people who are not a conservative.
I mean, if you were a conservative and you only had one entity making the battle and you vote against securing the border, you vote against cutting funding -- this wasteful spending and then you partner with all the Democrats. Now, you'll phrase it all the other different ways, that's not a conservative.
Look, you all know Matt Gaetz. You know it was personal. It had nothing to do about spending. It had nothing to do about -- everything he accused somebody of, he was doing. It all was about getting attention from you. I mean, we're getting e-mail fundraisers from him as he's doing it. Join in quickly. That's not governing. That's not becoming of a member of Congress. And regardless of what you think, I've seen the texts, it was all about his ethics. But that's all right.
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Well, would any of you think if it took that long and you had one person, you knew it was always a possibility. So, that was fine. It didn't bother me. It didn't change any of decision I made. But what's interesting, I read a tweet the other day of Matt Rosendale. He goes to Mass every day. But you know what he said his prayer was all last year? That Republicans didn't have a big victory, that they had a narrow victory.
When you have members like that that are part of your team, you got a tough team.
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QUESTION: But do you regret not reaching out personally to people like Nancy Mace, Tim Burchett, who sat down on the House steps today and told reporters that you said something condescending to him...
MCCARTHY: OK, let's get through this. I personally like Tim Burchett. And I called Tim Burchett because I read his quote. And Tim Burchett's a friend of mine, which I'm, kind of, shocked by this. And Tim Burchett, in his quote, said he's "leaning towards no" -- he's on CNN -- but "I'm going to pray about it."
So I pick up the phone and call him because I didn't think he was already there. I said Tim, "I read your quote. You said you were going to pray about it. I wanted to talk to you about it."
And somehow he construes that -- I'm a Christian. I'm not going to offend somebody for -- I simply read his quote back. I thought there was still an opening, and I wanted to talk to him about it. He never mentioned anything when we were communicating like that, and he said it.
Nancy Mace is a whole 'nother story, OK. (LAUGHTER)
MCCARTHY: Let's just be honest here. This is the one that -- I just got a -- I just got a text from her primary opponent saying, "Why did you spend $3 million?" But... (LAUGHTER)
MCCARTHY: ... I called Nancy Mace's chief of staff yesterday, and...
QUESTION: She didn't like that.
MCCARTHY: Because I called the chief of staff?
QUESTION: Yeah, she wanted you to call her. It wasn't good enough.
MCCARTHY: Well, she was on "The View" saying I didn't keep my word. So I didn't know what to do. Listen...(LAUGHTER)
MCCARTHY: ... I can't say this in a press, but OK. (LAUGHTER)
MCCARTHY: But so I -- I... (CROSSTALK)
MCCARTHY: No -- you keep it among yourselves, right?
QUESTION: This is like (inaudible) without the (inaudible).
MCCARTHY: Wait until my book. (LAUGHTER)
MCCARTHY: No. So I call her chief of staff because, I don't know, maybe I don't connect her with something else. But I just said to him -- I said, "Can you please tell me; I don't understand; where have I not kept my word?
You know what her chief of staff said? "You have kept your word, 100 percent."
Members come to me, and -- one thing, I don't like the idea tjhat a member comes and tries to leverage me. I don't -- I don't go for that. You know, I'll vote for the bill you -- that's not well. But if you have a problem with a bill, I want to help you.
But I can't sit there and write your entire bill and work it all the way through committee. We just got one bill out, and it came back. The other bill we're doing on guns, it just wasn't working, "Do you want to do something else?" We did something else.
I -- I just don't appreciate -- look, I bite my lip. I let people say things that are not true. But it's not right. It is not right. Her chief of staff told all of us we have kept every single one of our words. And he said he's told her that, too.
Now, if somehow he gets fired, I'll still get him a job.
