Joe Biden’s embattled son Hunter was in court on Tuesday, where he pleaded not guilty to three federal firearms charges — charges he originally intended to plead guilty to before his sweetheart plea deal collapsed.
Over on Capitol Hill, the House voted to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy, thanks to a motion to vacate introduced by Rep. Matt Gaetz on Monday night. Gaetz and seven other Republicans voted with all the Democrats to vacate the speaker’s chair.
Meanwhile, the business of the House now comes to a grinding halt, including the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, until a new speaker is chosen. Who will that be? How long will it take?
I have no idea, but you can bet that Democrats are loving this. How could they not? Democrats have a rather long record, for better or worse, of having a united front. They understand that on the issues that matter most to them, they are all on the same side. They are true team players, and Democrat leadership has been remarkably effective in getting all of its members, even those in swing districts, to vote how they want, no matter how radical the issue. Earlier this year, no one in the Democratic Party voted for the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. Not one single Democrat stood up for women in sports.
Democrats run a tight ship. Republicans, not so much.
Prior to the vote, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post calling for Matt Gaetz to be expelled from Congress.
“This week, McCarthy and House Republicans should be focused on cutting spending in appropriations bills. Republicans should be focused on advancing their impeachment inquiry into President Biden. They should be pursuing and amplifying immigration policy changes to address the wildly out-of-control southern border,” Gingrich wrote. “Instead of taking these positive steps — which would help move the conservative agenda forward — Gaetz has been egocentrically going from TV show to TV show and attacking his own party by repeatedly threatening to bring a motion to oust McCarthy as speaker, which he did late Monday.”
Previous: The Gaetz/McCarthy Kerfuffle Is Bad for the GOP
It’s ironic that McCarthy was criticized for needing the help of Democrats to pass the continuing resolution to fund the government for another 45 days, prompting Gaetz to call for his ouster. Gaetz, in turn, needed the help of Democrats to oust McCarthy as Speaker.
The irony would be amusing if it weren’t such a terrible situation. The House GOP is in disarray, which means that its efforts to hold Biden accountable are going to be overshadowed by its own drama. In a deliberative body like the House of Representatives, not everyone can be completely happy with every bill, especially when the Senate is controlled by a different party. The same issues that McCarthy had to deal with to get things passed will exist regardless of who ends up as speaker.
This was an unneeded distraction, and I hope it doesn’t cost the GOP the House in 2024.