‘This Is Just Despicable!’ CNN Analysts Torch ‘Extremist’ Republicans AND Kevin McCarthy After Near-Brawl on House Floor

CNN analysts tore into “extremist Republicans” and then-outgoing House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy after the stunning near-brawl that erupted on the House floor Friday night.

McCarthy’s tumultuous bid to become speaker amid a revolt from House conservatives finally culminated in victory on the fifteenth try late Friday night/Saturday morning, after failing to secure a win in fourteen consecutive votes.

As McCarthy was losing that penultimate fourteenth ballot, C-SPAN‘s unfettered cameras captured the shocking scene of Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) being physically restrained by the face as he lunged at Rep. Matt Gaetz and the House floor erupted in chaos.

The CNN crew — featuring anchors and analysts like Jake Tapper, Erin Burnett, John King, Jamie Gangel, Manu Raju, Kasie Hunt, John Avlon, David Axelrod, and more — had a big laugh as they replayed and dissected the clip.

But then Gangel interrupted the merriment to blast the “despicable” spectacle:

GANGEL: We can make all of the jokes we want, and we will. This is despicable. This is a despicable display of a failure of leadership of exactly what the American people believe they voted against. As John King has mentioned, two years to the day in some of the same hours, quite frankly, when some of these very extremists were trying to hold our country hostage.

Every single time — no, no, no. Let me finish. Every time we talk about back to the civil war, think about where our country was during the civil war in terms of the divisiveness. Do you want to talk about treachery? Guys, this is just despicable.

AXELROD: Can we go back two years because Kevin McCarthy stood on the floor of this House at this time and denounced the president of the United States for provoking an insurrection at the Capitol.

Weeks later, he went down and bended his knee to Donald Trump. And that was reflection of weakness. And what we have seen all this week is weakness. The reason people feel they can be treacherous is because they don’t believe he is a strong leader. This would not have happened to Nancy Pelosi or any respected legislator.

HOOVER: Can I just say something?

BURNETT: We would never see — we are actually seeing this.

HOOVER: That’s the thing. I mean, it’s crazy that we are seeing it play out in front of us. This is the beauty of the advanced technology that we get to watch this all on our phones.

I got to say another thing about Kevin McCarthy’s leadership to piggyback on what has been said here already. Kevin mccarthy, to a certain extent, owns the shape of this conference, because two years ago, he knew that 147 of his members did not vote to certify the election. He had an opportunity in those two years to go out and do what he did.

Watch above via CNN.