GOP Rep. Joyce Rages at McCarthy Holdouts: ‘Same Brain Trust That Brought… Jan. 6th’

Republican Rep. David Joyce (R-OH) held little back during an interview Tuesday with CNN’s Jake Tapper while expressing his frustration with his hardline GOP colleagues who are refusing to back Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for House speaker.

Joyce spoke to Tapper between the second and third vote to try and elect a speaker, which had thus far seen over a dozen GOP House members abandon McCarthy.

“There appear to be 19 House Republicans who are ‘No McCarthy.’ They do not want Kevin McCarthy. You need 15 of those 19. How are you going to get them?” Tapper asked Joyce, who is supporting McCarthy.

“Well, first off, the second round, first vote, you give people the opportunity to vote for who they want and get it on their system. They’re not voting for Kevin. And in the second round, obviously, they’ve all unified behind Jim Jordan. And you heard Jim get up and say, ‘I’m nominating Kevin McCarthy,’” replied Joyce, adding:

So I don’t know what the hell their game plan is, but at the end of the day, but remember, the people who are bringing you this, they for two months now, we’ve been dealing with the fact that they put together a sheet of what they call them demands, call them requests, whatever you want. And most of those things were granted.

And when push came to shove this morning in conference, in exasperation, Kevin asked Scott Perry, ‘What is it that you want beside that?’ And he couldn’t answer. It’s well, it’s on the paper. All the things in the paper have been answered. So at this point, it’s either personal against Kevin or remember that this is the same brain trust that brought you, almost two years ago, January 6th, and the fake elections, electors and those type of things. You remember? Scott Perry in this whole group and his band of merry men are the same group who thought that was a good idea, too.

“So I don’t put a hell of a lot of stock in what they have to say anymore. I’m done playing games with them. Kevin McCarthy deserves to be the next speaker, and we’re going to continue to vote until he becomes the speaker,” Joyce declared.

“Well, that’s an interesting point, because I’ve heard critics say Kevin McCarthy has been empowering this fringe group that supported the fake electors, that supported the theory that the House Republicans should vote against counting the votes from Pennsylvania and from Arizona. And in fact, two-thirds of the House Republicans voted that way two years ago. And I’m wondering if you think in retrospect, maybe Kevin McCarthy should have been more on the side of traditional Republicanism, traditional conservative governance, and not been so acquiescent to this wing?” asked Tapper.

“Hey, look, one thing I have in my relationship with Kevin is I’m point blank with him. And I told him that last time when this came up and two years ago, January 6th, it was a stupid idea and he needed to shut it down right away. They let a fester and look what we got,” replied Joyce, adding:

And so this time he’ll be saying, you’re probably right, Jake, and that they feel they’re empowered or this is how they make it. This chaos, this commotion, now a shutting down our Republican vote of making it look like we’re in chaos. That’s how they live. That’s why they’re out here in front of all these cameras. I mean, it’s as stupid as the idea is that you’re going to get that somehow they’re going to have 19 votes. You’re going to dictate the program for the 222 of us.

Watch the full clip above via CNN