Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) roasted fellow republican Matt Gaetz for siding with Democrats to sabotage Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s bill to stop an impending government shutdown.
Twenty-one Republicans, including Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Lauren Boebert, voted across the aisle with Democrats to kill McCarthy’s stopgap bill that would have avoided a government shutdown and given the GOP leverage in negotiations with Senate Democrats.
The ending tally for the vote was 198-232 and some GOP lawmakers have begun pointing fingers at their colleagues. During a press conference on Capitol Hill, Lawler referred to Gaetz as a “charlatan” and a “joke.”
“There’s only one person to blame for any potential government shutdown and that’s Matt Gaetz,” Lawler told reporters following the vote. “He is not a conservative Republican. He’s a charlatan.”
Lawler added, “And as far as I’m concerned, when you’re working with Democrats to try to vacate the speaker, you’re a joke.”
Gaetz and McCarthy have had a tense relationship since before he became speaker. The Florida lawmaker was one of the main proponents in the House who delayed McCarthy from becoming speaker by voting against him until the 15th ballot.
Moreover, Gaetz has repeatedly threatened McCarthy by claiming he would recruit Democrats to join in a vote to oust him.
McCarthy, however, told reporters following the vote’s failure that
Watch the full clip above via CNN.