Kevin McCarthy Rules Out Alliance With Dems to Fend Off Matt Gaetz: ‘You Don’t Surrender’ as the Majority

Kevin McCarthy claimed he does not need to make an alliance with Congressional Democrats in order to weather Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) attempt to oust him as Speaker of the House.

Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, McCarthy continued to shrug off Gaetz despite the latter following through on his threat by filing a motion to vacate the House speaker. Gaetz has repeatedly accused McCarthy of breaking his promises to hard-right members of the Republican caucus, and Gaetz declared on Monday night that if McCarthy survives, “it will be him working for the Democrats continuing to do their bidding.”

As McCarthy took questions, a reporter asked, “Are you ruling out any sort of power-sharing agreement with Democrats?” in light of the current situation. McCarthy shook his head at that, saying “That doesn’t work.”

“I know that we live in our government’s design to have compromise, but look, we’re in the majority, and you don’t surrender,” McCarthy continued. “Do you work with the other side? Yeah, and that’s what I’ve done.”

McCarthy concluded by expressing his hope that Congress largely recognizes the office of the House Speaker as “too important” an institution to be upended by trivial motions to vacate. He also stood by the funding agreement Congress reached over the weekend to prevent a government shutdown.

Watch above via CNN.