Kevin McCarthy’s Bill Avoiding Government Shutdown Crashes As MTG, Gaetz, and Boebert Side With Democrats

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Speaker Kevin McCarthy suffered another embarrassing defeat after a group of House GOP lawmakers sided with democrats to help kill a measure to avoid a government shutdown.

On Friday a group of House conservatives, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Matt Gaetz, voted alongside Democrats on a stopgap bill that would have given lawmakers more time to deliberate before the impeding government shutdown.

Twenty-one Republicans voted against McCarthy’s measure, ending the tally at 198-232, according to The Hill.

However, even if the bill did somehow pass the House, it was unlikely to advance in the Senate where Democrats hold a narrow majority. President Joe Biden also vowed to veto the bill if it passed both chambers of Congress.

McCarthy previously pushed members to pass the bill in order to give Republicans more leverage during talks with Senate democrats and Biden.

Moderate Republicans who sided with the speaker pointed blame at Gaetz for foiling the stopgap bill.

“There’s only one person to blame for any potential government shutdown, and that’s Matt Gaetz. He’s not a conservative Republican. He’s a charlatan,” Rep. Mike Lawler said, per The Hill.

Despite the failed measure, McCarthy vowed that his plan to avoid a shutdown was still in full swing and that his strategy is to “keep going.”

“You have watched me time and again, have you ever known me to quit after one time if it doesn’t succeed?” McCarthy said to reporters. “I don’t stop.”