‘You Guys Can’t Govern!’ CNN’s Manu Raju Confronts Kevin McCarthy On Speaker Chaos

CNN’s chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju sparred with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Friday after the GOP conference nominated Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to replace him.

Jordan won the nomination with a reported 124 of the 217 GOP votes he would need to become speaker, making his election to the post uncertain.

Raju pressed McCarthy on this point, asking, “I mean, you really don’t think there should be another candidate, a consensus candidate? Is there a consensus candidate at this point?”

“How many people have we gone through? You know, I think I think we’ll be able to work this out. And I feel comfortable that we’ll get there,” McCarthy replied, expressing confidence in Jordan.

“I mean, how do you think this reflects on the GOP right now, this whole episode?” Raju pressed.

“It’s terrible,” McCarthy shot back, adding:

I mean, if you think if you think from a GOP perspective, eight Republicans led by Gaetz worked with every single Democrat. That’s Swalwell, that’s Schiff, that’s Omar, that’s Tlaib, to bring chaos with the whole concept of being upset because we paid our troops. Our troops got paid today. Could you imagine being somebody in the armed services in the Middle East on your aircraft carrier right now, questioning whether your family’s going to be able to pay the rent? That’s what they wanted. That’s that’s what that’s why they wanted to throw me out. But you know what? I’m more than willing to fight for our American public and especially for the troops.

“And what does this do to your swing district, Republicans, all of this? What does that do to the 18 members from Biden districts?” Raju followed up.

“Well, that all the Democrats, they voted to try to bring chaos,” McCarthy replied as Raju interjected, “I mean that, you guys can’t govern! You can’t govern. You can’t even elect a speaker.”

“I don’t know, we’ve, I don’t know,” McCarthy fumbled, adding:

We we we passed the Parents’ Bill of Rights. We passed to secure the border. We passed America’s energy independence. So it’s a far different to what the Democrats I mean, the Democrats are over there fighting about whether they could even stand with Israel.

“You guys can’t even act on an aid package to Israel because things are stalled,” Raju shot back as they continued to tussle.

Watch the full clip above via CNN.