‘Dumbass!’ Fox’s Brian Kilmeade Caught on Hot Mic Fuming After House Republican Votes Against Jordan

Ah, the perils of live television. Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade was caught dropping some colorful commentary during the latest round of voting for the next speaker of the House, and it was aired live and uncensored.

Republicans hold a very slim majority in the House, and it’s led to multiple struggles and stumbles as the party grapples with the demands from hardliners like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and attempts to achieve unity on even the simplest procedural decisions.

Gaetz infamously helped derail Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) Speaker ambitions, forcing his Californian colleague to endure an excruciating fifteen rounds of voting and make concessions that included allowing a single member to file a motion to vacate. Earlier this month, Gaetz and his allies in the House were angered by the deal McCarthy cut with Democrats to pass a stopgap spending bill and avoid a government shutdown, among other intraparty disputes, and triggered that motion to vacate.

On the afternoon of Oct. 3, McCarthy was ousted from his position, and the caucus has been unable to unify behind any one candidate. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) was an early top contender, winning a majority of a closed vote of the GOP caucus but fell a few short of what was needed to win with the full vote of the House, and stepped aside.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) has similarly been able to get the majority of the votes from the closed-door GOP caucus vote, but is even further away from the total votes needed, despite increasingly vocal agitation from Republicans to get this resolved — and even some behind-the-scenes nudging from Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

Tuesday afternoon, Fox News aired the roll call vote and as House members were polled in alphabetical order, the Democrats each called out House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and the majority of Republicans cast a vote for Jordan — although not all of them.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) was one of the first Republicans to vote against Jordan, calling out McCarthy’s name instead, and Kilmeade’s voice can be heard immediately after, exclaiming “dumbass!”

In the end, Jordan would fall even further than Scalise from being able to claim the Speaker’s gavel. He needed to win all but four Republicans but ended up losing twenty.

Watch above via Fox News.