Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert & Matt Gaetz promise to tank GOP speaker solution

Several far-right Republican Congress members are promising they’ll fight a proposed solution to the House’s speaker problem, including anti-LGBTQ+ extremists Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

House Republicans have already tried and failed to elect a speaker several times in the past two weeks, bringing House business to a halt just weeks before the federal government is set to shut down if Congress doesn’t pass several key spending bills. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) — the latest Republican speaker-designate — failed to get a majority or even a plurality of votes in two rounds of voting this week, despite Republicans holding a majority in the House.

Related:

House Republicans hate each other too much to pick a Speaker

Jim Jordan is trying to strong arm his way to the Speakership, but he’s caught in the same doom loop as his predecessors.

In order to move forward with House business and avoid the November 17 government shutdown deadline, some Republicans have suggested giving acting Speaker Patrick McHenry (R-NC) more powers while the party tries to find a candidate who can get enough votes from their own party to win.

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This raised hackles from Jordan’s more ardent supporters.

“I’m against Speaker-Light, I’m against Bud Light,” Gaetz said yesterday, referring to the grudge conservatives are still holding against the beer brand for sponsoring an Instagram video in April made by a trans person. “I believe it is a constitutional desecration to not elect a Speaker of the House. We need to stay here until we elect a Speaker.”

Gaetz is the reason Republicans are in this situation in the first place. He introduced the motion to vacate earlier this month and then voted with seven other Republicans — and all the Democrats — to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from the speakership.

.@RepMattGaetz Blasts Plan To Empower Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry

“I'm against Speaker-Light. I'm against Bud Light. I believe it is a constitutional desecration to not elect a Speaker of the House. We need to stay here until we elect a Speaker."

"I will do everything… pic.twitter.com/dLHZEERorK

— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) October 19, 2023

Boebert called the proposal “a complete betrayal of the GOP base.”

“I ran because I was sick and tired of politicians coming up here and cutting deals and releasing ‘holier than thou’ statements about why we just had to accept it,” she wrote on X.

I will not sit back and watch a complete betrayal of the GOP base with this “plan” that’s being discussed.

I ran because I was sick and tired of politicians coming up here and cutting deals and releasing “holier than thou” statements about why we just had to accept it.

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) October 19, 2023

Greene said that she will vote “NO on a resolution to empower a short-term Speaker,” equating having a Republican and staunchly conservative temporary speaker with “sharing our power with Democrats.”

I will vote NO on a resolution to empower a short-term Speaker.

I’m not sharing our power with Democrats, after our voters gave us the majority.

Republicans working with Democrats is how we got here.

Our conference must unite and elect a full-term Republican Speaker.

I’m…

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) October 19, 2023

The three are not alone. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said that the proposal “raises constitutional concerns” and will lead to “decimation [for Republicans] in 2024.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said, “A majority is a terrible thing to waste,” and accused Republicans who support the temporary solution of joining a coalition with Democrats. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) called the temporary solution a “surrender.”

Many far-right Republican members of Congress opposed McCarthy’s speakership in January, including Gaetz and Boebert. Some ended up supporting McCarthy after he cut a deal with some concessions to the holdouts, including allowing only one person to bring forward a motion to vacation.

Last month, facing a government shutdown because a small group of Republicans — including Gaetz — refused to support funding bills. McCarthy worked with Democrats to pass a temporary measure to keep the federal government open and avoid furloughs and cuts in services. This enraged Gaetz and several other Republicans, so they voted to remove McCarthy.

After McCarthy was removed, House Republicans voted to nominate Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) to be the next speaker. Far-right Republicans like Greene and Boebert said that they weren’t going to vote for Scalise, even though he’s conservative, because they wanted Rep. Jordan to be speaker. With Republicans’ narrow House majority, it takes only four Republican votes to keep a potential speaker from winning. Scalise withdrew his nomination to be speaker.

Republicans then picked Jordan as their speaker-designate. He lost two votes this week, getting fewer votes than even McCarthy did in January.

Jordan is perhaps most famous for allegedly “turning a blind eye” when several Ohio State University wrestlers complained about an allegedly sexually abusive team doctor when he was an assistant coach. He has denied knowing about the alleged abuse. He also helped strategize ways for Congress to avoid certifying the results of the 2020 election and spoke with Donald Trump several times on January 6, 2021, before Trump allegedly incited the insurrection. Some Republicans who refuse to support Jordan have also said that they don’t like how he and his fellow far-right members of Congress used House rules to remove McCarthy and nix Scalise’s bid.

Throughout all of this, Democrats have voted consistently and unanimously for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).