WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sixth District Rep. Seth Moulton said that the House’s stalemate in electing a new speaker was disruptive for legislators and evident of “extremist” Republicans.
The quest to elect the next speaker of the House moved into its 13th round Friday afternoon. As of Friday evening, GOP leader Kevin McCarthy secured 214 votes ― five short of the 218 votes needed to secure the speakership.
The House voted to adjourn until 10 p.m. Friday, when it will commence its 14th round of voting. In an interview Friday afternoon, Moulton said that the faction of the Republican party refusing to vote for McCarthy is spelling trouble for congressmen by continuing the stalemate.
“Nothing’s getting done. We have to be on the floor repeatedly to cast our roll call votes. We’re not able to do any committee work; we can’t receive any classified intelligence briefings — essentially, the work of the American people has ground to a halt, because Republicans can’t get their act together,” Moulton said.
Moulton said that there were still seven Republicans who adamantly refused to vote for McCarthy under any circumstances. On the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, Moulton related the faction of hardliners to the same kinds of extremists who supported those who stormed the Capitol building two years ago.
“We’ve heard from the Republicans that there are seven or eight who won’t flip under any circumstances. We’re down to seven now,” Moulton said. “It’s coming from extremists in the party, the same extremists who support the insurrectionists as on Jan. 6, the same extremists who regularly grind our government to a halt, the same extremists who are propagating conspiracy theories all over the internet every single day. We have extremists in the Republican Party right now, and some of them have gotten elected to our government.”
After being asked how he thought this stalemate might end, Moulton said that most representatives are uncertain as to how the deadlock will break.
“We just don’t know — it’s entirely unpredictable at this point, and everyone assumes that we must have some inside knowledge here, or at least that the Republicans have inside knowledge. And yet, I can’t tell you how many Republicans have put up their hands and said, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen,’” Moulton said.
The congressman speculated that if a deal were to be made to flip the seven Republican representatives, it would likely not be with the Democrats.
“We are certainly exploring what we might be able to do to help, but people who have asked, ‘Are there any deals to be made between Democrats and Republicans?’ Well, Republicans aren’t even aren’t even talking about that. They’re more interested in catering to extremists than compromising with Democrats,” Moulton said.
On extremism, Moulton said that it was important to memorialize Jan. 6 as the day in history when American democracy was under attack.
“Today, we almost lost our democracy. And if you don’t believe that, you just need to listen to the Jan. 6 committee hearings. We came perilously close to losing the very democratic principles that we not only hold dear, but I think take for granted,” Moulton said.
He added that while ideological extremism exists on both sides of the aisle, the Democratic party is not responsible for the same level of political chaos that Republican extremists brought to the table.
“Most Americans don’t feel represented by extremists on either side, in our politics, but when some people say, ‘Oh, well, you have extremists in the Democratic Party too,’ I like to point out to them that we are a party united that has done incredibly important work over the past year for the American people, passing historic gun reform, pandemic relief for small businesses [that] helped bring down gas prices, making investments in infrastructure,” Moulton said. “What you see on the Republican side of the aisle is disarray.”
When asked for his personal opinion on leader Kevin McCarthy, Moulton said that Republicans don’t seem to trust him.
“I’ll let the Republicans speak for him because they know him best. Republicans don’t seem to trust him. I mean, some Republicans do, but many obviously don’t,” Moulton said.
