Thanks to Republicans’ inability to elect a Speaker of the House for four whole days, C-SPAN had unfettered access to the proceedings. As the drawn out process reached a boiling point, the cameras caught a particularly wild moment where Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz almost got his clock cleaned by Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers. Gaetz had personally torpedoed the 14th round of voting for Kevin McCarthy, and Rogers had to be physically restrained in the aftermath.
With McCarthy now installed as Speaker, the cameras are now back to their usual government regulated positions, and surprisingly, Gaetz is pushing back. According to the Florida congressman, his constituents loved seeing the real-time fracas (which, again, almost led to him being throttled) and who is he to deny giving the people what they want? In response, Gaetz has pushed an amendment that would restore C-SPAN access to all of their Speaker of the House glory.
Via Fox News:
“I’ve received a lot of feedback from constituents about how interesting it was, and that you were able to see in real time how our government is functioning, what alliances are being created, what discussions are being had, what animated moments drive the action,” Gaetz told Fox News Digital in an interview. “And the pool view of the Congress is antiquated and a little boomer-fied.”
Of course, this latest move can also be seen as another attention-seeking move by Gaetz who has been making headlines due to his surprising ability to hold the Speaker of the House vote hostage with just a small handful of GOP members of Congress. Not to mention, he seems to be keen on trolling his own party instead of legislating, so turning the House into Bum Fights: Capitol Edition is on-brand for Gaetz right now.
(Via Fox News)