Yesterday, a video of Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of the more America First-leaning members of the House of Representatives, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, one of the most leftist members of the House, speaking together during the chaos in the chamber over Kevin McCarthy’s repeated, failed bids for Speaker.
Predictably, the clip took off. But not just because it was interesting to see the far right and far left mix and mingle like a dollop of oil dropped into water. Rather, the clip went viral because it got a hilarious “bad lip reading” dubbed onto it, and the stuff whatever genius made the edited clip put in their mouths is absolutely hilarious.
As you’ll see in the video below, it begins with an outraged, animated-looking AOC saying “I’ve heard that the floor asked for shrubs to be put in the common areas?” Rep. Matt Gaetz, replying, says “Yeah, you’re right.” AOC, still looking very angry and animated, says “Nah, we will not let this slide. Because, like, when you do that-”
Then she was cut off by Rep. Gaetz, who said “Obviously we’d, you know, put in some rocks too.” All of the sudden, AOC calms down, looks thoughtful for a moment, and says “Oh, interesting. All rocks are my friends. I didn’t know.” Then, seemingly appeased, she walks away.
Hilarious stuff. But what were the two actually discussing? A plot between far right and far left to sell out the Republic? Quite the opposite, in fact. Apparently, Rep. McCarthy had suggested that some Democrats could walk away to make it easier for him to get a majority of the votes cast and become Speaker contrary to the real majority will of the House, but AOC was telling Gaetz, who asked her about it, that that was not the case.
According to The Intercept, which reported on the matter. Rep. Gaetz was speaking to AOC about McCarthy telling his fellow Republicans that he could cut a deal that would lead to the Democrats to vote “present.” That manuever would, in turn, let him win a majority of those representatives who were present and voting.
However, that claim from McCarthy was, according to AOC, just a bluff. She told Gaetz that a “present” vote would not be happening, and that there would be no side deal among the Democrats. Speaking to the Intercept, she said, “McCarthy was suggesting he could get Dems to walk away to lower his threshold. And I fact checked and said absolutely not.”
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That was borne out, as the Democrat leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, continued winning all of his party’s votes. They did not vote “present,” which meant that Gaetz and his crew were able to continue blocking Rep. McCarthy from becoming Speaker without their assent.
Watch the hilarious lip-reading video here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from embedded Twitter video