What’s really going on in the fight over who will be Speaker of the House? Is it that the 20 GOP holdouts are “terrorists,” as Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw said during a recent interview? Is it that the 20 holdouts just aren’t good at being on a team, as CNN’s John King said in a recent CNN segment? Or is there something else going on behind the scenes?
According to Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, one of the holdouts behind McCarthy not yet being made Speaker of the House, the issue is much different than that. In the eyes of her and the holdouts, the issue is rather that “trust is broken” in the House under McCarthy and someone new needs to come in and fix it. Watch her discuss that with the Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles here:
As you can hear in the clip, Boebert explains that when the holdouts tried to negotiate with Kevin McCarthy over the summer, he blew them off, thinking he wouldn’t need their votes and so not listening to their concerns. He didn’t take them seriously, didn’t negotiate in good faith, and wasn’t willing to barter.
Then came the red wave that wasn’t. So he suddenly needed their votes again. So they negotiated, with him again, but he betrayed them again. That time, he started going back on some of his concessions and attacked Boebert and the others, claiming that they were being “selfish” in their demands.
And so trust was broken. Betrayed in negotiations by Kevin McCarthy one too many times, they want someone else to be the Speaker of the House and aren’t going to accept McCarthy because they know him to be a backstabber from their attempted dealings with him.
Commenting on the clip of the interview that Knowles shared on Twitter, many conservatives on Twitter were more supportive of Boebert’s position after hearing her story and understanding why the 20 holdouts were so anti-McCarthy. Expressing their newfound support, they said things like:
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“Wow! Okay, now I understand why @laurenboebert & @RepMattGaetz & the others are standing firm. The trust & respect is broken by cocky @GOPLeader so all power to those true blue (red) patriots holding the line for 🇺🇸.”
“You allowing her to share her experience got me to better appreciate her/their position. Thank you”
“Awesome interview! Thank you for allowing Lauren Boebert to talk and explain her viewpoint. Lots of respect for you and for the 20”
“Hello @seanhannity! this is how you conduct an intelligent interview or you can keep talking to @LindseyGrahamSC and have a duel between equals”
“This is a great explanation of what is going on behind the scenes. @seanhannity could learn from this interview. You don’t have to agree with the guest but you should give them enough time to fully explain their side.”
“Well, after 10 or 11 votes now the count just went down for Mccarthy. I think its obvious he won’t be speaker. What will happen? Will democrats break rank to vote for him or will he step down? Just crazy.”