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.
Watch it here:
This is excellentpic.twitter.com/HM3jZDX0IV
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) January 4, 2023
As you can watch, 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. Here’s what The Intercept reported on the matter:
“Gaetz told Ocasio-Cortez that McCarthy has been telling Republicans that he’ll be able to cut a deal with Democrats to vote present, enabling him to win a majority of those present and voting, according to Ocasio-Cortez. She told Gaetz that wasn’t happening, and also double-checked with Democratic party leadership, confirming there’d be no side deal.
“McCarthy was suggesting he could get Dems to walk away to lower his threshold,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Intercept of her conversation with Gaetz on McCarthy’s failed ploy. “And I fact checked and said absolutely not.”
Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York won all 212 of his party’s votes, a show of unity that, if it holds, requires McCarthy to win over all but four of his colleagues.
Gaetz, who has shown a willingness to break with the GOP establishment, said that his crew of McCarthy opponents was dug in and would continue to resist him, adding that McCarthy has been threatening opponents with loss of committee assignments. A private gathering of Republicans ahead of the vote had been heated, multiple sources said. (Gaetz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
Featured image credit: screengrab from embedded Twitter video
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