During Rep. Jim Jordan‘s (R-OH) second attempt to win the 217 votes needed to become the Speaker of the House, Congressman Peter Aguilar (D-CA) delivered a fiery speech against the GOP nominee.
Aguilar — who nominated Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) for the speakership — said Jordan “supports an extreme agenda and is hellbent on banning abortion nationwide, gutting Medicare, gutting Social Security and giving cover to Jan. 6 attackers,” adding, “those aren’t the values that we share.”
After Jordan’s third and reportedly final attempt, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy — whose ouster from the Speakership two weeks ago was led by far-right Republican Matt Gaetz (R-FL) — continues to blame Democrats for “bringing chaos to the House” after his removal and “disrupting the country.”
.@SpeakerMcCarthy Kevin, you’d know more about the legislative process if you’d spent less time groveling for Speaker votes from the most extreme members of your conference. 1/4
— Rep. Pete Aguilar (@RepPeteAguilar) October 20, 2023
Aguilar wrote directly to McCarthy on X: “Kevin, you’d know more about the legislative process if you’d spent less time groveling for Speaker votes from the most extreme members of your conference.”
Aguilar references McCarthy’s path to the gavel in January, when after 15 votes the Republican conference determined he had made sufficient concessions to the far right Freedom Caucus to win the Speakership. One of those concessions was the short leash that put his job in peril from the start and empowered Gaetz — the agreement that a single congressperson could initiate a motion to vacate the Speakership.
