Moderate Republican lawmaker Rep. Don Bacon has dismissed threats from hardliners to unseat House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Bacon argues that McCarthy is backed by the majority of Republicans in the House GOP conference, and the attempts by a small group of insurgents, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, would only benefit the Democrats. Bacon believes that Gaetz represents a small percentage of the conference and accused partisan Democrats of wanting Gaetz to create problems for the Republicans. Bacon suggests that the majority should not be influenced by a few individuals and calls for bipartisan cooperation to govern effectively.
The main concern for House Republicans currently is the looming deadline to fund the government by September 30. Disagreements within the GOP conference led to the derailment of the defense spending bill, one of the 12 appropriations bills considered necessary to prevent a government shutdown. The primary debate centers around whether to pass a stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), to fund the government for 30 days while negotiations for the 12 appropriations bills take place. Some conservatives oppose the CR as it extends the previous Democratic Congress’s priorities, while other Republican proposals for a CR include deep spending cuts.
Gaetz is among those who refuse to support a CR and threatened to bring up a motion to remove McCarthy as speaker if his demands were not met. The demands include no continuing resolutions, votes on balanced budgets and term limits, subpoenas for Hunter Biden and the Biden family related to alleged misconduct, and the impeachment of Joe Biden. However, Bacon suggests that Gaetz’s threat is empty, as Republicans do not have a viable alternative to McCarthy that the majority would support. Bacon argues that McCarthy’s position is secure and proposes that if the speaker were to ignore the demands of the hardliners and pursue a bipartisan spending deal, some Democrats may abstain from voting to remove him from the chair.
In summary, Bacon downplays the threats against McCarthy’s position as speaker from hardliners within the GOP conference. He asserts that McCarthy enjoys significant support from Republicans and believes that attempts to unseat the speaker would only serve to benefit the Democrats. Bacon calls for bipartisan collaboration to address the immediate issue of funding the government and emphasizes the need for the majority to govern effectively without being influenced by a small group of individuals.