Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., one of the eight House Republicans who voted to oust Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., from the speakership, told Newsmax on Wednesday that "it was time" for McCarthy "to be removed" from his position.
"I can tell you what drove this process and that is that we had all those great conservative successes and the only thing that destroyed the conservative progress was Kevin McCarthy, allowing the Democrat Party to dictate the terms of what legislation was coming out of Washington," Rosendale said during an appearance on "National Report."
"Nobody talks about the fact that Kevin McCarthy secured 209 Democrat votes to pass a continuing resolution this weekend to fund government in the same manner that Nancy Pelosi did and with Joe Biden policies attached to it," he said. "That is the problem with the continuing resolution that is trying to lead us up to an omnibus bill. These are the problems and why Kevin McCarthy was removed — because he continued to allow the Democrats to dictate the terms of the legislation that was coming out of Washington and yet was not forthright and honest with the Republicans who actually had elected him."
"The final straw, quite frankly, after that continuing resolution was passed, to, again, continue us down the path to build debt up — and we're at $33 trillion right now — was when we heard from the president that Speaker McCarthy had negotiated border security funding tied to Ukraine funding that most Americans oppose right now, and most Republicans in the Republican conference oppose right now and that was basically it," he continued. "It was time for him to be removed."
The Montana Republican said that there's likely to be "a lot of strained relationships over the next week or so" in the Capitol, after eight House Republicans came together with Democrats in an historic vote to oust McCarthy from the speakership on Tuesday.
"Tensions are high, tempers are hot right now, but I think that you're going to see us all come back together again, the same as we did in January, to pass a very, very conservative agenda, which was in part due to the very small majority that we had," he said. "As far as anybody making any additional comments about personalities or about the personality conflicts that they believe drove this whole process, that's just a false premise."
When asked what the plan is going forward, Rosendale said, "The plan is to actually honor the statute."
"The Budget Act of 1974 says that the House of Representatives — Congress — is supposed to pass all 12 appropriation bills in order to transparently and responsibly fund government," he said. "That's supposed to be done by June 30 and it should have been done. It could have been done. Every state legislature across the nation does that and they actually pass a balanced budget. But our leadership didn't allow the appropriations to come forward onto the floor. Not June 30, not July 30, not August 30, until several of us stood up and forced the bills to start being brought to the floor."
"What we are asking for is to actually abide by the statute and do what we were sent here to do and stop turning over the ability for the Democrats to govern how we are functioning here," he continued. "We are in the majority; let's act like it."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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