The Virginia Republican congressman and House Freedom Caucus member, who was one of the eight House Republicans voting to oust Speaker Kevin O. McCarthy (R.-CA-20) Wednesday told radio show host John Fredericks McCarthy lost his gavel because he trusted Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-11).
“We found out the speaker had a deal all along with Nancy Pelosi to save him,” said U.S. Representative Bob Good, one of the diehard Republicans who did not vote for McCarthy for speaker in January.
The former speaker spoke with reporters Tuesday in a reception area just off the House floor for nearly an hour after he was ousted by a successful vacate the chair motion filed by U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL-01) earlier that day.
McCarthy said he had a conversation with Pelosi about how House conservatives insisted on being able to file a vacate the chair motion — forcing a vote of confidence on the speaker — which was a break from the rules under Pelosi, who had eliminated the option from the rules altogether.
It was in this room after we had won the majority. I hadn’t become speaker yet, and Nancy Pelosi came to me. She was speaker at the time. On the way out, I told her I was having issues with getting enough votes, and she says, ‘What’s the problem?’
McCarthy said that he told Pelosi that conservatives wanted to bring back the rule that allowed a single congressman to file the vacate the chair. “She said: ‘Just give it to them. I’ll always back you up.’”
Then, McCarthy said Pelosi told him she gave the same protection to GOP speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan: “I made the same offer to Boehner and the same thing to Paul because I believe in the institution.”
After this extraordinary revelation that each of the last three Republican speakers had the backing of the leader of House Democrats against conservative House Republicans, the erstwhile speaker lamented that when the moment came to its crisis, House Democrats voted with the conservatives against him.
“I think today was a political decision by the Democrats, and I think the things they have done in the past hurt the institution,” he said.
Good told Fredericks he was put off by McCarthy’s confidence as the movement against him ramped up, but knowing he was partnering with the leader of the other party against Republicans, it now made sense.
Historians might debate if things would have been different if Pelosi had not been in California for U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)’s funeral.
Good said there had to have been a deal because, after McCarthy’s ouster, both the speaker emerita and her former No. 2, U.S. Representative Steny Hoyer (D.-MD-05), were kicked out of their courtesy offices by the interim speaker.
“She had promised him, don’t worry about the motion to vacate,” he said. “She told him back in January, we’ll give you the votes. You need to make sure that you’re not ousted because of that, and lo and behold, Nancy Pelosi didn’t keep her word, and apparently, he kicked her and Steny Hoyer out of the office space in the speakers’ area.”
Good: McCarthy never connected with House conservatives
The Virginia said throughout McCarthy’s tenure, he acted like a man who did not need conservatives.
“He wouldn’t even help us by bringing the bills to the floor at those spending levels,” he said.
Good, who had previously told Fredericks that McCarthy’s speakership was unsustainable if he used votes from Democrats to pass bills opposed by conservatives, said he crossed the line Sept. 30, when he passed a 45-day continuing resolution to keep the government open with no changes in spending or policies.
“Quite frankly, the compromised spending levels, and then his ultimate final straw was when he brings the continuing resolution, which kept in place all the Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer policies that are destroying the country,” he said.
“All the spending that’s bankrupting our kids and our grandkids for 45 days unconditionally,” he said.
Good said he warned McCarthy during a meeting of the House Republican Conference.
“It was a total surrender and capitulation, and I told him the day before, I begged and pleaded with him in the conference meeting with 220 other Republicans there,” he said.
“I said: ‘You’re sending the signal, the message that you will do anything to avoid the discomfort, the pressure of a temporary shutdown, temporary pause and operations for only 15 percent of the government is considered non-essential,’”
The congressman said he told McCarthy he had to stand up for the Republican agenda: “The Dems own you. That means that no matter what we pass out of the House, they’re just going to say no because they know you’ll cave and surrender — and that’s what he did.”
It makes sense now that he learned about the Pelosi-McCarthy pact against conservatives.
Good: It is mystery why Pelosi, House Democrats betrayed McCarthy
“It was telling that it was touch and go, and there was wonder until the very last minute if the Democrats would bail him out and vote for him and save him because he was doing what they wanted,” he said.
Good said he does not know why House Democrats decided in the end to go back on their deal and oust McCarthy, who was giving them what they wanted.
“I guess that’s Nancy Pelosi. I don’t know. Why would Kevin McCarthy believe Nancy Pelosi? I’ve never even met Nancy Pelosi, never had a conversation with her,” he said.
“I guess she doesn’t like Kevin McCarthy. I don’t know.”
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Neil W. McCabe is a staff reporter for The Virginia Star.
Photo “Rep. Bob Good” by Rep. Bob Good.
