Pappas: My Vote With 'Extremist' Gaetz To Remove Speaker Was 'Bipartisan Way Forward'

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) took his frequent refrain of “bipartisanship” to a new level Friday morning when he declared his decision to back “extremist” Rep. Matt Gaetz’s scheme to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy “a bipartisan way forward.”

In an interview with WGIR’s Chris Ryan, Pappas bemoaned the lack of a speaker as a major obstacle to addressing national concerns and advancing American interests.

“I’m more worried about the business that’s ahead of us, the issues that we just talked about with respect to how we can come through for our allies in Israel and Ukraine, how we can address the crisis along the border and provide for increased funding for border security,” Pappas said. “How we ensure that we don’t go past this mid-November deadline and see the government shut down. These are really urgent matters for the American people and for democracy around the world.

“We can’t wait any longer,” Pappas added.

But Pappas joined fellow New Hampshire Democrat Rep. Annie Kuster and the entire Democratic caucus to defeat a GOP measure that would have stopped Gaetz’s motion to vacate the speaker’s chair, and he voted to remove McCarthy. While all but eight Republicans rejected the motion to vacate, every Democrat voted in favor, leaving the House unable to consider any legislation.

“Do you bear any responsibility for the predicament we find ourselves in that you and the rest of the Democrats sided with Matt Gates in removing Speaker McCarthy to begin with?” Ryan asked.

Pappas responded by blaming McCarthy.

“We always should be looking for a bipartisan way forward,” Pappas replied. And I think that’s one of the reasons why we were so dismayed with the fact that Kevin McCarthy … was [un]willing to talk about the need to reform the rules of the House, which right now empower extremists like Matt Gaetz and other who want to see nothing but obstructionism. And the fact that there’s this one person motion to vacate that McCarthy put into the rules back in January really empowers the extremists.”

“And you utilized those rules in order to remove McCarthy and empowered an extremist in Matt Gaetz, correct?”

“I, we were looking for a bipartisan way forward at that point in time,” Pappas replied. “We’ve got to get back to work. This is incredibly frustrating, and we’re not going to let the extremism of those on the far right hijack this Congress any longer.

It is certainly a unique take on the Democrats’ role in removing the House leader without any plan for a replacement.

On Friday, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) announced he was withdrawing his bid to become speaker after a GOP caucus ballot showed he lacked the votes needed to reach a 217 majority.

Pappas declined to respond to requests for clarification.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.