As GOP infighting reached a fever pitch on Wednesday, one conservative lawmaker attempted to shift the focus onto Democrats, whom she accused of drinking during the vote for House speaker.
The claim didn’t go over well.
Congresswoman Kat Cammack, a Florida Republican, leveled the allegations amid the contentious voting for the next speaker of the House of Representatives. California Representative Kevin McCarthy, who’d been considered the GOP frontrunner, failed to reach the required number of votes three times on Tuesday and another three the following day.
Cammack, a McCarthy supporter, likened the never-ending vote to “Groundhog Day.” She also praised “diversity of thought” before launching into her libations-related claims.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; ABBAS MOMANI/AFP via Getty Images
“It’s one of the things that sets us apart from our friends on the other side of the aisle,” the Republican said. “Yes, diversity of thought is a good thing. But they want us divided.”
She continued: “They want us to fight each other. That much has been made clear by the popcorn and blankets and alcohol that is coming over there.”
The congresswoman smiled and laughed as jeers from her congressional counterparts began to crescendo in the background. Democrats demanded that the representative’s comments be struck from the record, a request that couldn’t be granted because the chamber currently lacks a speaker and therefore can’t adopt rules.
Many on social media pointed to the tense moment as emblematic of the chaos unfolding in the U.S. Capitol, given Republicans‘ repeated failure to unify for the speaker election.
Elie Mystal, justice correspondent with The Nation, called out Cammack in a tweet.
Kat Cammack literally lies about what Democrats are doing, Democrats who you can LITERALLY SEE ON TV not doing what she said, and the media just rolls over it because “Republicans, lying” is such a normal part of their brand. https://t.co/yNPZvhooLq
— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) January 4, 2023
“Kat Cammack literally lies about what Democrats are doing, Democrats who you can LITERALLY SEE ON TV not doing what she said, and the media just rolls over it because ‘Republicans, lying’ is such a normal part of their brand,” Mystal wrote.
Others seemed to laugh at the moment.
Greg Price, former journalist with conservative news outlet Daily Caller, tweeted that the Democrats had gotten “PISSED when Rep. Kat Cammack accused them of drinking during the Speaker votes lmfao.”
After order was restored following her controversial comment, Cammack asked her colleagues whether the GOP is still the “party of Reagan Republicans.”
Meanwhile, a small but scrappy faction of hardline conservatives have pushed for McCarthy to drop out, including Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
“Even having my favorite [former] president [Donald Trump] call us and tell us we need to knock this off,” Boebert said on Wednesday afternoon, “I think it actually needs to be reversed. The [ex-] president needs to tell Kevin McCarthy that, ‘sir, you do not have the votes, and it’s time to withdraw.'”
Newsweek hasreached out to Cammack’s office for comment.
