It was nearly 16 days ago when a majority of House members voted to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy. A couple of hours later, the California Republican held a press conference — and blamed Democrats for his downfall.
Even at the time, this was a difficult line to take seriously. The push to oust McCarthy was launched by members of his own GOP conference, taking advantage of House rules that McCarthy and his fellow Republicans approved. It was never up to Democrats to rescue the then-speaker — who’d deliberately alienated members of the House minority, and who offered them nothing in exchange for their support — from a plot hatched by the House majority.
More than two weeks later, however, Republicans still haven’t given up on the talking point.
On Monday, Republican Rep. Keith Self of Texas tried to argue on CNN that President Joe Biden was to blame for congressional “chaos,” which was obviously absurd. On Tuesday, after GOP members failed to elect House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan as the new speaker, McCarthy told reporters that the “mess” was Democrats’ fault.
A day later, McCarthy pushed the same line once again:
“There is no chance in the world that Democrats can say again that they put people before politics. They made a political decision to try to bring chaos to shut down a branch of government. And that’s wrong.”
The ousted speaker added that the “crazies” from his conference who voted him out “followed every single Democrat.”
A few hours later, Republican Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia — who ran a brief, failed bid for speaker last week — appeared on CNN and also tried to blame the House minority party for the House majority party’s dysfunction.
So, a few things.
First, it wasn’t Democrats who launched the plot to take down McCarthy. It wasn’t Democrats who nominated House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, only to force him to quit a day later. It wasn’t Democrats’ idea to replace Scalise with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, just as it wasn’t Democrats who convinced a growing number of House Republicans to oppose their own party’s nominee. It was GOP members who created this dysfunctional bed, and now they’re forced to lie in it. Second, this effort to pass the buck isn’t just wrong, it’s pitiful. If Republicans want to argue that they’re engaged in a messy process that will ultimately reach a constructive endpoint, fine. But in this chamber, they’re the ones with all the power — even if they don’t currently know what to do with it. And third, there’s little to suggest the GOP’s foolish talking points are working. A Washington Post analysis explained on the heels of Jordan’s latest failed floor vote, “While Republicans, including McCarthy, have tried (and continue to try) to frame the lack of leadership as a function of Democratic ineptitude, YouGov’s results indicate that Republicans in Congress are viewed particularly poorly, even by the low standard at which Congress is generally viewed. Four in 10 Americans view congressional Democrats at least somewhat favorably; only a third view Republicans in Congress that way.” If GOP officials are going to keep flailing, they’re going to need a different kind of defense.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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