Congressman Matt Gates, who says he's going to seek a motion to vakate. He's going to try to oust you a Speaker of the House.
That's nothing new. He's tried to do that from the moment I ran for the office.
Look well, this time he says he's going to keep going. May not get there before the fifteenth ballot, but it took fifteen for Kevin McCarthy. He says he's coming for you. Can you survive, Yes, I'll survive. You need two hundred and eighteen votes to vake Kate. Has Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader, said that he will.
Well, still what he hasn't said anything about what he's going to do.
Look well, Democrat Democrats could cross over and follow Gates's lead on this.
Yeah.
Look, Gates is trying to work with Democrats. He's reached out to Swallowell to AOC and others. But if that's the way we're going to govern, I don't think America is going to be successful.
Is that the way we're going to govern? So this whole issue is splitting the Republican Party. On Saturday, I had ninety no votes on the legislation that Kevin McCarthy put on the floor from the Republicans, but one hundred and twenty six yes, along with all of the Democrats but one to pass the legislation.
One of the yes votes was Congressman Tom McClintock. He represents the fifth Congressional District of California, which stretches from the Sacramento suburbs to Yosemite National Park.
Still waiting for.
You to do something about the bears and the Yosemite, Tom, But I guess we'll keep waiting. Let's talk about the more relevant issues. First of all, Hello, how are.
You just fine? Just just bring him more picnic baskets?
That's all right, bring them back up, picanic basket, that's right.
So why were you a yes vote? Part one of the questions? And will you be a yes or no vote for keeping McCarthy around?
First, Yes, I'll be a yes vote for keeping Kevin around. I think he's done an extraordinary job. And the reason I've voted yes on this is because we've learned from past experience that a government shutdown can be administered in a manner that does enormous damage to the economy and of the lives of millions of Americans. The president, if he wants to, can destroy every small business on federal
land and all of the adjacent to federal land. Obama in twenty thirteen went so far as to barricade every monument and memorial chain the gates of every acre of federal land. He even barricaded the turnouts overlooking the Yosemite Valley so people couldn't even pull over to catch a glimpse of it. And mister Biden made it very clear that he intended to follow that strategy specifically designed to create a panic and to force an immediate resolution in
favor of the status. Quote. This at a time when we've taken up and adopted appropriations bills that now comprised seventy percent of the federal discretionary spending and are adopting the reforms and spending reductions that we conservatives have dreamed of for many years.
So you think that the measure, especially the original measure which kind of shot down, You thought that was making substantial progress toward fiscal sanity and away from fiscal ruin which you know, we feel like the federal governments on.
The road too.
Well, what my preference was the earlier continuing resolution that was just for thirty days that would allow us to complete our work on the appropriations bills, that would have averted a shutdown while reducing non defense discretionary spending by a whopping eight percent and enacting the border security bill that we previously passed. That is the strongest border security bill in a century. It would have stopped the illegal
mass migration we're seeing right now. Unfortunately, twenty one Republicans joined two hundred and twelve Democrats to defeat that resolution, leaving our conference with no choice but to put a forty five day continuing resolution on the floor without those reforms to avoid the shutdown and to allow us to continue our work to complete the appropriations problem.
Well, for people who don't understand the people that voted against it, they want more spending cuts, they want to tackle our debt more. Why are they wrong, Tom.
Well, they're wrong simply because we don't have the votes for that. If we did, I'd go for it absolutely. What we did have, though, is an eight percent reduction and the strongest border security bill in a century. I think that's pretty good. And then thirty days to complete the other appropriations bills, which adopt further reforms and further
spending reductions. But in this case, two hundred and twelve Democrats said no, But unfortunately also twenty one Republicans said no, and that's what doomed it and produce a situation we're now in.
Let's go a little big picture on the politics of our time. What do you think is going on with say, the squad on the left. They don't have anywhere near the votes they need to enact their you know, pipe dreams, but they're spouting off about them all the time. Then you got this smallest group of Republicans on the right likewise will accept no compromise, in my opinion, even though that's the nature of government, you have to compromise. What's their math? What are they thinking?
Well, you know what Franklin said about that, And as his closing speech the convention, he said, when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all of their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. You're not going to get a perfect product from that, and that, unfortunately is the system that we have today, but we're getting a pretty good
product from it. As I said, substantial reductions and spending at a time when our government is in the process of bankrupting our country and border security, at the time when our country is being overrun by the largest mass migration ever recorded. Those were pretty good steps forward, and unfortunately we had twenty one Republicans and two hundred and twelve Democrats in the House that said no to that, and that was enough to stop it. We do now.
We have now bought forty five days to complete the appropriations process, but if Gates makes his move to vacate the chair, it's only going to require four other Republican members to join the Democrats who achieve that result in the immediate effect is going to be to paralyze the House indefinitely because no other business can be taken up
until a replacement selected. Just when we're on the verge of completing the appropriations process and having joined those five conservative Republicans to vacate the chair, I sincerely doubt the Democrats are going to side with them to name a replacement. Democrats are going to recruit the most liberal Republicans to establish a left of Center coalition to run the House.
This isn't unprecedented. This is exactly what happened in California in nineteen ninety four, and a coalition speaker is going to move the administration of the House sharply to the left, and I think it'll effectively end the Republican House majority of the people elected in twenty twenty two.
Why, I don't think Gates is bluffing. He says he's going to call for, you know, one of these votes to try to get Kevin McCarthy out, and then I think the rules are that you got two days to have the vote, so it'll happen pretty fast.
Right, and he only needs four Republicans to join them. I just hope that those four Republicans will put aside their prejudices and their passions and theirs of opinion and make a choice that is absolutely essential if we're going to complete the process that we've started to bring our finances back under control and a secure border.
Tom mclinto's a Republican congressman from the fifth district to California. So let me take a quick look at the other side of the aisle specifically, and this is a complete change of topic. Do you think Joe Biden's actually going to be running at the end of the Democratic Convention next summer, do you think he's going to be the candidate?
Well, I can't read minds that I can't tell fortunes, but I think we make a mistake making him the issue. It's not Joe Biden who's the issue. It is the socialist policies that he and the Democrats in the House have enacted that have brought our country to the verge of bankruptcy. We have to confront that issue with Margaret to Thath who said, first you win the argument, then
you in the election. We have to win the argument over whether we're going to become just another failed socialist country or whether we're going to restore the uniquely American principles of individual liberty and constitutionally limited government and person responsibility that made this the most prosperous and a most envied country in the history of the world.
So you were a yes vote on Saturday, and you say you'll be a yes vote to keep Kevin McCarthy speaker probably later this week.
That's it.
Nobody else wants the job, right, it's too hard.
There is another issue there. But look, we have a very very slender majority, and Kevin has accomplished some truly remarkable achievements with it, including the border security build that we passed out several weeks ago, including the spending reductions that we've been able to get through the House this year.
And I don't know of anyone, given the limitations of that office, who could who could possibly have accomplished as much as Kevin and kept his cool through all of this too, which is something I certainly wouldn't have done.
Tom mcclintac represents the fifth District of California. He's a Republican. Tom, good to talk to you. Thanks, good to talk to you. Thanks Armstrong and Getty.