Ouster Of Speaker McCarthy Blasted By Bucks County Congressman

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Bucks County Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01) is blasting the ouster this week of Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.

“The cause of bipartisanship, and the institution of Congress, took a major hit when a small group of extremists, aided and abetted by a larger group of enablers, put their personal grievances and political interests ahead of our country," said Fitzpatrick in a statement. "This Motion to Vacate was brought in retaliation for Speaker McCarthy bringing a bipartisan bill to the floor to save our country from a government shutdown.

“This is the type of leadership that should be rewarded," said Fitzpatrick. "Unfortunately, those who voted to vacate the chair voted to punish this brave bipartisan action to save us from a government shutdown.

"Extremism and pragmatism are at war in America," he continued. "The future of our country will depend on which one prevails. This week, the House of Representatives fell woefully short of its responsibility to reward, not punish, bipartisan solutions that benefit our entire country."

In an interview with Philadelphia radio talk show host Dom Giordano on Wednesday, Fitzpatrick said all the oversight that was taking place in Congress and all the legislation that was moving forward "have all come to a screeching halt until we can find a way to get to 218 votes for some other candidate. And most people back in January thought Speaker McCarthy would be the only one who could get to 218. I'm worried that's still the case today.

"I don't know where the next week is going to take us other than to say we have to move forward," he told Giordano. "We ought to thank Speaker McCarthy for the contributions to our country. It's interesting to note that he got taken out by extremists in our party and the entire Democratic caucus because he put a two-party solution on the floor to avert a government shutdown.

"This is bad for the institution, bad for the conference, bad for the Congress," Fitzpatrick told Giordano. "And as a result, we are now thrown into chaos with no clear answer in sight. A lot of people are throwing their names in but I don't know if any of them can get to 218.

"This has nothing to do with anything Kevin McCarthy said or did or didn't say and didn't do. This is truly personal," said Fitzpatrick. "And you will see we're going to have a hard time getting 218 for anybody else and I want to know if that person is going to do any differently or any better than Kevin. I am very, very upset that he was treated the way he was. The institution suffers because of it. It's a very bad look. And we're thrown into chaos 40 days out from another government shutdown."